Last year, I designed the set of Arabian Nights for McCarter theater’s touring production. They have re-imagined the show, eliminating the frame story and making other changes significant enough that the existing set doesn’t make sense any more. At the same time, there are scenes within the show that they did like and want to use those scenic elements.
Jon Ludwig, whose work I adore, is directing the show. When I was an intern at the Center for Puppetry Arts, I was extraordinarily lucky to be in a production of Wizard of Oz, with Jon as the scarecrow, and George Latshaw directing. If you’re a puppeteer, I don’t have to explain how cool this is. For the rest of you, suffice to say that that combo makes may puppeteers drool with envy. Anyway, this is my first chance to work with Jon since my intern days, which were fifteen years ago. (GAH!)
Here is a teaser of what one of the options for the new set. We’re still playing around with looks, but I’m basically riffing off of Rajasthani puppetry.
We pretty much like the proscenium, but are still working on the front curtain. If you are curious, you can download the pdfs of the sample curtains and the different scenes. Both files are massive. The ground plans are here; these is all very rough right now as we’re still defining the look.
