“Spirit Rising” for 2018 PNME Summer Season

I was commissioned to do the stage set design for week two and three for the 2018 summer residency of the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble in July at City Theatre, Southside Pittsburgh. The panels striated design and color are meant to invoke thoughts of the life cycle of individual experience, moving from physical and emotional need satisfaction towards spiritual peace with our human existence. My intention was to provide a rich backdrop for the musical experience that composers D.J. Sparr and Ivette Sperryman created for week two's theme, "What I Leave Behind", a performance that is a meditation on the question "When I'm gone, what remains".

The panels were brought to life through the skilled hand of lighting designer Andrew Ostrowski. For week three, we altered the panels’ locations and height, and Ostrowski created a whole new vocabulary of light for week three’s theme “To Love and Be Loved”.