Three Sisters

Scenic & Prop Design

Directed by David Alford
Scenic & Prop Design: Lindsay Webster
Costume Design: Suwatana (Pla) Rockland
Lighting Design: Maya Michele Fein
Sound Design: Joe Tarantowski
Technical Direction: Dylan Fujimura
Assistant Technical Direction: Derek Alley
Production Stage Manager: Grace Pruchnicki

Photos by Steve Wagner

Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory of Performing Arts
Kleist Black Box Theatre,
April 2025

Design Concept:

Desperate yearning in woeful entrapment. The characters all yearn for something greater - for love, for respect, for passion, for meaning, for purpose - yet take no action to fulfill their dreams. Their home, their duties, and the natural world have entrapped them. This is realized in visual terms through three motifs: overgrowth, obscurity, and lace.

Overgrowth: The natural world has overtaken their home - birch trees and mossy patches have burst through the floorboards.

Obscurity: The intimate x-shaped layout brings audiences into the world, side-by-side with the characters. The transparent walls of the home bring the audience in closer, as they are able to witness distant side conversations and spot hidden characters. However, there is a shroud of mystery and distance, as these areas are veiled by lace.

Lace: Not only does the lace serve as a mask, it is symbolic of femininity and womanhood - reminiscent of wedding dresses and marriage, of frilly youthful dresses, of swaddling babies, of laying out doilies as a homemaker. Additionally, lace is often interpreted as "antique" to audiences - thus transporting us back into the period.

To tie the three motifs together, leaves made from lace are attached to the branches of the birch trees.