The Wolves

September 30, 2021 - October 3, 2021

McClintock Theatre

University of Southern California

DIRECTED BY - Sabra Williams

SCENIC DESIGN - Sibyl Wickersheimer

COSTUME DESIGN - Howard Schmitt

LIGHTING DESIGN - Martha Carter

SOUND DESIGN - Belle Alatorre

PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER - Harrison Newton

Concept

When I first met with Sabra, the director, we talked about how the design elements had to elevate the fact the characters were powerful. When I asked her if she had any vibes to reference she sent me the song Bounterfeit by JUICE MENACE, she said she wanted UK Drill music. As soon as we had this discussion, I created a playlist of powerful girl trap music.

Later these became the transition music for the scenes. No matter how sad or how wild the scenes were, the music drove the story forward. All transitions had this, except for the one before the last scene. I knew this emotion was tense and I knew I had to portray that something bad had happened. I wanted the audience to feel this immense rush of anxiety to keep their emotions high through this scene with no dialogue. I used a low cello that I only ran through the subwoofer to emit this eerie uncomfortable sound.

During our first initial meeting, Sabra had also shared she wanted to hear the lights turn on like stadium lights. I had found a really great sound effect and collaborated with our lovely lighting designer to create a seamless opening to the last transition after the no dialogue scene. It was a nice little opening that led to a feeling of numbness. The ending was of course a big powerful trap song to symbolize moving forward.

Listen to my show playlist here!