UNREALIZED SCENIC DESIGN for PAUL STEINBERG’S SET DESIGN III course at NYU TISCH
THREEPENNY OPERA
USING FAMILY MEMORIES, 70’S PORNOGRAPHY, AUSTRIAN BROWN BARS, AND SUPER 8 VIDEOS TO TELL A DESPERATE LOVE STORY ABOUT A NEED TO ESCAPE THE SEXUAL MARKETPLACE.
The Threepenny Opera by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht is a musical that has followed me throughout my life, informing my interest in political theater and the intersection between theater as a site of enjoyment/spectacle and edification. Approaching it as a class project threw into sharp relief just how much the language of the piece is ultimately about a toxic and desperate love story, about how the cruelty of love and the cruelty of the marketplace intermingle and inform one another. It centers around Polly, Jenny, and Lucy, all trying to escape their circumstances with their own tactics somehow involving the known serial killer and gangster Mack the Knife. I was inspired by the intense sexual commodification linked to the rise of porn as a mainstream genre in the 1970’s, as well as the forgotten spaces of Austrian brown bars. Ultimately, I drew a large amount of inspiration from old family memories from the 70’s, including super 8 videos and a pawn shop my family used to own, to create a fluid space that references these capitalist slip spaces that exist at the edge of propriety and illegality. A large part of the space takes place in an abandoned bar that Mack’s crew takes over, with a cloud billboard hanging bitterly out of reach.
THREEPENNY OPERA
USING FAMILY MEMORIES, 70’S PORNOGRAPHY, AUSTRIAN BROWN BARS, AND SUPER 8 VIDEOS TO TELL A DESPERATE LOVE STORY ABOUT A NEED TO ESCAPE THE SEXUAL MARKETPLACE.
The Threepenny Opera by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht is a musical that has followed me throughout my life, informing my interest in political theater and the intersection between theater as a site of enjoyment/spectacle and edification. Approaching it as a class project threw into sharp relief just how much the language of the piece is ultimately about a toxic and desperate love story, about how the cruelty of love and the cruelty of the marketplace intermingle and inform one another. It centers around Polly, Jenny, and Lucy, all trying to escape their circumstances with their own tactics somehow involving the known serial killer and gangster Mack the Knife. I was inspired by the intense sexual commodification linked to the rise of porn as a mainstream genre in the 1970’s, as well as the forgotten spaces of Austrian brown bars. Ultimately, I drew a large amount of inspiration from old family memories from the 70’s, including super 8 videos and a pawn shop my family used to own, to create a fluid space that references these capitalist slip spaces that exist at the edge of propriety and illegality. A large part of the space takes place in an abandoned bar that Mack’s crew takes over, with a cloud billboard hanging bitterly out of reach.
