At the Wake of a Dead Drag Queen by Terry Guest
The Story Theatre
Photos by David Hagen
Directed by Mikael Burke
Lighting by Kyle Cunningham
Costumes by Uriel Gomez and Raquel Postiglione
Scroll down for photos and sustainability efforts
“Alyssa Mohn’s stage is ingenious. Of course there is a stage on top of the stage, but instead of putting it dead center, Mohn put it off to the side, leaving room for the performers on top of it to perform for the audience and for each other. In addition to this, the back wall is lined with a slightly dirty mirror that reflects the audience back to itself before the show, and Guest and Thomson during the wake. We became voyeurs to hauntingly intimate moments of these actors regarding, manipulating, evaluating, and appraising themselves in the mirror. Off to the side is a rack of costumes innovatively used to facilitate quick changes and transport props and set pieces to and from the stage.”
Chicago Theatre Review
Sustainability Efforts
Rented platforms
The “runway” raised stage area was made up of rented 4’x8’ already existing stock platforms from a nearby theatre.
Reused mirrors, picked up post-production by a local props artisan
At least half of the mirrors were collected from student dorm rooms and saved from the landfill after the end of a high school summer theatre camp. All of them were collected post-production and added to the prop stock of a local theatre artisan.
Fake moss picked up post-production by a local artist
In addition to the mirrors, the moss hanging around the perimeter of the top of the space was posted available on the Chicago Green Theatre Alliance and pickup was arranged for strike day. The moss went to be used in another theatre production.
Borrowed chandelier, sconces, tables, rug, clothing for set dressing
All of these items were borrowed for the production and returned post-production.