Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2004 - 35

Stage Manager, and Director, and was also a
theatrical producer, having worked in New
York, Washington, DC (Ford's Theatre), Houston, Texas (Theatre Under the Stars), Seattle,
Washington (5th Avenue Musical Theatre) and
Kansas (Music Theatre of Wichita and Wichita
Children's Theatre).

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MAGGIE MORGAN
I enjoyed seeing a wide range of work from
many parts of the country; and seeing student
and professional work exhibited together; and
all different kinds of venues. It was a great
cross section of what's going on across the
country as far as design goes.
It was interesting to see what shows have
been popular in the last few years-the trends
of what is being performed, what classics,
what new plays and all that. It was also interesting to see how people presented their work.
The renderings and the production photos are
a recording of what the designers' intentions
were, and how they were realized in the productions. So I found it very helpful to read the
little paragraphs about their design ideas and
what inspired them. It was also very interesting
to see a lot of high caliber, strong student
work. It was right up there, in many cases, with
experienced professionals' work. That was really nice to see.
I think it is getting easier to share our design
work through the Internet, and exhibits, and
DVDs. And as people get to see more and more
productions, I think that really shows in their design work. It's great to see the sophisticated and
interesting work happening in every nook and
cranny of our country.
Ms. Morgan is an award-winning costume
designer for theatre and film. Her recent regional theatre design work includes Pasadena Playhouse, South Coast Rep, and the

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Mark Taper Forum. Her film design work includes the independent features Sex and a
Girl, and Breathing Hard. She has worked as
assistant costume designer on such films as
A Bronx Tale, Apollo 13, and Men in Black.

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MICHAEL WELLBORN
I was struck by how hard it is to represent
lighting in an exhibit like this. The photos need
to be good quality and there need to be enough
of them to give me a sense of what was going
on in the show, that it's not just a static event. I
don't know what I would do if I wanted to exhibit my work in Design Expo. Ha! I don't
know what I could do unless I showed something on video.
Some of the light plots, the information that
was on them, was too cluttered. And this is a
general comment too. There were several, in
all categories, in which I felt the presentation
was cluttered. Some were very slick on first
view, and as I looked at them I realized that
there was too much going on-digitally pasted
up, laminated, nicely produced exhibits but I
couldn't find the information I wanted. It was
an odd double-edge sword. The presentation
pulled me in and made me want to look at it,
but as I looked closer, it was too much and
turned me off. I mostly liked the simpler presentations, although there were some lovely designs, wonderful sketches, swatches, but no production
photos. I need to know what it looked like on
stage.

Mr. Wellborn is technical director for the University of Washington dance program and a
lighting designer in the Northwest. He has been
resident designer at the Colorado Shakespeare
Festival and has designed for national and international tours.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2004