Residence: Brooklyn, NY
Current project(s): Making video projections for Seven Suns, an avant-garde heavy-metal chamber orchestra piece. I am also working on my own project merging video with large-scale puppets.
Most notable achievements: My most notable achievement always happens to be whatever project I am working on at any present moment.
When I started in this industry: There was never a specific moment I decided to be a person who makes live stories and experiences. I always have just done that, and I never thought about doing anything else. I’ve been a director, a musician, a writer, and a performer before honing in on designing as my main avenue for storytelling.
How I got into this industry: The best thing I ever did for myself was get my MFA at CalArts. That program was expansive and experimental enough to allow me the space to develop my point of view as a theatre artist while mastering skills as a designer. CalArts was where I was introduced to video for performance and incorporated it into my set design practice. Now, the majority of my work incorporates video and set design.
Funnyhouse Of A NegroInfluences: I’ve always been influenced by the visually expressive work of Julie Taymor. I was very lucky to be able to work with her last year as the associate projection designer on A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Theatre for a New Audience. While on Midsummer, I met Es Devlin, who has become my favorite set designer working on her level today. I have also learned a great deal from Chris Barreca, Bob Bonniol, and Sven Ortel.
As an undergrad, I got a job working box office for UCLA Live (now CAP UCLA), so I could see as much as I wanted of its theatre, dance, music, and spoken word series. I got to see amazing performances, including Societas Raffaello Sanzio’s Purgatorio, Royal Court Theatre’s 4:48 Psychosis, Slava’s Snowshow, Will Power’s Flow, Laurie Anderson’s NASA piece, Cheek by Jowl, as well as dance from Lyon Opera Ballet, Ultima Vez, Matthew Bourne, and many, many others.
Worst advice I’ve ever heard: “Puppetry is not real theatre.”
Best advice I’ve ever heard: “Stop talking about it without looking at it.” Conversation without seeing is just rhetorical. And “never assume anything.” And “a scenic model is a tool, not an artwork in and of itself.” Keep it fluid, approachable, and destroyable; never glue anything down. Sometimes your model lands better when you turn it upside down.
My favorite thing about the production industry: Every new project brings with it new collaborators and new challenges. Variety of subject, form, and process keeps this work interesting.
Patty The RevivalFavorite design/programming/technical trick: If you want to incorporate video/projection into a live performance in innovative ways, bring it into rehearsal. Projection can be magical, but most people who do not work with it regularly have not learned how to imagine it as an additional character in the work. Bring it into rehearsal, experiment with it, and make it part of your process. Also, be sure to have a projection/video designer on board before you start developing other elements of the design.
Plans for the future: To keep doing what I’m doing, embracing each new challenge and collaborative team that comes to me, and searching out radically new ideas and directions.
Other interests/side gigs: I love to get outdoors to hike, camp, bike ride, and explore.
Awards, honors: Earning Chancellor’s Marshal at UCLA TFT as well as succeeding in the MFA program at CalArts.
Portfolio: www.LianneArnold.com