Scenic designer Donyale Werle shares how she is coping with COVID-19 closings in this series, "When the Lights Went Out," where theatrical designers discuss what they are doing these days.
A pioneer in the creation of sustainable theatre sets and a teacher of scenic design at NYU and Brooklyn College, Donyale Werle also designs gardens. “In 2017, I went back to school to study horticulture,” says Werle, who is a credit away from a Certificate of Horticulture from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Little did she know when she first enrolled that she would rely on this when theatres went dark.
These days, Werle and her husband, Brooklyn Academy of Music stagehand Paul Jepson, are focusing on their landscape design business, Theater Gardens, NYC. Donyale designs and Paul builds the structures. They both do the installs and maintenance. “We both love theatre and will always want to be a part of the theatre community” but they are okay with spending time outdoors, working with plants and different types of people.
For the last five years, Werle and Jepson have been developing their own garden in and out of their Midwood, Brooklyn home, featuring 250 plants that they move inside during winter months. “We keep adding and changing the garden,” she says. “It has been our lab, both to study permaculture, but also to experiment with different types of vertical garden structures like greenhouses and living wall shelves and steps,” she says. “The more things we learn, the more we need to adapt. I love combining native plants, vegetables, and fruits with tropicals and xeriscapes. There can be many micro-climates in one small, urban space.”
Werle, who likes being at home, says she’s been doing well. She understands this is an anxious time for many folks. “Many friends live in apartments without outdoor space. And the financial insecurity can be stressful for all of us,” she says.
“The Black Lives Matter movement has really changed the way so many of us are thinking about this time,” Werle adds. “We have this opportunity to make substantial changes in the theatre, to look at systematic racism head-on. To review all of the institutions we are a part of and say, ‘hey, how many BIPOCs are in positions of leadership?’ If it’s sea of white faces, well, that’s gotta change!”
“I am taking Nicole Brewster’s ‘Anti-Racist Theatre: A Foundational Course’ in August with the Broadway Green Alliance,” a sustainability-focused organization that Werle is a part of. She feels it’s important that institutions undergo Anti-Racism training. Last year, members of Encores Off-Center (Clint Ramos, Jeanine Tesori, Anne Kauffman and Werle) attended the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond’s Anti-Racist Workshop. “It was very difficult to face my own racism and white privilege,” she says, but she found the training to be eye-opening to the struggles of BIPOCs and life-altering for her.
“So many incredible designers are doing amazing work in this area,” she says, citing Clint Ramos, Porsche McGovern, Sherrice Mojgani, Elisheba Ittoop, Regina Garcia, and Lawrence Moten.
Check out what other designers are doing "When the Lights Went Out."