Senior Capstone: Technical Production Management


As part of my Senior Capstone, I served as the spring play’s production manager and designer
and led the student production crew in theater immersion. There are two main parts to my Capstone:
design and management. I aim to produce well-informed designs that utilize the elements and
principles of design, portray the settings, and convey the themes of the play. As the production manager,
I oversaw theater tech immersion by allocating projects to individuals and assisting students to execute
my designs. I also worked closely with other departments on campus to source materials and furniture pieces.



Silent Sky is a play that engages with its time period, spanning from 1900-1920.
Much of the design is informed by extensive historical research of the computer room,
Harvard observatory, and furniture style. Small details such as the curvature on the
furniture legs, rusty handles on storage boxes, vintage style hearing aid, and intricate dust
cover on the piano help place the show and the audience in its corresponding time period.

The set is kept minimal and largely immobile on the stage while actors travel to different
areas to convey different settings. This establishes an airiness, keeps the transitions swift, and
leaves space for more abstract scenes set in space and time.

This production is unlike any other production in Chiles Theater because of its use of the scrim
and projections. The black scrim creates a feeling of intimacy with its dark color,
limiting the audience’s vision and blocking out distractions. Moreover, when images
are projected onto the scrim, a dreamy, filter-like, far-away feeling is created.
The projections eventually extend into the house, inviting the audience into the
vastness of the universe.


Production photos


Floor plan of Chiles Theater at Northfield Mount Hermon


Sketches

Plan view of dais platforms




Design presentation


Scale model (1/4”=1’)



Strike plan

Props tracklist

Claude Wei Zhang
claudezhang2028@u.northwestern.edu