Young Frankenstein
JCC Center Stage, Rochester, NY
2014
Director: Danny Hoskins Lighting: Toni Elderkin Costumes: Peggy Zorn
 
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In working on this design, it seemed imperative to understand the source material Mel Brooks is lovingly spoofing. In preparation, I watched the entire series of Universal monster movies to try to understand their visual language, and drew my inspiration from their overtly two-dimensional,
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but often brilliantly stylized sets. It didn’t serve the comedy to stay in strictly black-and-white, so we indicated that with a palette of neutralized purples and yellows that could capture that flavor, but also have a bit more life on stage. I created three basic frameworks in which the show’s many
locations could be rendered: a series of arches that could serve as mini-prosceniums, a village scene with ever-present gallows, and of course the castle, which served for both interior and exterior scenes.