For our 18th season, theatre KAPOW, chose plays that align with the unifying theme reverberate. The plays we have included in the season all speak to the ways that decisions made in the past have an impact on the future. Simon Stephens’ complex play Morning Sun explores the life of one woman over 50 years living in the same apartment in New York City.
Edward Hopper, 1882–1967, Morning Sun, 1952, Oil on canvas, 40 1/8 x 28 1/8 in (101.9 x 71.5 cm), Columbus Museum of Art, Howald Fund Purchase
For the scenic design for this show, I pulled inspiration from many places. First and foremost Edward Hopper’s painting Morning Sun, after which Stephens titled his play, provided the basics of the architecture of the apartment in the play. An oversized window dominates the stage left wall as an homage to Hopper’s painting.
Early on in the process it became clear that the actors would never leave the stage and that all props and costumes would need to be present on stage at the top of the show. The concept of a “trunk show” (a vaudeville production designed to be performed using only the props and costumes contained within a single trunk) became my next source of inspiration. Lifting the trunk show aesthetic out of the typical camelback or steamer trunk and into the contemporary equivalent – the cardboard box – brings the show into New York in a very familiar way for me. When visiting, I am always struck by how my friends who live in NYC have to maximize their minimal space and live amongst everything they own not infrequently stored in cardboard boxes that have become as familiar as the furniture.
By making the walls of the apartment themselves out of cardboard boxes, I knew that I could provide countless ledges and cavities upon and within which we could store prop and costume pieces. As I played with how to use boxes to create the walls, I was reminded of the work of Louise Nevelson whose monochromatic found object sculptures became my next inspiration. Nevelson packs so much stuff into her relatively modestly sized sculptures but the monochrome color scheme provides a sense of unity that projects order in an otherwise cluttered piece. Similarly, I chose to use unmarked cardboard boxes of different sizes to construct the walls of the apartment so that the jumble of boxes could find unity and clarity in the structure.
Louise Nevelson, Untitled , 1964. Wood painted black. © 2022 Estate of Louise Nevelson/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Julia Bryan-Wilson.
The structure itself became an important next step. At first, the stud walls were primarily intended as a logistical answer to how to corral a ton of cardboard boxes. As I drew the set, the skeleton provided by the stud walls became just as exciting to me as the walls of boxes. There was something about the skeletal walls that spoke to the length of time the family has inhabited this apartment. And, while the intent is not to make it look like the walls are caving in around them, I was drawn to the storytelling potential of gaps and spaces through which both actors and light can travel.
Finally, I had to arrive at a shape for the room. The script itself demands so little which means that the designer has some freedom to play. I decided that this allowed me the opportunity to create a visual throughline to our season by overlaying and adapting the scenic designs of Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons and What the Constitution Means to Me into a whole new space. By combining the half circle of the Lemons set with the wall layout of the Constitution set, I hoped to let the idea of reverberate weave not just through the themes of the shows but also through the design of their physical spaces. I also hope that the choice isn’t obvious but is familiar. I guess I liked the idea of rewarding those audience members who came along for the whole journey this year!
~Matt Cahoon, Artistic Director and Scenic/Lighting Designer
