production management
Untitled (Desert Refractions) (2021)
Untitled (Desert Refractions)(2021) is a sculpture, installation and performance created in response to the reflective glass surfaces of many Las Vegas Resorts, the desert environment, the arc of the sun, and the poem Ozymandias. The work explores reflection, opulence, sunlight, legacy, and the impermanence of power. Devised with local performers, the piece included both pre-recorded and live-streamed light as the Las Vegas sun set in real-time.
Sound Structure: Stephen Germana
Sculpture: Meghan Moe Beitiks x Luis Varela-Rico
Rogers Art Loft: Lance Smith, Ryan Reid, Spencer Haley
Cameras: Shahab Zargari, Spencer Haley
Ozymandias
I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said ‘Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.’
Untitled (Desert Refractions) sculpture, a collaboration with Luis Varela-Rico, permanently installed at Rogers Studio Gallery. Each of the gold panes of glass points towards a major resort with gold windows. Excerpts from the poem Ozymandias are sandblasted into the glass with industrial garnet and sand from the nearby Red Rock Canyon desert. Detailing with pyrite grit and fake gold spraypaint. The piece changes depending on the angle of the sun. Solar lights illuminate the sculpture at night.
Untitled (Desert Refractions) long-term installation of gold/silver window film at the Rogers Studio Gallery. The windows of the Studio Gallery take on the reflective quality of opulent local resort windows.
The Conviction of Pearl Dakota (2014)
Choreographer JN Soto created a dance piece, generated in part by his cast, based on movements observed at the City of Chicago traffic courts, and his own fictional writing. I created the lighting, set, and some sound design.
The piece performed in the Dance Studio at the Chicago Cultural Center. I built a series of flats, framing the studio mirrors with scrap fabric. Originally conceived as a kind of horizon line, this framing was meant to create visual depth in the piece, to reference the boxy framing of cubicles and the architecture of the space, and to give an alternative narrative to the action onstage. Lighting consisted of steely blues and no-color fronts. Sound included recordings from the traffic courts lobby, remixed into its own music and reversed.
With Anna Greenawalt, Joseph Hutto, Dani Martinez and April Noga.
The Conviction of Pearl Dakota from J. Soto on Vimeo.
Atom-r: The Operature (2014)
I designed the lights for Atom-r’s US premeire of The Operature at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Chicago. I also assisted in production management and acted as Stage Manager.
Atom-r is a provisional collective exploring forensics, anatomy, and 21st century embodiment through performance, language and emerging technologies. Participants include Mark Jeffery (choreography), Judd Morrissey (text and technology), Justin Deschamps, Sam Hertz, Christopher Knowlton, and Blake Russell (performers).
The Operature is a live performance and augmented reality (AR) poem engaging themes of anatomical science and spectacle. The work’s choreography and use of technology are influenced by research into a series of diverse anatomical histories including early-modern surgical theatres, Francis Glessner Lee’s miniature crime scene re-enactments known as the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, and The Stud File, an autobiographical record of the sexual exploits of Samuel Steward, a 20th century tattoo artist, gay pornographer, and friend of Gertrude Stein.
I created a parallel choreography to the piece with lighting, introducing two “operators” (Luis Meijer and Jake Vogds) that followed the action with antique floodlights. The instruments themselves spoke to a space between operating room and interrogation chamber, the operators simultaneously interrogators, voyeurs, and examiners. An attempt on my part to expand the world of the piece, comment on the source material, and make the lighting a fellow performer.
Microboundaries (2013)
Microboundaries is a game designed to help you experience two things: the needs of beneficial bacteria, and new places and perspectives in your urban environment.
There are 5 bacteria to choose from. Each of them provides a unique and beneficial service to us and our world. Some of them live in the earth’s crust, others in deep water or amongst the roots of plants. Their work is ever-present and invisible. Each of them has an icon designed by my collaborator Brooke Collins.
Micro-Boundaries asks: where would this bacteria live in your city? What kind of places can you imagine that it might like? How does it become present in your world?
Take a photo of a place that fits the criteria for that bacteria with Instagram. Upload with your photo map on and hashtag the bacteria type. Colonize your city with microbes. Discover new places in your city, gain new perspective, help spread the word about the good work of these ‘bugs’.
Another beautiful Zspace wedding (2011)
So, after the epic adventure designing my brother’s wedding at ZSpace, a San Francisco theater, I was enlisted to go at it again. The ceremony featured a split laser: the reception involved a tea ceremony and lavender cupcakes. The happy couple had specific color themes: beyond that, I was inspired to mix ZSpace’s amazing rep plot to create certain layered looks. It was especially fun making a gobo top wash for the tables, and a series of crazy chase sequences for the dance party. I also assisted the couple in some planning and staffing.
Photos by the amazing Michelle Damas.
Mike + Emily: designing my brother’s wedding (2010)
Want an adventure sometime? Design an event for two people who are producing the most important event of their lives. That was my brother’s wedding to Emily Smith, now Beitiks. It involved gobos, wall stickers, walkie-talkies, a slow buffet line, the colors blue and white, rosemary, and a very hard-working wedding party.
These photos are long overdue: the wedding was last year, in 2010. This was in Z Space in San Francisco, using a lot of their plot and some trees from Friends of the Urban Forest. I’ve finally digested all my production-managing and lighting-designing well enough to edit the photos.
That’s me instructing the uncle of the bride in one pic, by the way. I was tempted to include a few pics of me hugging my new sister-in-law or marching around with a radio looking serious. I resisted.
And yes, Mike + Emily are now Happily Ever After.
Photos: Kim Komenich
Photos from SF Sketchfest 2011.
Photos from SFSketchfest are up on the online gallery! Check them out and drink in all of my mic-setting/light-focusing/production managing mania for all of December and January. And part of February.
David Herrera Performance Company makes a layercake. (2010)
DHPCo is an SF-based dance theater group. I’ve been their resident designer since 2005. This is a photo from last season’s show, “Origins.” This year the show is called “American Layercake,” and we’re working with LED props, some of which I am building. Ulp! Right now in rehearsal the dancers are running around with points of light on their fingertips. We go into tech next week. Show opens at Dance Mission Theatre on March 11th. Should be fun.
SF Sketchfest!
This is my third year as Technical Production Manager for SF Sketchfest. This beast of a festival usually involves 8-11 venues, 100 + performances, and a lot of stress-dissolving laughter. This year we’re coordinating a Viva Variety Reunion and bringing together some SNL Originals with Inside Joke. At least: the producers are bringing it together. I’m wrangling the mics, furniture, tech staff and funny hats. The first year I worked this gig I designed the lights for the first live all-member reunion of The State in 11 years. I nearly peed my pants. I’m hoping that at this point my bowel control has advanced considerably.
I’m in Yosemite (working. seriously).
This is my second year as Lighting Technician for the Bracebridge Dinner at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite. It’s a great gig, for a number of reasons: the scenery, the free food, the fact that the TD actually listens to my design suggestions (two new specials this year!). In between shifts in the scissor lift, I’m finishing up my COP16 coverage and preparing for SFSketchfest. I’ve also been watching the videos from Green Stage Scratch Night. It looks like it was a great production, with a lot of work done in very limited time. Unfortunately their camerawoman got caught in a subway strike and it had to be filmed on an iphone. Took me ten minutes for me to get the courage to watch it. Definitely a learning experience, made some necessary edits clear. In the meantime, I’m waving hello to the deer.