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.