RESEARCH AND CREATIVE ACTIVITY STATEMENT
Lynne M. Koscielniak
1.
Introduction
My set and lighting design work spans from
storefront theatres to the League of Resident Theatres (LORT), encompassing
original designs for new dramatic works, classic texts, modern musicals, and
dance. I collaborate on a regular basis with a diverse group of artists to
create original set and lighting designs for experimental and traditional
theatre. My recent work includes collaborations with playwrights, composers,
and choreographers on premiere productions as well as innovative productions of
classic American plays for contemporary audiences. In addition to my personal vision as an
artist, I attempt to distinguish my design work by integrating dramaturgical
practices and advanced technologies into my creative process. In the long term, I seek to have a
significant effect on the shape of the future of set and lighting design
through my professional work and by teaching my students to employ a similar
process to develop their own visions.
2.
Design
I received my Master of Fine Arts in Stage Design
from
Since graduating from Northwestern, I have
maintained relationships with Chicago-based ensembles and directors. I have
designed five productions for the Piven Theatre Workshop, including three for
Artistic Director Joyce Piven. At the
Piven, I have worked on two premiere productions by Pulitzer Prize finalist and
playwright Sarah Ruhl, whose episodic texts have pushed me to new levels of
inventiveness, creating evocative environments that transcend reality. I have
worked in collaboration on four productions with director and associate
producer of Writer’s Theatre, Shade Murray.
Our collaborations included the lighting design for INVITATION TO A
MARCH at the Victory Gardens Theatre, for which I was nominated for
From the scientific to the kinetic, my designs span
a wide range of productions, both thematically and spatially. For choreographer Billy Siegenfeld’s Jump
Rhythm Jazz Project, I designed the lights for GETTING THERE PART 1 and 2, a
narrative dance that toured nationally with the company. Most recently, I
worked with choreographer Bill Evans on the realization of ALTERNATING CURRENT,
a movement study addressing the body as a force, in which the lighting
functioned as a magnetic field, drawing the dancer in and pushing him away,
making transitions in harmony with the trembling movement and sound.
My collaborations have taken all shapes; from
working with directors who tap into my dramaturgical skills, to working with
playwrights and composers on a development team, to being part of large scale
productions where I have been brought on to deliver a professional product in a
short amount of time, to wearing many hats as part of small ensemble. I have been challenged to make plays “work”
in a variety of venues and to interpret classics for contemporary audiences. I often function as a historian, researching
the social context of the play; a fine artist, sketching and rendering the
proposed design; and a graphic artist, drafting schematics so that lab
technicians can construct and mount the necessary systems for production. I
have even taken on the role of costume designer on a few occasions, to expand
my awareness of all areas of design and improve my understanding of my fellow
designers’ work process and challenges.
For the premiere of PARALLEL LIVES by Richard Pearson Thomas, produced
Off-Off-Broadway by the Riverside Opera Ensemble, I designed the sets, lights,
and costumes. To design the production, I became versed in the daily life of
society in ancient
In addition to choosing to work on productions that
promote areas and skills for personal growth, I have a particular interest in
productions that investigate non-traditional modes of presentation. A case in point is my recent work on the
Irish Classical Theatre Company’s production of Eugene O’Neill’s A LONG DAY’S
JOURNEY INTO NIGHT. To design this play, I studied the playwright’s life and
works to decide with the team whether the autobiographical nature of the piece
should inform a realistic space or if the poetry of the text should inspire a
metaphysical environment. I constructed
two scale models that made tangible our production concept in completely
different ways and allowed the director and design team to choose a direction;
proposing multiple solutions to a design problem is a standard part of my
process. On another occasion, I was
challenged to reinvent a holiday classic, A CHRISTMAS CAROL, a play that can
easily fall prey to preconceptions, for the Virginia Stage Company. For this
production, set in an attic, innovative staging, lights, and sound were
employed to transport characters through space and time. Having deftly executed
the design for A CHRISTMAS CAROL in 2004, I was asked back to design the
re-invented 2005 production. These
experiences in the LORT theatre led to my acceptance into United Scenic Artists
– Local 829, the exclusive national organization of designers, production and
technology professionals in the performing arts and entertainment industry.
3.
Technology
Through technology, I work internationally and
nationally while based at the University at
In addition to using technology to advance the
creative process, I keep myself up-to-date with ever-advancing industry
standards and emerging stage technologies to advance production methods. I am
particularly interested in the testing and implementation of automated lighting
and software for lighting design applications.
This technology opens up new possibilities for me as a lighting designer
as well as a lighting educator. In my
professional work, I have used automated lighting in dance and musical theatre
performance to add a layer of moving texture over bodies in motion, creating
landscapes enhanced with color, texture, and visual rhythm. I believe my aesthetic is unique in that I
treat performance as a canvas and lighting as paint, so that lighting helps
synthesize the stage elements while supporting the narrative. Integrating these advanced instruments
designed for production in the classroom has palpably changed the way I
teach. With the advent of automated
lighting technology, all the controllable properties of light—placement, shape,
size, color, texture, and motion—can be adjusted remotely. In collaboration with theatre director and
performer Sally Fox, I have explored moving light applications in the
classroom. Together we created a lab
that allowed students of lighting design and mask to invent scenarios in which
light could act as a character and interact with an actor. These explorations used light as a malleable
object that could emote and evolve. By
teaching this way, the student designers learned how technical tools could
become a living and breathing element in the production process, while student
actors learned how to combine the mask work with design.
Advanced technologies continue to play a role in my
professional work and consequently my teaching.
Through WYSIWYG (What You See is What You Get) software, a computer
program that includes a CAD engine, I construct virtual three-dimensional stage
environments, create lighting systems for the stage, and model my designs in
pre-production, demonstrating the design idea to the director, my fellow collaborators,
and to my students. In 2004, I received
an Educational Technology Grant from the University at
As the technology in the lighting field constantly
changes, I actively engage in the United States Institute of Theatre Technology
to stay current and to contribute to product development. I have served as a beta-tester for the Rosco
Horizon Lighting System Software and through professional development workshops
have become proficient at software and hardware including Vectorworks
Spotlight, ETC lighting control including the
4.
Impact
In recognition of innovative thinking in design, I
was selected to represent the
I have also received international recognition for
my set design work. In 2005, an
international jury selected my set design work for the World Stage Design
Gallery Exhibit in
Recognized by my peers as a teaching artist, I am
regularly invited to respond to the work of emerging stage designers. I have reviewed work at the USITT’s Young
Designers’ Forum and at the Kennedy Center American Theater Festival. Once a presenter at the Yale Portfolio Review
myself, I now return to this event as a professional, offering advice to young
artists.
As a scenographer, I treat plays as scientific
problems that need visual solutions. I
have developed a methodology for arriving at a finished design that includes
dramaturgical research and analysis, response to text through analog drawing,
and the use of image, sculpture, and manipulation of architectural space to
arrive at a stage environment. The
integration of traditional scenographic practice and advanced technologies to
expand the role of the designer in the collaborative process is crucial for me.
My students integrate my methods into their undergraduate research activities,
just as I do in my design work and my conference presentations. I seek to
create innovative and appropriate designs from a thorough, thoughtful, and
professional creative process., Schooled in these methods, my students have
gone on to top M.F.A. programs at Brandeis University, Florida State
University, Northwestern University, University of Connecticut, University of
Florida, and University of Missouri Kansas City, among others.
5.
Future Plans
Recently, I have begun to explore the use of
lighting within virtual reality performances. I currently serve as the lighting
designer for the Intermedia Performance Studio (IPS), a collaborative group
composed of faculty and students from UB’s Departments of Media Study, Computer
Science and Engineering, and Theatre & Dance. The IPS integrates digital technology, interactive fiction, virtual reality,
and embodied performance. Through the IPS, UB’s week-long contribution to
Suzan-Lori Parks’s year-long national play marathon 365 Days, 365 Plays took on new dimensions through the synthesis of digital characters,
audience interaction, and live dancers and actors. The lighting helped bring together the
disembodied and embodied performers, marrying the 3-dimensional projected
virtual reality with the performers on the stage. I am interested in further investigating how
theatrical lighting can powerfully synthesize virtual and tangible worlds. In
attending the International Organization for Scenographers, Theatre Architects
and Technicians (OISTAT) Conference in June 2007, I gained global perspective
on digital design and intermedia performance and a new understanding how
sensory technology±technology that allows the performer to control digital
imagery in the performance—is vital for countries rooted in improvisational
based theatre forms. Traditionally,
actors have needed to sync their movement to predefined digital imagery, an
idea counter to spontaneous action which is at the core of improvisational
theatre. Through these working groups, I
have expanded the resources and goals for my work with the IPS.
I plan to continue my design work within regional
theatre while expanding my work into international venues. I am committed to my development as a
designer and theatre technologist, and I look forward to future collaborations
so that I may bring significant original work to the stage. My professional work feeds my teaching and
service, and I expect it always will.
Thus far, my work has led to subsequent conference presentations on
topics including the designer’s role in the production of new works, oral and
visual communication for the scenographer in the creative process, and
integrated stage technologies. I have
new affiliations within OISTAT working groups that will fuel future dialogues
resulting in panel presentations and publications. My hope is to continually break new ground,
integrate new technology, and have the great pleasure of collaborating with
like-minded professionals on exciting classic and contemporary material.