Incendies
In an attempt to explore the way scenic environment provoke thoughts and emotions, I designed an immersive theater experience for a play called “Incendies” by Lebanese-Canadian writer Wajdi Mouawad.
Immersive Theater is a contemporary form of performance which trades the fourth wall for winding hallways and dance floor, with the hope of giving audiences not just a show but an ‘experience’. Audience is placed within the scenes in the story and therefore play witness front and center to the events. In this project, proscenium and immersive theaters are combined to provide unique display of the play ‘Incendies’. Walls, ceilings, floors and the whole room move in all directions to form combinations of scenes, overlapping one another.
Twin brothers and sister living in Canada go on a mission to Lebanon to honor their mother’s will, by finding their unknown father and brother and deliver their mother’s letter. They track them based on keepsakes from their mother, and following the twins, the audiences can choose different paths leading to rooms in the theater.
In Act 1, audiences are fixed in their seats, hearing the mother, Nawal‘s last will toward the twins. They get a mission with the twins: trace the Nawal’s past to find their father and brother and deliver letters Nawal wrote for them.
Throughout Act 2, audience roam around the theater and enter rooms freely. They can choose routes based on hint objects (Nawal’s keepsakes) as if they were the twins in the story.
At last, for Act 3, audience get back to the main stage to open up Nawal’s letterss and see the twisted truth of her past: the twin’s father and brother were one and the same.
I analyzed every scene and planned different routes for each keepsake so people can keep up with the storyline even as they roam around. Walls and floors move to assemble and disassemble rooms, layering past and present, Lebanon and Canada. This whole journey allows audience to be part of the play and make up their own story lines without losing the plot and the message of the play.
Scenic Design
Act 2-1 #19 2000s Canada (present) above, 1940s Lebanon (past) below
Act 2-2 #24, #25 2000s Canada (present) above, #25 1970s Lebanon (past) below
Act 3 #38 Canada (present)
Process
Sketch
Process of designing set & seats for scenic design above.
I wanted to make people feel like they’re inside the play and the characters’ emotional conflicts. So I utilized unorthodox camera angles from movies and animations to apply to the audience’s seats. I imagined the viewer’s eyes as camera angles. Inside the set, people crouch low, look up, or turn side to side and be immersed in each scene.
Also I made 3d model to test locating scenic rooms and seats.
Script Analysis
Period: 06.2022 - 11.2022
Project Type: Independent work
