Urinetown, the Musical

SUNY Cortland Performing Arts 2017

Urinetown was a fun project to work on and explore new possibilities. Director, Dr. Deena Conley, Chair of the Performing Arts was great to work with and encouraged me to explore big ideas and concepts. Initially, we tried to use the whole of the Lab theatre space and have the audience integrated into the world of the play. This idea had to be adjusted as we developed concepts and logistics for how the play needed to functioned and how it affected choreography.  However, we were able to integrate the musicians into the world and have them reside in the set. I have often wanted to do this, many musicals have the musicians off stage, under the stage or in a different room all together.  I felt it would great to have them present, especially with the jazzy nature of the musical, akin to music in New Orleans.

     The premise is a drought and water shortage that forces the government to regulate and recycle urine to gain the water.  I explored water processing plants and of course, public urinals. Dr. Conley and I had fun exploring what this world could be.  I wanted to provide a sense of the systems of waste treatment and water handling in my design. I used pipe structures to hide the office set wagon.  To make an example of the waste and corruption of the governing officials I designed a water cooler and large fish tank into the office set.  The fish tank was designed a a projection of an animated goldfish.  This was eventually embraced by the cast and made to be a funny bit of interaction between the cast and goldfish.