Scenic and Projections Design by Leigh Henderson
Teatro Visión (San José, CA), April 2024
by Francisco Jiménez
adapted for the stage by Leo Cortez
Directed by Ugho Badú and Ricardo Cortés
Jiménez’s memoirs have resonated across generations, in their message of love, determination, and the importance of one’s mentors.
In La Mariposa, a young Panchito arrives in the U.S. with his family, and finds his way amid a life of constant moving and in a school where he doesn’t understand a word his teacher says. As he watches his classroom caterpillar transform into a butterfly, he too begins to learn to spread his wings.
Breaking Through follows him to his teenage years, where Panchito comes to love school and reading. A dream to become a teacher awakens in him. But when his responsibility to his family clashes against his own desires, he must navigate the competing priorities that face him.
The scenery and projections embrace both the form of the memoir and the youthful voice of the protagonist. Composed entirely of paper and cardboard, the scenery and props emphasize both the unboxing of memory and the imaginative play of a child with big dreams. Hundreds of colorful, hand-drawn images, projected onto a screen composed of an eruption of book pages, playfully complement the action on stage in the manner of children's book illustrations.
Scenic Design and paper sculpture by Leigh Henderson
Teatro Visión (San José, CA), October 2023
An original Milagro Theater Día de Muertos production devised by Rebecca Martinez and the Milagro Theater Ensemble
Directed by Rodrigo García
In this hilarious, musical take on the afterlife, los muertitos (the dead) can’t wait to get back to earth on Día de Muertos and La Muerte can’t wait to finally have a day to relax! But when one soul isn’t ready to go back, everyone’s holiday is in danger!
Inspired by the Mexican tree of life pottery tradition and made of hundreds of hand-made paper sculptures, the set expresses the vibrancy and fullness of the afterlife. The tree of life also functions as a portal, opening like a turnstile to allow los muertitos to pass through. Floating paper umbrella clouds with lights inside create a simultaneous sense of buoyancy and loss.
Scenic and Lighting Design by Leigh Henderson
Teatro Alebrijes (San José, CA), August 2023
inspired by La Casa de Bernarda Alba by Federico García Lorca.
Directed by Rodrigo García
Nothing ever changes in the house that Carlota and her three daughters share. Until they attend a funeral and trigger a series of events that reveals a secret and changes all of their lives.
The set divides the stage into three areas of the house - the garden, the dining room, and the kitchen - each defined by picture frames, obscured by leaves, lace, and herbs to reflect the house being cut off from the world. Over each area hangs a bird cage with a light bulb, reflecting the three daughters, trapped in Carlota’s view of the world and unable to live their lives.
Muted tones in the lighting paint the world like a sepia photograph, stuck in the past, until the family’s emotions boil over.
Scenic Design by Leigh Henderson
Teatro Visión (San José, CA), April 2023
adapted by Anne Ludlum and David Quicksall
based on Don Quijote de la Mancha, Parts I and II, by Miguel de Cervantes
Directed by Rodrigo García
Brought to life by a talented ensemble of youth actors from across San José, Don Quixote and his squire Sancho Panza traverse the plains of La Mancha in search of daring adventures.
The scenery envisions the story of Don Quixote is brought to life by imaginative children using props found around a theater. Hanging chairs, picture frames, ragged curtains, and piles of crates, barrels, globe, rocking horse, and candelabras create a world that, like the story of Don Quixote, hovers between deterioration and magical possibility. The windmill is made from brooms mounted on a rolling ladder. Scooters serves as horses, a tricycle as a donkey, a red wagon as a sedan chair.
Scenic and Projection Design by Leigh Henderson
Teatro Visión (San José, CA), April 2022
By Maribel Martínez
Directed by Wilma Bonet
Becoming (MAR) tells the story of Mariela, a gender expansive young person who, feeling out of place at school, finds her way to the In Between. This land of the ancestors is inhabited by a colorful cast of characters, including a mischievous centipede, a proud owl, a singing prairie dog, an emotional tortious, and an honorable snake. Before she returns home, Mariela finds her strength in the powerful medicine of ancestral teachings.
Emphasizing the magical energy of the In Between and complementing the energetic performances of the youth cast, the set design uses bright lights, bold colors, and whimsical objects like paper stars, oversized poppies, and glowing trees. The projections bring mood and movement, transforming the stage seamlessly through the different environments of the In Between and carrying the audience along on Mariela’s voyage of self-discovery.
Scenic Design by Leigh Henderson
Projection Design by Rodrigo García and Leigh Henderson
Teatro Visión (San José, CA), October 2021
By Evelina Fernández with Teatro Visión
Directed by Rodrigo García
Departera is an original work created by Teatro Visión with playwright Evelina Fernández and composer Russell Rodríguez through a 2-year community based process that drew upon the stories and beliefs of the Bay Area Latinx community.
This 2021 production, Teatro Visión’s first return to live performance since the pandemic, was produced for limited live audiences and also recorded for on demand viewing online. Due to limited potential for ticket revenue, scenery was scaled back to save money and projections formed the basis for establishing location and mood. Inspired by the classic dance halls of Mexico in the 30s and 40s, the production creates an ephemeral world of hope and memory, drawing visually on the metaphor of “the road to the afterlife.”
The story of Departera centers on Doña Juana. She is like a midwife (a partera), but instead of bringing babies into this world, she helps the dying move on. As she trains her young protégé, Connie, she also comes to grips with her own past and future. Departera is a story full of humor, profoundly contemporary, yet informed by indigenous beliefs.
Scenic Design by Leigh Henderson
Teatro Visión (San José, CA), May 2021
By Lynne Alvarez
Music by Victor Zupanc
Based on the Book by Pam Muñoz Ryan
Directed by Melinda Marks
It's 1929. When tragedy strikes 12-year-old Esperanza’s family, she has to leave her life of wealth and privilege in México for a migrant labor camp in California. In this strange new place, Esperanza learns about strength, hope, and perseverance. A classic coming-of-age story brought to life by a cast of 10- to 18-year-olds.
Due to COVID-19, Esperanza Rising was performed outdoors without an audience with all actors wearing masks. Viewers could watch it on demand on line.
The scenery used the existing architecture to delineate distinct spaces for socially distant performers. Simple scenic elements shift the location from a hacienda in México to a camp in California.
In the background, lightweight gauze drops, evocative of agricultural fields and a distant sky, is animated by the wind in the outdoor venue. The lively scenery complements the energetic performances of the young actors and bring life to the video recording.
Scenic Design by Leigh Henderson
Teatro Visión (San José, CA), October 2020
An original Milagro Theater Día de Muertos production devised by Rebecca Martinez and the Milagro Theater Ensemble
Directed by Rodrigo García
In this hilarious, musical take on the afterlife, los muertitos (the dead) can’t wait to get back to earth on Día de Muertos and La Muerte can’t wait to finally have a day to relax! But when one soul isn’t ready to go back, everyone’s holiday is in danger!
Due to COVID-19, La Muerte Baila was performed outdoors without an audience with all actors wearing masks. The performance was recorded and available online and on local television.
Inspired by pre-Columbian architecture and sculpture, the scenery takes advantage of the existing architecture to transform an existing porch into the land of the dead. The colorful skulls honor the memory of lost loved ones, as on each one is written a name submitted by community members.
Projections and Puppet Design by Leigh Henderson
Teatro Visión (San José, CA), January 2020
Written and directed by Cristal González Avila
Luz: A Shadow Play Inspired by Senior Stories is an original work, created by Cristal González Avila and Teatro Visión based on real stories gathered from seniors and elders in the San José Latinx community. Performed in silhouette by three actors behind a collapsible screen using transparencies and an overhead projector, Luz is a portable performance piece designed to travel to schools, senior centers, and other community venues.
Inspired by the style of Latinx activist artists like Maya Gonzalez and Adriana M. Garcia, the projected images support the stories told by the actors and generate a space of living memories.
Scenic Design by Leigh Henderson
Teatro Visión (San José, CA), October 2019
Adapted for the stage by Evelina Fernández and Teatro Visión
Directed by Rodrigo García
Macario, originally a novel by B. Traven, was adapted into a 1960 film, the first Mexican film to be nominated for an Academy Award. Teatro Visión premiered its original stage adaptation in 2013 with a script by Evelina Fernández and original music by Russell Rodríguez.
Set in the Viceregal era in Mexico, the story features three spirits who prompt a poor man (Macario) to reflect on his choices when he comes into the fortune of a full turkey to eat. The story is set in old Mexico, but its themes of inequity, sacrifice, and dreams of a better life are just as relevant in the U.S. today.
This set is a redesign, incorporating and building upon elements of Leigh’s set designs for the 2014, 2015, and 2016 productions of Macario. Inspired by the stark cinematography by Gabriel Figueroa for the film Macario, the scenery works with contrasting texture and negative space to highlight the contrasting social environments of the play and to provide a palette for the vibrant lighting design by Paul Skelton. The modular scenic elements facilitate the fluid spatial transitions demanded by the cinematic quality of the narrative.
Scenic Design by Leigh Henderson
Teatro Visión (San José, CA), World Premiere October 2018
By Evelina Fernández with Teatro Visión
Directed by Elisa Marina Alvarado
Departera is an original work created by Teatro Visión with playwright Evelina Fernández and composer Russell Rodríguez through a 2-year community based process that drew upon the stories and beliefs of the Bay Area Latinx community.
Departera centers on Doña Juana. She is like a midwife (a partera), but instead of bringing babies into this world, she helps the dying move on. As she trains her young protégé, Connie, she also comes to grips with her own past and future. Departera is a story full of humor, profoundly contemporary, yet informed by indigenous beliefs.
Departera’s scenery is inspired by the architecture of east San José’s Mayfair neighborhood and the Teotihuacan murals of México. The shape conveys the intertwining of this life with the next and facilitates travel and communication across the barriers of life and death.
Scenic and Projection Design by Leigh Henderson
Teatro Visión (San José, CA), May 2018
Adapted for the stage by Amy Ludwig
from The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
Directed by Wilma Bonet
The House on Mango Street is the classic coming-of-age story of 12-year-old Esperanza growing up on Chicago’s Mango Street, but dreaming of a bigger world. The story unfolds through a series of vignettes narrated by a pair of Esperanzas - one a child experiencing in the moment, the other an adult looking back on her formative youth.
Teatro Visión’s The House on Mango Street was performed by young actors age 12 to 18, the first play with a youth cast in the history of a theater company more than three decades old. The set design embraces the possibilities of working with a youth cast while succeeding within the financial constraints of new program produced by a theater company of profound ambition but modest means.
The modular set design and vibrant colors facilitate the joyous and imaginative physical performance characteristic of children, functioning both as a representation of the urban environment and as a manifestation of Esperanza’s quick mind and memory. The cloudscape painted on the stage floor offers the sense of a dream, evoking openness and possibility in contrast to the skyline of Chicago projected overhead, which serves as both a reminder of the oppressive urban backdrop of Esperanza’s experiences and a surface on which to project Spanish language translations.
Scenic, Lighting, Projections, and Costume Design by Leigh Henderson
San Jose City College Theater Arts (San José, CA), November 2017
Directed by Leyla Modirzadeh
Part of the global Climate Change Theatre Action Project, Hot Mess was comprised of a series of short plays on climate change, in various styles, from playwrights around the world. These plays were selected and arranged into a full-length evening of theater by Leigh Henderson and the director, Leyla Modirzadeh, along with the cast and crew of San José City College students. The production process also included consultation with San José City College science faculty and tours of their laboratories and specimens.
Hot Mess was a truly collaborative theater project, molded for and by the unique and diverse strengths of the San José City College students who participated in the production. Reflecting the diverse student body of San José City College, these students represented a range of racial, cultural, educational, professional, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Examples of aspects of the production created for the specific strengths of individual students include a piece performed in a student’s native language with projected English translations and a piece performed in the persona of gospel preacher, reflecting the background of the student actor and featuring costumes and props designed and created by the student performer.
The overall shape of the scenery, composed of overlapping layers of translucent gauze, evokes melting icecaps. As projections, both front and rear, pass through the multiple layers of scenery, the images deteriorate, evoking the ongoing losses of climate change and allowing for interactions between performers and projections, as performers move between the layers. In the background, a life size polar bear replica lurks silently, scrutinizing and evaluating.
Scenic Design by Leigh Henderson
Teatro Visión (San José, CA), October 2016
Adapted for the stage by Evelina Fernández and Teatro Visión
Directed by Rodrigo García
Macario, originally a novel by B. Traven, was adapted into a 1960 film, the first Mexican film to be nominated for an Academy Award. Teatro Visión premiered its original stage adaptation in 2013 with a script by Evelina Fernández and original music by Russell Rodríguez.
Set in the Viceregal era in Mexico, the story features three spirits who prompt a poor man (Macario) to reflect on his choices when he comes into the fortune of a full turkey to eat. The story is set in old Mexico, but its themes of inequity, sacrifice, and dreams of a better life are just as relevant in the U.S. today
This production is a remount of Leigh’s design, originally for the 2014 production of Macario. A flexible, hinged arched wall evokes the period architecture of the region while allowing the stage space to be re-shaped to accommodate the numerous locations called for in the script. Multiple textures emphasize the divisions between upper class and lower class environments and provide a palette for the vibrant lighting design by Paul Skelton.
Lighting Design by Leigh Henderson
San José City College Dance (San José, CA), May 2016
The San José City College Dance program covers a spectrum of dance styles and serves students with a broad spectrum of dance experience and goals. The annual spring dance concert, choreographed by the San José City College dance faculty, provides students with performance experience in the context of their development process as athletes and artists.
The goal of the lighting design is to celebrate and support these dancers' development. The lighting elevates the visual impact of the performance and gives the dancers a sample of a professional rehearsal and performance environment, within the strict constraints of the dance program timeline, which allows only for minimal investments of time (around 20 minutes to write light cues for each dance number) and money (approximately $0).
Scenic, Lighting, and Costume Design by Leigh Henderson
San José City College Theatre Arts (San José, CA), April 2016
Adapted for the stage by Tim Kelly
from the story by Nikolai Gogol
Directed by Leyla Modirzadeh
Adapted from the classic tale by Nikolai Gogol, The Overcoat follows the clerk Akaky Akakyevich as he first gains and then loses a fine new overcoat.
This production took a whimsical approach to a story fraught with isolation and despair, using broad characters, physical comedy, and gimmicky props to appeal to young audiences.
In addition to the dramatic translucent paper coat backdrop, the set featured deep pits on either side of the apron from which unexpected props leapt up and down. Actors wearing box fans and throwing fake snow were used to create blizzards, while stiff cardboard coats inspired by Constructivism generated stylized movements.
The Person of Consequence, the play’s symbol of callous and intractable bureaucracy, is portrayed as a huge pair of pants, his importance and self-regard conveyed through his sheer mass and bearing. The pants motif is carried through the scenery as well, with rows of pants arrayed along the edges of the stage and along the aisles of the house, creating a suffocating army of bureaucrats with minimal effort and expense within the limitations of the San José City College Theatre Arts department.
Lighting Design by Leigh Henderson
San José City College Dance (San José, CA), November 2015
The San José City College Dance program covers a spectrum of dance styles and serves students with a broad spectrum of dance experience and goals. The annual fall dance concert features the work of student choreographers.
The lighting design is driven by the vision of student choreographers. In 20-minute cue writing sessions, Leigh assisted the students to use the elements of the rep plot to bring their ideas to life.
Scenic, Lighting, Projections, and Costume Design by Leigh Henderson
San José City College Theatre Arts (San José, CA), November 2015
By Caryl Churchill
Directed by Leyla Modirzadeh
With 57 short scenes and over 100 characters, Love and Information examines our age of information overload, dwindling attention span, and multi-tasking to the point of losing our ability to truly connect with each other.
The script only provides titles and lines of text with no indication of character or setting, so producing Love and Information in a community college theater department allowed students to use their own imaginations to create context for each scene. The process was a true collaboration between Leigh, director Leyla Modirzadeh, and the student cast and crew.
The creative approach to the production embraced the play’s exploration of the shape of information and of obstacles to communication through playful props, multiple media, and bold physical choices. The high-energy comedic performance included belly dancing, tap dancing, conversations between puppets, lines delivered on cartoon speech bubbles by an actor with tape over his mouth, a ping pong match, beach balls, helium balloons, bubble blowing, scenes performed simultaneously, and bright red clown noses.
The performance space has been reoriented, placing the audience on stage. Between the looming ghostly silhouettes, which surround the audience as well as the stage space, the audience can see the empty seats of the theater. Using to the full the possibilities of the space, actors moved between empty theater seats, climbed backstage ladders, packed themselves into set pieces, and zoomed around and between audience sections on a razor scooter.
Scenic Design by Leigh Henderson
Teatro Visión (San José, CA), October 2015
Adapted for the stage by Evelina Fernández and Teatro Visión
Directed by Rodrigo García
Macario, originally a novel by B. Traven, was adapted into a 1960 film, the first Mexican film to be nominated for an Academy Award. Teatro Visión premiered its original stage adaptation in 2013 with a script by Evelina Fernández and original music by Russell Rodríguez.
Set in the Viceregal era in Mexico, the story features three spirits who prompt a poor man (Macario) to reflect on his choices when he comes into the fortune of a full turkey to eat. The story is set in old Mexico, but its themes of inequity, sacrifice, and dreams of a better life are just as relevant in the U.S. today
This production is a remount of Leigh’s design, originally for the 2014 production of Macario. A flexible, hinged arched wall evokes the period architecture of the region while allowing the stage space to be re-shaped to accommodate the numerous locations called for in the script. Multiple textures emphasize the divisions between upper class and lower class environments and provide a palette for the vibrant lighting design by Paul Skelton.
Performance by Leigh Henderson and Kristin Hunt
Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space (June 2015)
This performance was staged by Leigh and collaborator Kristin Hunt as part of the Makers Exhibition at the 2015 Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space. Examining the intersection between the worlds of theatre, drama and food design, the Makers Exhibition invited scenographers to design their theatrical food and dining experience in front of an audience in order to explore not only the design of food itself, but also the way it is prepared, presented, shared and played out.
Leigh and Kristin restaged two of their previous edible dramaturgy performances, Woyzeck (2013) and Miss Julie (2014). Guests were presented parallel, five-course tasting menus that led them through Woyzeck’s increasing madness and Miss Julie’s sexual surrender through the scent, taste, and texture of the food. While this service was ongoing, the artists prepared the final offering, which concluded and united the two menus – pea cake balls with garlic marshmallow centers. The process incorporated the sounds of food preparation – blenders, mixers, and buzzing timers – as well as the scent of baking and the sight of the food at various stages of preparation. In these numerous sensory juxtapositions – formal service and noisy kitchen, finished dishes and disparate components, sweet tastes and savory ingredients, and menus inspired by desire and by madness – participants experienced physically some of the irreconcilable tension of discipline and chaos inherent in the texts of both Woyzeck and Miss Julie.
Scenic, Lighting, Projections, and Costume Design by Leigh Henderson
San José City College Theatre Arts (San José, CA), April 2015
By José Rivera
Directed by Dennis Sloan
José Rivera’s Sonnets for an Old Century is a series of monologues, spoken by characters newly deceased – final attempts to communicate ideas, stories, and lives that have never been fully heard. They find themselves in a place of waiting that is, at the same time, a place of transition and transportation, as well as of communication.
The scenery and lighting is informed by liminal spaces like hospital waiting rooms, highway underpasses, warehouses, train stations, tent cities, and, of course, theaters.
In the twenty first century, a question of communication is necessarily a question of technology. Recorded or live, audio or video, face-to-face or mediated, life-sized or amplified, literal or abstract, how do technological manipulations amplify or diminish these messages shouted out from death to life? The television and video screens embedded in the scenery flatten as they enlarge, simplify as they multiply, echo as they contradict the live actors, converting live theatrical communication into a dispersed yet immersive experience.
Scenic, Lighting, and Costume Design by Leigh Henderson
San José City College Theatre Arts (San José, CA), April 2014
By Craig Lucas
Directed by Dennis Sloan
Reckless follows the strange journey of Rachel, who flees into the night one Christmas Eve when her husband confesses that he has hired a hit man to kill her. In the fractured and idiosyncratic narrative, Rachel meets series of enigmatic characters, attempts psychotherapy, wins a game show, re-connects with her husband, and survives a murder.
The design draws on imagery of hospitals, therapists’ offices, and pillows and bedding to create a space that emphasizes power dynamics, allows for numerous locations, and reflects Rachel’s fracturing sanity.
Scenic and Lighting Design by Leigh Henderson
Pea tasting menu by Kristin Hunt and Leigh Henderson
University Theatre, University of Wisconsin - Madison (Madison, WI), March 2013
By Georg Büchner
Directed by Kristin Hunt
Inspired by circuses, sideshows, and contrasts between the organic and the mechanical, the stage space of Woyzeck brought the audience onto the stage and facilitated interactions between audience and actors. Lighting of unconventional colors and angles emphasized Woyzeck’s powerlessness and confusion.
Over the course of the play, the audience was served a tasting menu of pea-flavored items, reflecting the title character’s exclusive diet of peas. The tasting menu began with a single pea and included pea flavored gum, pea flavored soda, and pea flavored jello. At the end of the play, the corpse of Woyzeck’s murdered lover Marie was lowered from the ceiling. This corpse had been decorated using cake decorating techniques and materials and contained pea flavored cake balls in its open chest cavity. As the audience filed out of the theater, they were invited to take a cake ball from the corpse.
“The production's design elements (Christa Lewandowski's costumes and Leigh Henderson's production design) are also critical. This is a bleak, edgy story that is also quite spare in its narrative. With an aesthetic that mixes Weimar German cabaret, carnivals, steampunk and industrial elements and even a dash of bondage gear, Woyzeck leaves a memorable visual impression.” - Jennifer A. Smith, Isthmus
Scenic Design by Leigh Henderson
Teatro Visión (San José, CA), January 2009
By Victor Hugo Rascón Banda
Directed by Elisa Marina Alvarado
The Woman Who Fell From the Sky is inspired by the real life story of Rita Quintero, a Tarahumara woman who, speaking only her native language, was misdiagnosed with schizophrenia and confined to an insane asylum, unable to communicate with her doctors.
The ritualized round stage space marries the stark aesthetic of the asylum with the natural textures of Quintero’s native land. A projection screen, stretching from edge to edge like a horizon, allows for fluid changes of the space as the story moves from the asylum to Quintero’s memories.
Scenic Design by Leigh Henderson
Los Lupeños de San José (San Jose, CA), May 2008
Directed by Tony Ferrigno
This concert by Los Lupeños de San José, one of California’s oldest and most prestigious folklórico dance companies, celebrated Mother’s Day with a series of traditional and contemporary dances from various regions of México.
Minimal scenic elements set the stage for the different regions without interfering with the stage space needed by the dancers. The entire space is framed by a collage of oversized photos, provided by the dancers of Los Lupeños de San José, of their own mothers and grandmothers, creating a very personal space for the dancers and for their family and friends in the audience.
Scenic Design by Leigh Henderson
Teatro Visión (San José, CA), October 2007
By Evangeline Ordaz
Directed by Elisa Marina Alvarado
Visitor’s Guide to Arivaca (Map Not to Scale) unfolds through a series of vignettes on both sides of the border between Arizona, United States and Sonora, México, exploring conflicting perspectives on immigration.
The scenery highlights the desert itself, which shapes the life experience of all the characters in the play. Above the stage, panels with lights create a night sky that shows the different faces of the desert at different times of day.
“Fuchsia and orange rays dance high in the sky above the desert in “Visitor’s Guide to Arivaca (Map Not to Scale).” Leigh Henderson’s set design for the borderlands between Mexico and Arizona, a desolate expanse sculpted in sand and rock, lit by a sun of gold silk, would be a thing of sublime beauty. If only the epic that plays out upon it were not so heart-wrenching.” - Karen D’Souza, San José Mercury News
Scenic and Lighting Design and Production Management by Leigh Henderson
Rocky Mountain Repertory Theatre (Grand Lake, CO), June 2005
Music by Richard Rodgers
Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
Directed by Jeff Duke
A Grand Night for Singing is a musical review of the work of Rodgers and Hammerstein.
The soft blue drapery encompassing the stage allows the lighting to create dramatic color changes. Art deco inspired light fixtures incorporated on and above the stage create an atmosphere of magic and romance.
Because summer shows at Rocky Mountain Rep run in rotating repertory, the scenery is designed to be struck easily after each performance.
Scenic and Lighting Design and Production Management by Leigh Henderson
Rocky Mountain Repertory Theatre (Grand Lake, CO), September 2004
Written and originally directed by Ted Swindley
Directed by Alex Chrestopolis
Drawing on the look of country western bars and the Grand Ole Opry, the scenery and lighting for Always … Patsy Cline embraces the show’s unabashed kitsch and sentimentalism.
Scenic and Lighting Design and Production Management by Leigh Henderson
Rocky Mountain Repertory Theatre (Grand Lake, CO), June 2004
By Stuart Ross
Directed by Timothy Baker
Set in a space between life and death, Forever Plaid is the posthumous concert of a 50s quartet which has just been killed in a car wreck on their way to their first big gig.
The set and lighting establish a space of both transition and magic, featuring a big reveal at the end when the dropcloths around the proscenium are whisked away to unveil huge plaid light boxes.
Because summer shows at Rocky Mountain Rep run in rotating repertory, the scenery is designed to be struck easily after each performance.
Scenic Design by Leigh Henderson
Teatro Visión (San José, CA), May 2004
By Roy Conboy
Directed by Wilma Bonet
This one man show takes us into the memory of a Chicano reliving his teen years in the 1970s as he navigates romance and the wartime draft in his cool car.
The flexible space puts the car itself front and center, supported by a rear projection screen that can show everything from locations to memories to scene titles to the toll of the Vietnam dead.
Scenic and Lighting Design and Production Management by Leigh Henderson
Rocky Mountain Repertory Theatre (Grand Lake, CO), June 2003
Book and lyrics by Marsha Norman
Music by Lucy Simon
Directed by Anna Antaramian
Working within the confines of a very small stage, this set combines interior and exterior and creates a mini labyrinth of platforms that the young cast members can scamper over and under, firmly establishing the experience of the children as the heart of the story.
Because summer shows at Rocky Mountain Rep run in rotating repertory, the scenery is designed to be struck easily after each performance.
Scenic and Lighting Design and Production Management by Leigh Henderson
Rocky Mountain Repertory Theatre (Grand Lake, CO), June 2003
Book by Joseph Stein
Music by Jerry Bock
Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick
Directed by Skelly Warren
Drawing on the style of Marc Chagall, this scenery for Fiddler on the Roof creates a village in a small space with a few carefully chosen elements – a door, a series of windows, a roofline, a stone wall. Illuminated stars hover overhead and tie the space together.
Because summer shows at Rocky Mountain Rep run in rotating repertory, the scenery is designed to be struck easily after each performance.
Lighting Design by Leigh Henderson
Theatre Rhinoceros (San Francisco, CA), March 2003
By Kate Bornstein
Directed by Russell Blackwood
By pioneering gender non-binary playwright Kate Bornstein, Strangers in Paradox is a darkly comedic exploration of serial killers Casey and the Kidd, based on Bornstein’s own life experiences.
The harsh lighting, often in unexpected colors and from unconventional sources, accentuates the unabashed violence of the narrative.
Scenic Design by Leigh Henderson
Teatro Visión (San José, CA), March 2003
By Oliver Mayer
Directed by Karen Amano
Set in “Burbank, California, 1942-44, and the land of movie idols,” Conjunto centers on California farm workers of Japanese, Mexican, and Filipino descent during the disgraceful time of Japanese internment camps.
Inspired by aerial photographs of California farmland, the rural scenes suggest the vastness of the agricultural landscape in contrast to the oppressive claustrophobia of the urban scenes, created through a vast textured backdrop covered in propaganda posters. Huge posters of Mexican movie stars hover like deities over the scene.
Scenic and Lighting Design and Production Management by Leigh Henderson
Rocky Mountain Repertory Theatre (Grand Lake, CO), June 2002
Book by Dale Wasserman
Music by Mitch Leigh
Lyrics by Joe Darion
Directed by Skelly Warren
Maximizing a very small stage, the scenery for Man of La Mancha includes climbable steel frameworks, a well that opens into the crawl space under the stage, and a ship’s ladder that descends like a drawbridge. At the climax of the show, light reveals the stone textured back wall to contain a dramatic stained glass image of a knight on horseback.
Because summer shows at Rocky Mountain Rep run in rotating repertory, the scenery is designed to be struck easily after each performance.
Scenic Design and Scenic Art by Leigh Henderson
San Francisco Shakespeare Festival (San Francisco, CA), December 2001
Directed by Allen McKelvey
The scenery for this panto-style fairy tale features dramatic scale; vibrant, child-like colors; and whimsical perspective.
“The cartoonish elements that take ‘Cinderella’ over the top visually are costumer Derek Sullivan’s oversized royal chapeaus, with crowns the size of footstools, and Leigh Henderson’s stylized sets with skewed perspectives and Crayola-bright colors.” – The San Francisco Examiner
Scenic and Lighting Design and Production Management by Leigh Henderson
Rocky Mountain Repertory Theatre (Grand Lake, CO), June 2001
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by James Lapine
Directed by Anna Antaramian
Each of the two acts of this musical fairy tale mashup begins in front of a set of oversized storybook illustrations, which are torn down to reveal the mysterious forest, made of crooked, cylindrical trees, eerily illuminated from the inside. In the second act, after the giant’s intrusion, many of the trees lie felled on the stage, creating perches and obstacles for the characters to work around.
Because summer shows at Rocky Mountain Rep run in rotating repertory, the scenery is designed to be struck easily after each performance.
Scenic and Lighting Design and Production Management by Leigh Henderson
Rocky Mountain Repertory Theatre (Grand Lake, CO), June 2001
By Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey
Directed by Skelly Warren
Drawing on the style of Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns and incorporating yearbook images from the 1950s, this scenery creates a vibrant, playful space reflecting the youth and energy of the characters.
Because summer shows at Rocky Mountain Rep run in rotating repertory, the scenery is designed to be struck easily after each performance.
Scenic Design and Scenic Art by Leigh Henderson
San Francisco Shakespeare Festival (San Francisco, CA), February 2001
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Russell Blackwood
This set for a school tour production of Twelfth Night consisted of a frame supporting a series of three drops in the style of Renaissance maps and woodcuts.
Scenic and Lighting Design and Production Management by Leigh Henderson
Rocky Mountain Repertory Theatre (Grand Lake, CO), June 2000
By Rupert Holmes
Directed by Anna Antaramian
The shape of the space creates numerous possibilities for levels, isolation, and concealment. The stone angel hanging overhead dramatically evokes the specter of the grave.
Because summer shows at Rocky Mountain Rep run in rotating repertory, the scenery is designed to be struck easily after each performance.
Scenic and Lighting Design and Production Management by Leigh Henderson
Rocky Mountain Repertory Theatre (Grand Lake, CO), June 1999
Book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner
Music by Frederick Loewe
Directed by Skelly Warren
This whimsical take on My Fair Lady interweaves interior with exterior and rich with poor using the imagery of M.C. Escher.
Because summer shows at Rocky Mountain Rep run in rotating repertory, the scenery is designed to be struck easily after each performance.
Lighting Design by Leigh Henderson
Carnegie Mellon School of Drama (Pittsburgh, PA), May 1998
By Pearl Cleage
Directed by Tiffany Trent
Flyin’ West embraces the story of a family of African-American women homesteading in Kansas in 1898, as they face the challenges of frontier life, racism, and domestic violence.
The lighting design plays with warm and cool white light, evoking natural light sources like candlelight and moonlight. The simplicity of the lighting design complements the translucent photorealistic scrim portraits that pay tribute to the real women who inspired the play’s characters.
Scenic Design by Leigh Henderson
Carnegie Mellon School of Drama (Pittsburgh, PA), February 1998
By Steve Gooch
Directed by Ingrid Sonnichsen
Set in the 19th century, Female Transport follows a group of women, convicted of petty crimes, being taken on a ship to a British penal colony in what is now Australia.
The central platform confines the women to a small space, in contrast to the wide expanse of the beams above. A slight curve at the edge of the platform subtly evokes the shape of a ship. At the end of the play, as the ship reaches its destination, the large sails in the back of the set fall, revealing the open expanse that awaits them.
