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Please check back for updates on Festival 2025!

Both realized and non-realized/paper projects are eligible to be considered for National Selection.

Are you interested in collaboration? Design Storm is your opportunity to collaborate with new people from across the region at our Annual Festival. Directors, designers, and dramaturgs from different schools are teamed up to create the production of their dreams in a timed collaborative event, where participants from all areas have the opportunity to approach a classic or contemporary text in a way that is unlike all previous productions.

Scripts and Librettos are pulled from the same list used for the Regional Design Projects and additionally include the opportunity to work with a playwright on an unpublished play.

Any designer planning to enter a Regional Design Project should keep this in mind when selecting their top three play choices for Design Storm. We encourage students to choose plays different from the one used for their Design Project.

 

    Regional Design Project List of Plays

    Classical

    Tartuffe by Moliere by Richard Wilbur

     

    Musical

    The Wiz book by William F. Brown - Music by George Faison, Timothy Graphenreed, Charlie Smalls, Luther Vandross, Harold Wheeler - Lyrics by Charlie Smalls, Luther Vandross, Zachary Walzer

     

    Modern Classic

    An Enemy of the People adapted by Arthur Miller from Ibsen

     

    Modern

    The Cripple of Inishmaan by Martin McDonagh

     

    BIPOC Playwrights

    By the Way, Meet Vera Stark by Lynn Nottage (also female identifying playwright) 

     

    Female Identifying Playwrights

    The Last Daughter by Rachel Luann Strayer - Available through the New Play Exchange (https://newplayexchange.org/)

     

    LGBTQ+

    Perfect Arrangement by Topher Payne

    Coming soon!

    Design Storm Registration Form

    REGISTER NOW
    • The DTM Chair and/or Design Storm Coordinator will organize the registrants into teams comprised of as many of the following as the registration allows: director, dramaturg, designers (lighting, sound, scenic, costume, make-up) and using members from as many different schools as possible.
    • By mid December each individual will be informed, by email, about their production team position and the play they will be working on for this event.
    • Participants will not be informed of who their teammates are until the introductory meeting at the Festival.
    • Read the script or libretto chosen.
    • Do general research and script analysis related to the play and your production responsibility.

    Design Storm Schedule at the Festival

    Detailed schedules with times will be sent to participants with the assignment email in mid December.

    Introductory meeting (mandatory) in the Design Storm room.
     

    • Team members will meet for 1 hour for introductions, initial conceptual discussions, and to set a schedule for the following days.
    • Expectations will be delineated by the Design Storm Coordinator.

    Each director is required to turn in a concept statement (one typed page) via email to the Design Storm Coordinator.

    • Each team will be provided with a 4′ wide x 8′ high panel to post their conceptual write-ups, drawings, swatches, images, and whatever the team deems appropriate to communicate the concept of the play.
    • Each team will present their materials to their Directing, Dramaturgy, and Design Respondents.
    • There will be approximately 7 minutes for each team to present their idea and approximately 15 minutes for discussion with the respondents.
    • Each team can choose how their team will present the material.
    • After the Introductory Meeting, each team is allowed 6 hours to meet prior to the designated presentation rehearsal on Saturday morning.
    • A meeting is defined by any time 2 or more team members are discussing ideas about the project.
    • Individuals may continue to work on their own outside the allotted meeting hours to conceive your own ideas, gather research, or prepare your portion of the presentation.

    Descriptions of Individual Assignments

    for Collaborative Teams

    Director

    You have total freedom as auteur director to develop the production intention/concept however you would like. Since you know the text and have a good idea what it is about, choose a new or different way of presenting it on stage than that of anything previous. Think of what message you would like to communicate to an audience and how you will use your production to accomplish this.

    What is the “spine” of the written text?

    Given this, describe your directorial intention for the production. With these two pieces of information, and working with your dramaturg, prepare remarks for your designers

    Dramaturg

    You will be working on a classic or contemporary text. Given the mission of theatre to produce classical plays in innovative ways, focus your pre-directorial research on approaches that would make this production unlike any others previous. Having collected pertinent production history and socio-cultural context information, generate a “Letter to the Director”/ “Talking Points” that will push the director and designers towards innovation.

    Lighting Designer

    As the lighting designer you will work with the production team on this play. Prepare your own thoughts on mood, tone, and style before the first production meeting. Given the outcomes of this first meeting:

    Consult with the other designers, dramaturg, and director to come up with a “key scene” in the play and prepare an initial series of images or a collage that articulates how you see the color and effect for that scene. Light sketches of the key scenes, hand-drawn or CAD generated (ie: Virtual Light Lab) for final looks should be part of the final presentation Be prepared to further discuss how your scene illustrates not only your ideas but also the production intention/concept.

    Costume Designer

    As the costume designer you will work with the production team on this play. Prepare your own thoughts on mood, tone, and style before the first production meeting. Given the outcomes of this first meeting:

    Consult with the other designers, dramaturg, and director to come up with a “key scene” in the play and prepare renderings for two main characters in that scene. Be sure to incorporate your ideas regarding color, fabrics, and movement into your presentation. Be prepared to further discuss how the design illustrates not only your ideas but also the production intention/concept.

    Sound Designer

    As the sound designer you will work with the production team on this play. Prepare your own thoughts on mood, tone, and style before the first production meeting. Given the outcomes of this first meeting:

    Consult with the other designers, dramaturg, and director to come up with a “key scene” in the play and prepare sound samples for that scene. Be sure to incorporate your ideas regarding environmental sounds, mood enhancement, speaker placement, amplification, and any ideas that you would need to work out with the director and designers. Be prepared to further discuss how the design illustrates not only your ideas for the sound, but also the production intention/concept.

    As the lighting designer you will work with the production team on this play. Prepare your own thoughts on mood, tone, and style before the first production meeting. Given the outcomes of this first meeting:

    Consult with the other designers, dramaturg, and director to come up with a “key scene” in the play and prepare an initial series of images or a collage that articulates how you see the color and effect for that scene. Light sketches of the key scenes, hand-drawn or CAD generated (ie: Virtual Light Lab) for final looks should be part of the final presentation Be prepared to further discuss how your scene illustrates not only your ideas but also the production intention/concept.

    Scene Designer

    As the scene designer you will work with the production team on this play. Prepare your own thoughts on mood, tone, and style before the first production meeting. Given the outcomes of this first meeting:

    Consult with the other designers, dramaturg, and director to come up with a “key scene” in the play and prepare initial sketches then a basic ground plan and rendering or “found object” model of the set. Be prepared to further discuss how the design illustrates not only your ideas but also the production intention/concept

    Make-Up Designer

    As the make-up designer you will work with the production team on this play. Prepare your own thoughts on mood, tone, and style before the first production meeting. Given the outcomes of this first meeting:

    Consult with the other designers, dramaturg, and director to come up with a “key scene” in the play and prepare renderings for two main characters in that scene. Be sure to incorporate your ideas regarding color, form, and emphasis into your presentation. Be prepared to further discuss how the design illustrates not only your ideas but also the production intention/concept.