Production Designer | Tauziehen

My main theme for the entire audition room was that it is also used as a music classroom when auditions weren't taking place.  I made up the details for a fun music teacher in my head and designed the whiteboards based around what she would put up.

The first whiteboard I made into a "bulletin board for the class: "today's date," reminders for the students, A Piece of Classical Music A Day, classroom schedule/monthly calendar, audition schedule, and posters for music events at the school.

For the second whiteboard in the center, I figured that my amazing imaginary music teacher would write a fun message on her board to welcome the auditionees coming to her classroom for auditions. She welcomes reminds them to drink water and take a deep breath!

On the third and final whiteboard I kept it simple but meaningful: thin black tape for music staffs, large poster for fake music event, old pieces of sheet music and a quote that our director Liz thought of as an overall theme for the content/aesthetic.

In Tauziehen, there is this fantasy world that comes about during the tug of war moment. Me and my director decided to get giant red curtains to cover the whiteboard/wall in these scenes. We also decided to change the actors costumes into a full suit and long dress as if they were performing in Carnegie Hall, contrasting with what they wore in the audition room.

For the "normal world" along with the whiteboards, I added a large poster of the New England Conservatory logo as that was where the audition in the scene was taking place.

I was also in charge of props for the shoot, which included music binders for the two main actors and multiple papers and folders for the judges.