FRUITING BODIES

MA-YI THEATER COMPANY

THE CLURMAN AT THEATER ROW

2019

In Sam Chanse’s new play, two daughters search for their mushroom-hunting dad in a foggy Northern California forest. They encounter a mysterious boy, who seems to have a connection to the mycelium of the forest. As the play goes on, and the characters get lost, the forest seems stranger and stranger. For Ma-Yi’s production at Theater Row’s intimate Clurman theater, our set was mostly stationary, but the trees did rotate using mechanisms driven from offstage, which created a creepy effect, revealing brightly colored lichens and silver streaks in the trees. A giant rock was supposed to be “the most comfortable rock in the world” a place where characters were regularly falling asleep, so we made it a bean bag dressed to look like the rest of the forest. For the end of the play, when the daugthers “see” the mushrooms all around them, we had tiny holes drilled in the deck, when backlit there was an entire constellation of "mushroom” dots of light in the forest floor. Sadly our original idea of a ramp in the back of the stage was nixed by Actors Equity, so it was replaced by stair like levels rising in the back, which had a hidden entrance/exit ramp behind.

Directed by Shelley Butler•Set Design Reid Thompson•Costume Design Sara Ryung Clement•Lighting Design Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew•Sound Design Kate Marvin•Photographs Carol Rosegg •Actors Kimiye Corwin, Emma Kikue, Jeffrey Omura, Thom Sesma