Nicole Garcia Designs Sets during Summer Fellowship

2016 Aug 12

Nicole Garcia '17 is one of two Eastern Connecticut State University students working at a paid fellowship on campus this summer. During the three-week program, Garcia, a Theatre major from Newington, is designing sets for the upcoming production of "Two Gentlemen of Verona."

The Shakespearean rock musical, which will premiere at Eastern this coming February, takes place in three separate locations: the Italian cities of Verona and Milan, and a forest.

"I'm working on the designs now so they can start building the sets in November," said Garcia, who is building rough physical models in conjunction with digital models created on the architecture program "SketchUp."

The director of the musical, Theatre Professor David Pellegrini, has given Garcia rough guidelines - Verona should appear rustic and ancient in comparison to Milan, which will look sleek and modern.

"Other than that, it's free range," she said. "I hope he approves my design concept and rough models." Garcia has the added challenge of showing just enough to prove her concept, while not getting bogged down by time-consuming details.

Being one of the theatre program's major productions of the year, Garcia is feeling the pressure to succeed in this project. "Another challenge is to design these different structures that can be easily moved around during the show, and fit backstage when not needed," she said. "It's a problem I haven't yet solved."

Garcia will be able to rely on the Proscenium Theatre's new projection and lighting equipment to add nonphysical elements to the set.

As part of the fellowship requirements, Garcia is building a portfolio and writing a report about the project, which she will then present at conferences. This experience also directly relates to her career aspirations.

"I'm a theatre major with a concentration in technical design and management. If I could get a job designing sets and building models... well, that's my goal."