Pigeon Holed
O'Neill Puppetry Conference, performing at the West End Theatre (New York, NY)
Written by Annie Evans
Directed by Martin P. Robinson
January, 2006
Pigeon
Holed, an irreverent look at the world behind the scenes of a successful
children's television show, was written by 5-time Emmy winner Annie Evans and
directed by Martin P. Robinson, the creator of the puppets for the original
Little Shop of Horrors. Several of the human performers were cast
members of Sesame Street and other children's television shows.
Pigeon Holed shared a mixed-repertory program with pieces by Heather
Henson, Lindsey “Z” Briggs, Leslie Carrara-Rudolph, and others.
Anne Frank and Me
Directed by Damaris Webb
City Lights Youth Theatre, performing at theATA Chernuchin Theatre (New York, NY)
February, 2005
Shortly After Takeoff
Written and Directed by Stuart Warmflash
Harbor Theatre Company, performing at Altered Stages (New York, NY)March, 2006
The Great Divorce
Based on the novel by C.S. Lewis
Directed by George Drance
Magis Theatre CompanyTheatre 315 (New York, NY)
January, 2007
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What Makes Sammy Run?
Produced and Directed by Robert Armin
West End Theatre (New York, NY)January, 2006
"The lighting design by
Jeffrey E. Salzberg is a minor masterpiece of minimalism."
The Capital Mall
Written and Directed by Eric Jaimes
Steenstein Productions, LLCTheatre at St. Clemens (New York, NY)
May, 2005
The Gunslinger/Beaver Falls
Directed by Kathleen Keenan
Performed by Kim Bent
Lost Nation Theater (Montpelier, VT)January, 2003
In
January of 2003, Lost Nation Theater produced a double bill of
Gunslinger and Beaver Falls, two one-act, one-man plays in
verse, both with musical accompaniment.
The two plays, while similar in form, differ radically in both content and
style.
Gary Moore's Beaver Falls is a theatre noir piece relating the
stories of three residents of a small Pennsylvania town...their transgressions
and their redemption.
With minimal scenery, the lighting, along with the projected slides, bore the responsibility of establishing time and place, with scenes ranging from a midsummer parade down Main Street to the interior of a pool hall, where much of the action is set, to a rainy, lightning-illuminated late-evening sidewalk, where the play's climax occurs.
Brain Friel's Molly Sweeney examines the difference between "seeing"
and "understanding". The play is a series of monologues by Molly, a middle-aged
Irishwoman who has been blind since shortly after birth, her husband Frank, and
Mr. Rice, the doctor who restores her sight.
Gunslinger, on the other hand, is a surreal, comic-western romp, with
the taciturn title character, the naive tenderfoot, the madam with a heart of
gold, and a talking horse (who may or may not be the French anthropologist
Claude Levi-Strauss).
The play takes place over a 24-hour period (sunrise to sunrise). Unlike
Beaver Falls, the musician in Gunslinger is an integral part
of the action.
"...The lighting plot by Jeffrey E. Salzberg was an especial standout."
"Together with the stark staging and lighting, and smoky
atmosphere,
the unfolding of this tale was quite dramatic."
Mother Courage and Her Children
Lost Nation Theater (Montpelier, VT)
Directed by Andy Doe
May, 2004
Mother Courage photographs by Kim Bent
Plough the Earth Deep (Guest Artist)
Sam Houston State University (Huntsville, TX)
Directed by Thomas Fulton Soare
May, 1975
Molly Sweeney
Lost Nation Theater (Montpelier, VT)
Directed by Kim Bent
July, 2004
"The...pinpoint lighting by
Jeffrey Salzberg...contribute(s)
to making this a first-rate production."
Building upon the work of the scenic designer, the lighting designer
provided each of the three environments a window, either reinforcing the set or
creating the effect entirely with light, using these to contribute to the use of
"vision" as a metaphor. Through a series of subtle changes beginning in Act II,
the lighting became more and more stark, echoing the mood of the production,
until the end, where the lighting isolated the character in metaphor as she was
in life.
Molly Sweeney photographs by Kim Bent
Far East
Florida Studio Theatre, Main Stage (Sarasota, FL)
Directed by Victoria Holloway
July, 2000
Far East is A. R. Gurney's look at American sexual prejudices and morés.
Set at an American naval base in mid-50's Japan, the play parallels the stories of Bob, who is cashiered from the Navy for being homosexual, and Sparky, whose relationship with a Japanese woman
is only barely considered preferable ("They don't like heterosexuals either?").
The playwright borrows liberally from traditional Japanese theatre forms, including the use of "stagehands" (who are seen but never heard) and a character known only as
"The Reader", who provides narration as well as providing the dialogue for several characters, all from her position downstage right.
In keeping with the structure of the play, the lighting was sharply episodic, growing starker as the story progressed.
With an abstract set composed of white fabric panels and a painted Japanese landscape, the task of establishing time and place fell to the lighting designer. Locales ranged from various areas of the naval
base to the captain's quarters and a bar in Saigon. The whiteness of the set, as well as that of the naval uniforms worn throughout much of the play, was another challenge faced by the designer.
