Set Projections for The Wizard of OZ.
The most recent show I got to work on set design for was a summer 2026 production of The Wizard of Oz at Chino Community Theatre. I worked in collaboration with Natalia Elizalde to produce digital backgrounds that would be projected onto stage flats for the show. I produced 6 scenic backgrounds as well as the design for the OZ head. I also produced 2 reusable prop assets as well as animated the OZ head and poppy fields blooming. Additionally I animated 4 backgrounds using assets and backgrounds drawn by my collaborator.
Together we also physically painted an arch set piece to look like a rainbow to hang above the stage as well as paint the set white to prepare it for the projections
Set Design for Peter Pan
& Lost Girls
I was approached by Chino Community Children’s theatre to be apart of the set design crew for two shows, Peter Pan and Lost Girls. I was co-set designer alongside my friend Natalia Elizalde. Together we concepted and painted the set for both shows. The challenge was that both shows were back to back, and the directors wanted a set that could be shared and used for both shows since they’re both stories about Peter Pan characters. We had to take into account both of their visions and create a set that could fit the vision and narrative of both shows. We had to design and paint 3 stage flats as well as a central window set piece and 10 prop blocks.
The Brief
The first step we took was meeting up together and discussing and sketching our preliminary ideas. The directors wanted to stray away from any overtly Disney imagery and steer towards visuals that were more inspired by the original Peter Pan story. The director for Lost Girls wanted a set that was primarily Wendy’s nursery, and that same nursey was to be in Peter Pan as well. The director for Peter Pan also wanted flats that could read as Neverland. She wanted Neverland to be jungle painted flats in addition to the nursery walls so that it could feel like the children transport from their room to Neverland. She also wanted prop blocks to be painted like the night sky. I started my exploration by thumbnailing the rough stage layout as well as some exploration of how I could illustrate the jungle flats. I also did some exploration of what the nursery window would look like as it was going to be a central narrative set piece in both shows. My original idea for the window had a star implemented in its design that would be a nod to the second star to the right that leads to Neverland. I went through three iterations of the rough set layout adding more complexity with each one as I was exploring.
Sketch Ideations
After my initial sketches, I moved on small mock up paintings in gouache to figure out how I would paint the flats. I painted one jungle mock up as well as a coastal Neverland mockup as the director at this point wanted one flat that would be an overview of Neverland and one that would be a jungle (this ended up changing in the end though). I wanted this one to be a view overlooking a Neverland beach with Captain Hook’s ship in view in the distance. I also painted mini mockups of the night sky block in two color variations to figure out what color night sky I wanted to do. Lastly I cut out and made a mockup of a concept for the nursery window. I went with a design that felt reminiscent of arched windows from the 1920’s, with the star motif being a central element, and a weathered teal blue color (my design does not make it to final end result but I still had fun creating the concept for it).
Small Painted Mock-ups
Set Painting & Final Outcome
The next step of the process was painting my designs onto the prop blocks and stage flats. I painted the prop blocks first as I was able to take those home before the set build day. I painted two with the night sky design and the rest were painted like children’s toy letter blocks to fit with the nursery setting. Me and my co set-designer worked on painting the set over the course of two weekends, one weekend for Lost Girls nursey and the second for adding the Neverland jungle flats for Peter Pan. The first weekend I painted one of the nursey flats with the striped pattern my co-designer had drafted as well as the coastal Neverland flat in preparation for the following weekend. In the end the director didn’t want the coastal view and instead wanted two jungle flats so I ended up painting my jungle design over the coastal view flat and my co-designer painted the other side of the flat inspired by my jungle design.
What I Learned
Doing this project was extremely rewarding. I learned a lot about working as a team with my co-designer and communicating ideas to create a cohesive end result. I also learned so much about working with parameters set by directors and taking their instruction and producing work that aligned with their vision for the show. It was also a rewarding process being able to work on a larger scale than I’m normally used to, and being able to take my designs and recreate them on full scale set. It’s a skill I was excited to adapt to and look forward to being able to do in the future. This process also provided me experience in starting over on something after putting time into it and being able to adapt and pivot to new project requirements.