BRIDGETTE DENNETT

Design Approach

“Suppose within the girdle of these walls / Are now confined two mighty monarchies.”
For this production, the design team spent a lot of time discussing how we, as contemporary artists, tell the stories of notable figures from the past—flaws and all. As part of my research, I visited museums throughout the Washington, D.C. area and looked at how they presented historical figures within the context of the time in which they lived. From these conversations and research, we settled on the framing device of a large central dais surrounded by a ring, placing the characters almost as if they were historical figures on display. An enlarged map of the warring countries wraps the surrounding walls, placing their individual stories within the larger conflict unfolding around them.