Theatre preview: Plan-B Theatre Company's Full Color 

• Courtesy Photo

The behind-the-scenes crew at a theater are not visible to the audience, but they play crucial roles in helping the production come together, even if they aren't stars of the show. Scenic designer Janice Chan and lighting designer Emilio Casillas shared their experiences working on Plan-B Theatre Company's upcoming production Full Color, which features monologues from BIPOC individuals in Utah.

Chan, the resident scenic designer for Plan-B, has been with them since 2021, starting with the show The Clean-Up Project. Elaborating on her role as a scenic designer, Chan emphasizes the importance of storytelling through scenery.

"Usually, the design process happens three to six months in advance, right prior to each of the shows," Chan explains. "My role as a scenic designer is to tell a story through scenery, so through objects that you see on a stage, and that is one part of the storytelling process. I will start with a meeting with the director and all the producers, if they're available, and we'll talk about the script, the story that they want to tell, and the playwright is also an active part of the production, so I'll get a chance to talk to them as well."

Lighting designer Casillas has been with Plan-B since 2018, and explains his role in designing lights as entirely pre-performance. "[I] first determine where they are hung in the theater, where they are focused on the stage, what color they are, etc," Casillas elucidated. "I then program the light board with each individual look."

It is a collaborative process with all designers—from scenery, lighting, costumes, sound, props and make-up—to ensure consistency and support the overall vision. It's the collaboration with technical directors, set builders and other team members that ultimately bring Chan's designs to life.

Chan explains her artistic process as starting "with ideas that I create with a director, then everything gets laid out like a set of design drawings. I draft all of my own designs using a CAD program called Vectorworks, then I pass off those drawings directly to the set builder to be built, according to my plans."

While the director will usually have a creative direction for the show and a message that they want to tell, Chan's designs support the overall vision while also containing her own artistic lens. For example, the monologues in Full Color are designed to feel intimate and relatable, with the setting resembling a camping trip. The set design includes a tent, string lights and actors sitting on logs and benches, to create that familiar and relatable atmosphere.

Chan emphasizes the importance of breaking the fourth wall and making the audience feel like part of the community. Including details like low-hanging string lights and the semi-circle seating arrangement further enhances the intimate, grounded feel of the show.

Casillas explains that Full Color "is interesting because we're not telling one story. We're telling eight different stories with eight different settings and moods, so my role in a project like this feels far more technical than it does artistic."

Specifically, Casillas directs the audience's focus to particular places on the stage, keeps the lighting unobtrusively shifting to avoid fatiguing the eyes of the audience, and gives subtle nods to where the action is occurring. However, he also employs artistic touches to reinforce and highlight the work of other designers by drawing attention to a stage radio where sound is sourced, choosing to light inside a tent to add depth to the overall set and adding tree silhouettes to pull together the scenic concept.

The specific design choices support the script's emphasis on the importance of community and personal stories, aiming to spark conversations and social change. Chan's incorporation of symbolism and social commentary into the scenic designs encourages audience reflection and dialogue in a play about Utahns by Utahns.

"It's a deeply personal experience that I think a lot of Utahns will be able to take something away from," Chan says.

Plan-B's Full Color runs Oct. 24 - Nov. 11 in the Studio Theatre at The Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center (138 W. 300 South). For ticket and full event information go to planbtheatre.org/fullcolor.

To see additional on Janice Chan's past and current projects, go to janicechan.design/scenic.