Andrew Marchetti

Filament Theater Ensemble 2014 season needed a mobile set with a week turn around from Cyrano! to Lifeboat. I created a mobile set for Cyrano! that would be reconfigured to fit the scenic demands of the play, then secured to the stage deck for the purposes of Lifeboat. The result was both functional and stylized to fit both shows equally and efficiently. 

The main platform, complete with canolevered balcony, was able to move with as little as one cast member. The mobile stair unit was designed to nest flush against the main unit or be utilized on its own. Swordplay, multiple cast members and constant rearranging was all factored into the design for easy transitions and longevity.

The former furniture warehouse has an industrial feel that Filament embraces, including a wide brick wall which is a promanent feature in many productions. We used this to our advantage for Lifeboat. The set created the 'anywhere' space of an attic, a boat deck, a life boat, a rescue dingy, sleeping quarters and much more. The antique wood-brass-trunk-brick style is one of my favorites and was througly intigrated in this design.

I was tasked with creating 100+ origami seagulls, five different 'giant peaches', various puppets and props in a thematic story-page motif, as well as assist in blending the scenic design within the elements of the the show. The challenge was compounded by the fact that we only had a few weeks to bring the show from page to stage.

BoHo Theatre Company is a staple of the Chicago theatre scene and I have be very fortunate to work with them both on stage and off. A dark and complex world was needed in an incredibly intimate space, complete with 'climbable walls, high perches, and secret hiding spots' all in a forced perspective proscenium theater no bigger than a double garage. 

The space was meant to feel like a Spanish mission, with rust red tile floors, broken stucco, and various shutters both metaphorical and practical. Lighting Designer for the project was able to emphasize hight and depth quite well.

Gross Indecency was another BoHo Theatre production that required a simple yet important set which let the store unfold while still allowing for mystery and functionality. The multi-level set was heavily influenced by the Art Nouveau movement. Though primarily a courtroom, the scenic demands needed to portray a busy street front, a seductive bedroom, a classic theatre and various other locales. 

HoBo Junction has commissioned me for several productions. The key element in all of them revolve around HoBo Junctions nomadic nature. One of the highlights was the remount of the popular 1920's farce: Bad Guys in Suits. This production featured moving walls meant for integral shadow play, notorious locations, quick changes and vaudeville shenanigans. Not only did I direct, I also consulted on specialty costumes meant to replicate an oil drum, an arm chair and a mail box; period appropriate props and puppets of the disembodied nature.

Local Op-Ed avian commentator Chad the Bird began broadcasting from 'the crows nest' - the set had to be both durable, light weight and original to the overall themes that Chad would represent.

A fully functional practicing clinic of Chinese medicine modalities. This space is both masculine and feminine and specific attention was paid to invoke soothing colors, soft lighting, soundscapes, hints of elegance and with attention to reverence in avoiding any cultural appropriation. One exception is the use of 'Kintsugi' which is a thread representing both the Japanese practice of mending broken pottery back to use, and Christian themes of Moses as a leader of multiple nations, all to highlight themes of 'mosaic'

In order to create a curio cabinet that has 25 moving parts, including two rotating screens, placard inserts, trap doors, and even lighting effects, a scale model was created from cardboard and foamcore to identify the many physical needs, and the relevance to all the intermixing doors, traps, scrolls and lighting components.

A curio cabinet that has 25 moving parts, including two rotating screens, placard inserts, pop-ups, trap doors, and even lighting effects. The project goal was to evoke an sense of generational ancestry -- a case that has been passed down and cared for, with its secrets still intact. Made of light weight materials for the rotating cast of performers.

In early 2009, a concept pilot was created for a hybrid puppet/human internet show. A human roommate would finance the chaotic apartment filled with dysfunctional puppets. One of the goals was an intro inspired by 'Pee Wees Playhouse' where the credits would include a scale shooting model of the fictional two-flat housing the occupants. I created an elevational draft to identify the quirks of the two-flat prior to construction.

The model of 'Crash Pad' was built in 1:24 scale out of foamcore to achieve the pseudo realistic quality of a genuine Chicago two-flat. The creative team knew that the model should look both "like a model, and yet, give pause as if it were (or could be) a real location". The opening credit sequence would have leveraged trick photography to place the miniature at a distance from a real 'EL train' overpass in Chicago to sell the illusion.

The Crash Pad two-flat was inspired by real architecture, but had significant spatial requirements. An uncommonly prominent fire escape, an entry balcony, a bird roost on the roof, a garden window that would include practical lighting effects, and an overflowing dumpster were all part of the show concepts that would play into specific storylines. Everything was built from scratch including the window and door frames, and painted and distressed by hand.

Local celebrity Chad the Bird is spreading his wings and touring across the Mid-West. Puppet stages (or blinds) are usually soft materials based on curtain and rod installations, but the need for a more robust stage was required. Conversing with the creative team, themes of 80's pizza parlors and arcades, as well as Cel-shading was paramount. This design is unique in that the lighting surrounding the title placard is a functional chase sequence (controlled by the puppeteer as needed) and has locking doors and AV mounts behind.

Local celebrity Chad the Bird is spreading his wings and touring across the Mid-West. Puppet stages (or blinds) are usually soft materials based on curtain and rod installations, but the need for a more robust stage was required. Conversing with the creative team, themes of 80's pizza parlors and arcades, as well as Cel-shading was paramount. This design is unique in that the lighting surrounding the title placard is a functional chase sequence (controlled by the puppeteer as needed) and has locking doors and AV mounts behind.

Dickens: A Christmas Present is a projected immersive seasonal event for Dead Reckoning Theater Co. that is part haunted house, part immersion experience and part banquet and fundraiser in a fully realized world. Originally slated for an now defunct warehouse in the McKinley Park neighborhood, the entire set was designed out of the specificity for many navigable rooms, halls and secret passageways. The climax of the evening would end in a grand banquet hall for canapes and cocktails. With a faux Victorian façade, decaying salons and parlor rooms, a solarium, jail cells and even a secret exhibition quarter, all surround the grand hall the concept allows for full exploration.

Untitled Theater Project was slated for 4304 N. Western Ave and sadly did not receive funding to advance the project before it was scrapped. The design was perfected to reflect the professional grunge of black box and nomadic companies in need of a home base: a studio on one side of the building, a theater on the other, and a common way to use either independently or both at the same time. Each harbors the capability of being enormously flexible. Easy to use, fully stocked and inventoried, and remarkably interchangeable; this complex theater would not only be affordable, but desirable and hopefully irresistible to the community. For its simplicity, nothing like this really exists. Perhaps someday.