Selections from my award-winning work in live theatre.
Marshall McLuhan famously coined the phrase "The medium is the message" in his influential book, "Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man." He postulated that when new mediums are introduced, there is a tendency to conceptualize their forms and functions through the lens of what came before. This idea often comes to mind as I delve into VR UX work.
In the early days of cinema, we started with content like "L’Arrivée d’un train en gare de La Ciotat" (Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat) and one-shots of theater sets. Eventually, new visual languages were developed. Just as film was first filtered through photography and theatrical lenses, XR struggles to separate itself from design thinking associated with film, video games, and current 2D operating systems. This challenge spans interface, IA, and UI. The industry, still in its infancy, will likely see new approaches emerge.
I've been tasked with researching designers' perceptions of working within a 3D space versus screens and developing a high-level concept for an immersive lighting system. I'm collaborating with Haiba Labs, a stealth startup founded by the tech and content creators behind Google Spotlight Stories. They're working on a platform for non-linear, immersive storytelling.
Director Joseph V. Calarco handles the production’s intricacies with a sure hand, keeping the action at a brisk pitch while interspersing the general grimness with drollery at welcome intervals.
Zimmerman's anthology, which receives a masterful staging indirector Joseph V. Calarco's handsome production, contains so many unsettling ideas and events that it stays unnervingly in your memory long after you leave the theater.
No theater goer in search of something out of the ordinary could hope for more mesmerizing the theatrical magic than that now taking place. “The Secret in the Wings” is Los Angeles theatre at its most thrilling.
Marshall McLuhan famously coined the phrase "The medium is the message" in his influential book, "Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man." He postulated that when new mediums are introduced, there is a tendency to conceptualize their forms and functions through the lens of what came before. This idea often comes to mind as I delve into VR UX work.
In the early days of cinema, we started with content like "L’Arrivée d’un train en gare de La Ciotat" (Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat) and one-shots of theater sets. Eventually, new visual languages were developed. Just as film was first filtered through photography and theatrical lenses, XR struggles to separate itself from design thinking associated with film, video games, and current 2D operating systems. This challenge spans interface, IA, and UI. The industry, still in its infancy, will likely see new approaches emerge.
I've been tasked with researching designers' perceptions of working within a 3D space versus screens and developing a high-level concept for an immersive lighting system. I'm collaborating with Haiba Labs, a stealth startup founded by the tech and content creators behind Google Spotlight Stories. They're working on a platform for non-linear, immersive storytelling.
The best director of his age working in Los Angeles... Where the script would give us a rather mundane fantasy tale, Calarco and an ensemble of 13 supply a fable rich with mythological metaphor.
It's not often noted that the brightest and most omnipresent star of any production is clearly the imagination of its director, but this guy's hand and his vision is present throughout every moment of this west coast premiere.
Coeurage's West Coast Premiere of The Sparrow successfully intrigues as a stylistic performance art piece with stunning visuals.
Marshall McLuhan famously coined the phrase "The medium is the message" in his influential book, "Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man." He postulated that when new mediums are introduced, there is a tendency to conceptualize their forms and functions through the lens of what came before. This idea often comes to mind as I delve into VR UX work.
In the early days of cinema, we started with content like "L’Arrivée d’un train en gare de La Ciotat" (Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat) and one-shots of theater sets. Eventually, new visual languages were developed. Just as film was first filtered through photography and theatrical lenses, XR struggles to separate itself from design thinking associated with film, video games, and current 2D operating systems. This challenge spans interface, IA, and UI. The industry, still in its infancy, will likely see new approaches emerge.
I've been tasked with researching designers' perceptions of working within a 3D space versus screens and developing a high-level concept for an immersive lighting system. I'm collaborating with Haiba Labs, a stealth startup founded by the tech and content creators behind Google Spotlight Stories. They're working on a platform for non-linear, immersive storytelling.
[The Yellow Boat] bears the hallmark of the best children's shows: storytelling that remains indistinguishable from productions aimed at adults, while using imagination to explore, condescension–free, issues that affect kids.
The Yellow Boat has bracing rewards for brave audiences. It deals with uncomfortable subject matter, treating kids as object lessons for adults and mature children alike. It talks up to its audience. And it illustrates why theatre exists in the first place.
Imagination lives and breathes in Calarco's vision. That precious commodity, and its ability to change us, is why we go to the theatre, and why I cannot recommend this production highly enough.
Full resume available upon request.
The design elements are all superb,most outstandingly Calarco's sound design, Brandon Baruch's lighting and J.R Bruce's attic set, filled with evocative detritus that factors into the action.
-The Secret in the Wings
With Calarco's excellent sound design, this is a hauntingly exquisite little production, transporting that aforementioned black-box space to a place where art surpasses everything.
-No. Saints Lane
Calarco does a fine job with sound design.
-No. Saints Lane
Accentuated by Joe Calarco's intentionally scratchy, highly effective sound design that moves from Gershwin to Robert Johnson to Ella Fitzgerald, this unstoppable young company seems so confident it's infectious.
-Double Falsehood
The sound design by Joe Calarco should also be noted. The radio became asort of possessed narrator, turning on by itself and furthering the narrative of the outside world while creating a tenuous mood inside the house.
-No. Saints Lane
Sound is unobtrusive, emotionally effective and timely.
-Shakespeare’s Andronicus
Joseph V. Calarco’s sound design adds an increasing sense of agitation with its steady drip of tribal sound effects and shifting musical inserts that pierce when necessary while providing a continual eerie tension throughout.
-Shakespeare’s Andronicus
...aided by Calarco's inventive sound effects, [LA Lights Fire] is memorable.
-L.A. Lights Fire
I can’t rave enough about Calarco’s sound design.
-A Bright Room Called Day
Due to AEA regulations I am not able to share clips from live shows I have designed. I can, however, share a few audio stories I created for The Nomad Project, a series of fully-prouced aural journeys based on specific coordinates around Los Angeles. This was created during the height of Covid-19 while the lockdown was still in effect. Every aspect of it, from the recording to the rehearsing, was done remotely. (Which is why you may hear variance in the voiceover quality.)
