Thornton Wilder’s “The Matchmaker”

Back in 2024, I was approached by Grace Theatre in Valencia to direct their production that fall. Due to challenging circumstances, their previous production had fallen through, and I was tasked with putting together a show in eight days. During that time, I decided on a show, obtained licensing, designed the stage, and cast the show. During my BFA, I took every opportunity to study directing and stagecraft, and I was very grateful to fall back on that training.

The venue for this production proved difficult - the house is around 350 seats, but the stage is quite small and limiting. The Matchmaker has four different acts with four separate locations. Up until this point, this theatre company had avoided scripts with heavy set changes or varying locations, choosing to stick with one-set plays, where possible. With such a short window of time to design the set, I chose to build two periaktos pieces that would adapt the stage into the four locations. These proved very easy to work with, and really helped bring the story to life.

We were able to utilize 4 twelve-foot panels that the venue already had, and we attached multiple '‘backgrounds’ to them. We printed shop windows for Irene Malloy’s hat shop, and wallpaper for Act IV’s house, which attached to these panels. Blacking out the top four feet of these to match the eight foot height of the periaktos, making a uniform set.

I am back at Grace Theatre for their Fall 2026 production - Rick Abbot’s “But Why Bump Off Barnaby?”. This next directing piece has already been such a fun time - with trick doors built into this murder-mystery set. With the play written for ‘modern day’ but published in the 1970s, we chose to set it in that very era!