Exhibition
Professional Designers
United States of America
Natalie Taylor Hart
Fences
Selected Category: Set Design
Category: Set Design
Design Statement
August Wilson’s Fences explores the generational shifts in perspective in the African- American Maxson family just before the Civil Rights Movement begins. I evoked community history and generational family history by layering scenic elements. The eroded and damaged layers were both physical and spiritual in the play.
Concentric contours shaped the backyard to echo the uneven playing field on which the characters exist metaphorically. I balanced realistic detail with abstraction to honor the spiritual aspects of the text. The roofs hanging above suggested the surrounding community and the generations of Maxsons echoing into history.
The thrust space allowed me to partially obscure views through the fence, the kitchen window and door and the upstairs window. I partially revealed the kitchen to contrast Rose’s perspective with her husband’s. American Christianity inspired her orderly interior space while Troy’s outdoor space had roots in African spirituality through connection to earth and raised textures on the ground.
Concentric contours shaped the backyard to echo the uneven playing field on which the characters exist metaphorically. I balanced realistic detail with abstraction to honor the spiritual aspects of the text. The roofs hanging above suggested the surrounding community and the generations of Maxsons echoing into history.
The thrust space allowed me to partially obscure views through the fence, the kitchen window and door and the upstairs window. I partially revealed the kitchen to contrast Rose’s perspective with her husband’s. American Christianity inspired her orderly interior space while Troy’s outdoor space had roots in African spirituality through connection to earth and raised textures on the ground.
Gallery
<Photo Credit> VanderVeen Photographers
<Photo Credit> Eric Hart; Actors pictured Gayle Samuels, Jeorge Bennett Watson
<Photo Credit> Natalie Taylor Hart; Actor pictured Jeorge Bennett Watson
<Photo Credit> VanderVeen Photographers; Actors pictured Gayle Samuels, Chanelle Russell
<Photo Credit> VanderVeen Photographers; Actors pictured Lawrence Evans, Shamsuddin Abdul-Hamid, Gayle Samuels, Greg Marlow
<Photo Credit> Digital Rendering by Natalie Taylor Hart
Natalie Taylor Hart
Natalie Taylor Hart is an Assistant Professor of Performing Arts at Elon University and a freelance scenic designer. Prior to teaching at Elon, Hart designed scenery and built props in New York and regionally. She served as Assistant Properties Director at the Santa Fe Opera. For a few years she served as the Design Director of a New York event design company. She earned her MFA in Scenic Design from Ohio University.
Hart has a research interest in Mask and studied with the late Donato Sartori. She designed and created masks for a new adaptation of The Servant of Two Masters with an Elon colleague in 2015 and is looking forward to new collaborations. Website: natalietaylorhart.com
Selected design work: New York: Slave Shack (Algonquin Theatre). Associate Designer: The Wiz (Tour, The Netherlands). Regional: Fences, Having Our Say (Triad Stage); Life in the Fat Lane (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park). Local: As You Like It (Burning Coal Theatre); Oldfriends.com, Blithe Spirit, Kind Lady (Monomoy Theatre, Cape Cod). Educational: The Crucible (Columbia University); Harper Regan, The Servant of Two Masters, Much Ado About Nothing, Ragtime, The Light in the Piazza, Cloud Nine (Elon University).
Hart has a research interest in Mask and studied with the late Donato Sartori. She designed and created masks for a new adaptation of The Servant of Two Masters with an Elon colleague in 2015 and is looking forward to new collaborations. Website: natalietaylorhart.com
Selected design work: New York: Slave Shack (Algonquin Theatre). Associate Designer: The Wiz (Tour, The Netherlands). Regional: Fences, Having Our Say (Triad Stage); Life in the Fat Lane (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park). Local: As You Like It (Burning Coal Theatre); Oldfriends.com, Blithe Spirit, Kind Lady (Monomoy Theatre, Cape Cod). Educational: The Crucible (Columbia University); Harper Regan, The Servant of Two Masters, Much Ado About Nothing, Ragtime, The Light in the Piazza, Cloud Nine (Elon University).
Email Address: natalie@natalietaylorhart.com
Theatre Company Triad Stage
The Premiere Date of Production 2016-04-15
The Premiere Space of Production The Pyrle Theatre
Author August Wilson
Director/ Choreographer Tamera N. Izlar
Set Designer Natalie Taylor Hart
Lighting Designer Miriam Nilofa Crowe
Costume Designer Samantha C. Jones
Sound Designer Gabriel Clausen
