Exhibition
Professional Designers
United States of America
Kathleen DeVault
Suicide in B Flat
Category: Lighting Design
Design Statement
Sam Shepard said “A play’s like music – ephemeral, elusive, appearing, and disappearing all the time.” This sums up his Suicide in B Flat; it is the story of Niles, a jazz musician set in a film noir world of 1975 New York. What does the audience hear; what does the cast hear; what does the audience see; what does the cast see? The lighting design had the ebb and flow of a musical composition; moving and shaping the environment of the production, a jazz riff set to words and actions. There are multiple worlds represented in the play; the detectives, Niles & Paulette, piano player, et al. These bleed into each other, following a syncopated rhythm that at times jumps out to surprise the audience when they least expect it. Characters die yet not the ones shot, musicians play yet no music is heard. These unexpected changes follow the improvisations of the “new” jazz, opening the characters and hence the audience to a new awareness of what is real and imagined.
Gallery
<Photo Credit> Kathleen DeVault
<Photo Credit> Kathleen DeVault
<Photo Credit> Kathleen DeVault
<Photo Credit> Kathleen DeVault
<Photo Credit> Kathleen DeVault
<Photo Credit> Kathleen DeVault
Kathleen DeVault
Kathleen DeVault is a lighting and sound designer based in the United State. Currently, she is Head of the International Theatre Production program at Ohio Northern University. She earned a BA in Theatre/English from The Ohio State University and her MFA in Lighting and Sound Design from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Before coming to ONU, she was the resident lighting designer at Smith College and did freelance lighting and sound designs for various companies including Natarjii Dance, Chrysalis Theatre, New Century Theatre, and the Drama Studio. At ONU, Kathe has designed lights and sound for many productions, including Elysium, Picnic, Magic Flute, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Tommy, and Carousel. She has lit the International Play Festivals as well as being scenic and sound designer for a few. Kathe has also designed lights for the Wellington School in Columbus: their musical Tater Tots of Love at the Vern Riffe Center, Studio I and their tours to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She also did the lighting and sound design for Freed Purple Monkey’s production of A Matter of Choice at the New York Fringe Festival. Kathe is National Vice President of Theta Alpha Phi and is Chairperson of the USITT/Ohio Valley section.
Email Address: k-devault@onu.edu
Theatre Company Ohio Northern University
The Premiere Date of Production 2013-02-07
The Premiere Space of Production Stambaugh Theatre
Author Sam Shepard
Director/ Choreographer Geoffrey Nelson
Set Designer Brian Phillips
Lighting Designer Kathleen DeVault
Costume Designer Cathy Smalley
Sound Designer Joe Disbrow
