Meet John Ellingson!

Hello readers! Chitra opened this weekend and it was phenomenal. It was such a joy watching Chitra come to life on stage. It has been an epic end to an epic journey. All of the elements have finally come together, and it was an absolute visual extravaganza. The colors, the textures that have gone into the making of Chitra have elevated it to new heights. Each and every aspect of Chitra was sheer joy. The performances, the dances, the set, the sound, the props have found voice through Anita and Sarah’s unique adaptation of this timeless classic.

Impressed by the sheer visual spectacle of the set, we decided to talk to John Ellingson, who designed the sets and props for this show. His vision of Chitra, the set he designed, was stunning. The attention to detail and the intricacy of each and every design element was amazing. We spoke at length about his inspiration and vision for Chitra, and this is what he had to say:

Q: What was different about creating the world of Chitra?

John: All the shows that we do, we mostly do Western theatre, so for all of us, that are working at NWCT, this was a whole new exposure to a famous legend and story that, we didn’t know. The first step was to just get inspired from the design perspective by this amazing story. This was a story that most of us knew nothing about, or have a relationship with, so that’s where we started, all of our learning. And then we brought in a team of incredibly talented designers - the projection designer, our sound designers, costume designers. We got fabulous stuff, we had beautiful costumes, fabrics sewn and brought in from India. We had designs that were a meld of things here to things there and so it’s just been a real whirlwind of ideas and thoughts, and dreams and textures, all coming together. I think this is what makes it very interesting. So often, we do, you know, big American musicals or working in children’s theatre, we do a lot of storybooks to the stage. But this was all new ground and very unfamiliar to me, but very, very familiar, to another group of people. So it’s fun to tap into what would they be expecting, what would they need to see, what does Chitra need to be, to come to life on stage, so that learning process, has been awesome and ongoing.

Q: Visually, Chitra is very festive. What was the process like, in designing the visual elements, what’s new and what’s different here?

John: I think Anita has personally had the biggest impact on my joy of designing this set. One of my big impressions about Indian culture, is how, celebratory and festive it is. I grew up with an American fairytale, American fantasy, but Indian fantasy and Indian fairytales, was like - how gold can it be, how, how sparkly can it be! So I started with those questions, really, from a visual standpoint, the Indian culture is just stunning. I don’t think there’s anything like it. I think it is one of the sleekest, sophisticated, playful, joyous, and just colorful. It’s a colorful culture and they celebrate that. So we wanted the set to feel colorful and bright and that intricate, much like, the research we did, about things in India. That is where, I think, this particular fairytale, Chitra, bringing in those, that, lush environment, is what I thought, would help, and set the scene for her.

Q: How did the creation process of the set support this version of the story? We know, you had to wait for some of the other elements of the story to come together before you could design the set.

John: So in this particular play, it is a play, but it is also a dance show. And Chitra is a warrior. There is an epic journey for her and a lot of battles, and so we have a lot of fights in the show, we have a lot of dancing in the show, some of which are storytelling and a lot of them are traditional dances. So typically, the set designers start with a ground plan, and where do the characters need to go. But for this particular show, we really had to focus on what do the performers need, specifically in the fights and the dance. What do the dancers need? Even before we had the actors or the choreography, what does this world physically have to be or not be to support those elements of the show. Some of the actors are barefoot in this show. We have done an actor, barefoot before, but they exist barefoot on, off, everywhere. So a lot of preparation went into allowing that to be, it was a very important element. We have things like the bells on the feet, you know, you can hear them, off stage. In theatre, you don’t want to hear anything, until you see it on the stage. I’m used to tap dancing, and figuring out how to get tappers on the stage, how do we get quick changes on the stage. You know, American theatre have all of these tricks, that we kind of see a lot, how do we get a bunch of giant set pieces to go on and off quickly. But working on this production, I was introduced to new challenges, but good challenges. How do we support some of the things that, are very important to make this story authentic, and the need to do it right. So yeah, the design, had to kind of wait. We had to see how much space it needed, how much breadth it needed. This set is a very atmospheric set. It’s really trying to hug all of this movement and the spectacle is really, I think, setting a visual tone, and I think the performances are really coming from the actors themselves and the movement that they are doing.

Thank you so much John for talking to us. It was a pleasure talking to you and getting to know about your creative process. The set he designed has been absolutely stunning! Don’t miss the intricate design elements while watching Chitra. It will totally blow your mind. Get your tickets soon, if you haven’t got them already! For more updates on our Chitra artists, stay tuned!