Welcome to Our Village, Please Invade Carefully

Welcome To Our Village, Please Invade Carefully by Eddie Robson.
Welcome to Our Village is a radio play comedy about an alien invasion to a small British town. This show was a thrust configuration in our Blackbox Theater. This story was a radio play, so the scenic design looked like the inside of a radio recording studio. In this production concept, our audience was an "invited studio audience" getting a behind the scenes view of a live recording of some episodes of this show. In the script, we move to many different locations with quick transitions. In one moment, the storytelling is taking place at a village hall, then we may be outside a pub, inside a house, or out on a cricket field. There were no scenery or blocking shifts; the location changes in the story occurred through lighting in the main acting area.
This production was put on with a thrust seating configuration. I surrounded the actors in the main acting area with light, so audience members on all sides could see the actors equally well. With a lack of walls in the main acting space, much of the location changes were denoted through lighting changes on the floor. I created a plot that had flexibility built in to create many different looks over the same area of the stage.

UNC Charlotte Blackbox Theater, September-October 2023

Director: Jill Bloede
Scenic Design: Gordon W. Olson
Lighting Design: Dallas J. Cook
Sound Design: Emily Parker
Costume Design: Margarette Joyner
Stage Management: Madison King