The scenic design brief for Futurity called for a living machine, or Steam Brain, with playable musical parts. At each show, the Steam Brain was revealed as the action unfolded, and the musical parts— percussive, string, and woodwind— were all performed by the actors on stage.

Dave Whiteside provided vintage musical instrument parts from his family’s unique collection; without these, I could not have Frankenstein-ed our musical machine together.

My humble gratitude to César Alvarez and Emily Orling, whose attendance at our opening was such a gift, and whose enthusiastic comments about our design take on their Steam Brain made my insides sparkle.

Set and production photos: Erin X. Smithers