Technical Director and Theatre Freelancer
THE LIGHTNING THIEF
Blake Stage Company, Mar. 2026
The Lightning Thief was a tough but incredibly rewarding challenge, and a delightfully nerdy process. I grew up reading the Percy Jackson books by Rick Riordan, and I was thrilled to get to work on such a faithful adaptation of the source material. One of my favorite parts of this process was figuring out how to translate Percy's water magic powers to a stage production, in a safe and reliable way. Much of these effects used large swaths of blue fabric, combined with lighting effects and fog.
Other highlights listed here:
- Medusa's golden greek masque-style snakes: a pre-made snake headband and greek masque, painted
- The "DJ Cerberus" headpiece: three Doberman masks stuffed with cotton and given light-up mohawks
- The Half-Bloods' weapons: polypropelene swords, bucklers, and daggers from Cold Steel, each painted to reflect the character's weapon descriptions in the original Percy Jackson books
- The Greek God facade: painted by me, this included depictions of ten gods and three gods' symbols
- Three custom gobos: the symbol of Poseidon, a pine tree (Thalia's tree), and a cyclops head
- A 10x6 black scrim, which we used to create effects such as (spoilers!) hiding Luke's identity when speaking to Kronos, a vignette of how Thalia was turned in to the pine tree, and Sally appearing as a shade in the Underworld
- Three "ripplers", as I so affectionately called them: three Chauvet Abyss USB fixtures that created rippling water and magic effects projected on the set (these are old fixtures but they worked wonderfully for or purposes and created beautiful visuals)
- Four actual bus seats that I sourced and then installed on a rolling platform