The Karamazovs

Role: Production Designer

Part murder mystery, part spiritual quest, The Karamazovs is a new play inspired by Dostoevsky’s novel, and by contemporary family relationships in the face of grief. It’s a story that looks backward and forward at all the ways we try to become whole and free even as we are inextricably linked to each other. Developed with the ensemble in a playful marriage of the experimental and the classical, through text, movement, music (and a total disregard for the arcane gender roles of the novel) we ask the vital question of how to be a good person in today’s world.

I was the first creative collaborator brought on by the director for The Karamazovs. It was a thrill to be incorporated into the process so early—to be able to participate in the initial adaptation of the novel and contribute to foundational artistic choices in the text made my design of the visual world for the piece infinitely more nuanced. This was a project in which I could employ my love of literature and analysis as well as my visual world building skills. With a run cut short by the Covid-19 pandemic, this project transitioned into a feature film.

Credits:

Creator and Director: Anna Brenner; Performers: Tymberly Canale, Ross Cowan, Rachael Richman, MK Tuomanen, Rami Margron; Designers: Oona Curley, Elizabeth Atkinson, Yana Birykova, Oana Botez, Tatiana Stolpovskaya; Choreography: Tymberly Canale.