Debuting Artist: Joseph Lamar
Joesph joins the design team for the very first time with OpenStage in SWEAT!
Tell us about yourself! What theatre or other experiences did you have in this discipline before working on this show?
Previous credits include “The Wolves” (Fine Arts Center), “Every Brilliant Thing” (Theatre Works), “Acts of Faith”, “Year of Magical Thinking” and “Toni Stone” (Aurora Fox Arts Center), “Steel Magnolias” (Theatre Works) and an interactive music interface for Denver’s Meow Wolf.
How did you hear about OpenStage?
I got to work with Kenny Moten on “Toni Stone” and I was eager to work with him again on this powerful show.
What is your brainstorming and design process?
In the beginning, I try to rely on the script and the people I work with. Then I collect and create sounds that hit all of the practical check marks while infusing them with creative liberties that serve the work/moment.
What has been the most challenging part of this show and your work?
Getting things to flow logistically.
What has been the most rewarding part of this show and your work?
So far, it’s been great to dive into the script. It’s beautifully written and it stays with you because it asks more questions than it answers.
What is your favorite thing about this show?
It’s nuanced. I appreciate that it zooms on the way that corrupt systems affect us on the micro level.
What is the importance of this show today? What do you hope audiences will get out of it?
This show drives home the idea that despite our varying backgrounds and affiliations, our fates are bound together. I hope that people will take it upon themselves to appreciate commonality and approach disagreement with “overstanding” and grace.
What projects are you working on next? What is your dream role or dream show to work on?
My next sound design will be for “Cullud Wattah” at Curious Theatre under the direction of Jada Suzanne-Dixon! One day, I’d like to star in an original musical.
By Lynn Nottage
Directed by Kenny Moten
January 13–February 10, 2024
Playing at the Lincoln Center Magnolia Theatre
Come hear Joseph’s design in “SWEAT” Jan. 13-Feb. 10!
The 2017 Pulitzer Prize-winning Sweat is a humorous, heart-wrenching, and honest look at the decline of the working class in modern America. In 2008, in a bar in Reading, Pennsylvania, best friends Cynthia, Tracy, and Jessie shared their lives—the good, the bad, and many drinks. Suddenly, they find themselves facing the crushing weight of layoffs and picket lines at the local steel mill. As the union loses ground, trust erodes and they find themselves pitted against one another in a harrowing fight to stay afloat. Sweat boldly confronts issues of race, deindustrialization, and the ever-slipping grip on the “American Dream.”
