The Da Vinci Code

In this thrilling play, based on Dan Brown’s bestselling international phenomenon, Professor Robert Langdon is called to the Louvre in the dead of night, where he unwittingly becomes the center of a murder investigation. When cryptologist Sophie Neveu arrives at the scene, she alerts Robert that, not only is he being asked to solve the crime, he is also the prime suspect. Soon they are in a race against time to clear Robert’s name and decipher a labyrinthine code before a shocking historical secret is lost forever.

Courtesy of Dramaturgists Play Service, Inc.

With a timeline of less than a month from initial conceptualization and research to opening, my design for our production of The Da Vinci Code was constantly evolving. My design had to incorporate numerous elements, including photorealistic imagery (per the director's request), live video, prerecorded video (to stand in for an actor with a prior commitment), and abstract animation of thoughts, shapes, and other imagery. 

I began my research by learning about the different locations and what about them was relevant to the script to inform what I needed to show on stage. From there, I began by finding stock images that fit those given criteria, and begin to expand upon them. Throughout the show, I used a superimposed grid in various scenes for two reasons. Most importantly, the lines helped to bridge the gap in the compositions between the photorealistic images and the abstract text and symbols within the actor's minds. The decision to use lines in a grid pattern specifically was then based upon the architecture of the Louvre pyramids given their significance to the text. The color of each scene was largely thematic and included motifs for Silas. Other motifs include the ultraviolet text and whilgigs as mentioned in the script, in addition to the use of atmospheric particles and fog in certain scenes.

Building on the abstract, I was asked to incorporate recordings of an actor playing the role of Sauniere as they would not be able to attend the performances. To do this, I gave the recordings a ghostly look as they are presented in memory, and composited them over each scene when necessary.