Scene Shift: The Podcast

Multidisciplinary artist Abigail DeVille joins Scene Shift: The Podcast for a conversation about cosmological time, informed intuition, and making space for history to speak.Known for large-scale sculptures and site-specific installations that engage the material and lived memory of communities, Abigail discusses how she thinks about time as a cosmological framework: constellations, recycled energy, and the long ancient trip we're all on. From sourcing 43 burned cabinets off Craigslist for “Dio Vindice (Orion's Cabinet)” at the Geffen Contemporary to uncovering her great-grandfather's medical records at the Central State Hospital for the Colored Insane (the institution behind her work “A Mourning”) this episode moves between the deeply personal and the historically vast.We also talk about working with 11 installers and knowing when to let go, the performative dimension of visual art spaces, her USC processional and what the students taught her about endurance, her bond with Cauleen Smith (19 years and counting, thanks to Skowhegan), and why her most recent work is the most restrained she's ever been and what that might mean.🎙️ CHAPTERS0:00 – Golden nugget: cosmological time and recycled energy0:58 – Welcome & Abigail DeVille introduction1:43 – “Monuments” at the Geffen: origins, scale, and the No Kings protest3:35 – Why the show probably won't travel and why it should4:33 – Sourcing 60 cabinets in New Jersey and burning them for three weeks8:52 – The 2 AM fire and knowing when to go home13:17 – Time as subject: constellations as compositional devices16:51 – How prolific output looks different when you think in constellations18:33 – Cauleen, “Monuments,” and the shared monument neither planned19:15 – The Tucker Boatwright Festival and the University of Richmond19:55 – Skowhegan 2007: 65 weirdos in the woods and a life-changing summer23:53 – Informed intuition: how research enables trust in the gut25:41 – The USC procession: letting go and letting it become a relay28:53 – Lafayette College and the next procession30:51 – Holding audiences in visual art spaces: making the whole room a painting32:34 – “A Mourning:” the most restrained work yet33:28 – Central State Hospital: the first Black mental hospital in the nation35:01 – Finding her great-grandfather's medical records and solving a family mystery36:26 – Transcribed doctor conversations and the family sense of humor38:02 – The unmarked burial ground and what was happening inside43:28 – Drapetomania, mass incarceration, and the plantation logic of the institution44:31 – Suspicion, stigma, and bypassing bias to find the truth46:58 – The archive: 800,000 records, Dr. King Davis, and what the paperwork preserves48:06 – “Deo Vindice” traveling to Richmond48:44 – Wrap-upScene Shift: The Podcast is hosted by performance designer Maureen Weiss and set designer Sibyl Wickersheimer, co-authors of “Scene Shift: US Set Designers in Conversation,” a book of conversations between mostly women and nonbinary theatrical designers.🔔 Subscribe for more conversations with working designers in theatre, installation, and performance.#AbigailDeVille #SceneShift #InstallationArt #TheatreDesign #SetDesign #PerformanceDesign #SiteSpecific #BlackHistory #CentralStateHospital #Monuments #TheatrePodcast #ArtPodcast #SceneDesign

Tony Award-nominated lighting designer Jiyoun Chang (Stereophonic, Slave Play, For Colored Girls) joins Scene Shift: The Podcast for a conversation about light, time, and the creative process.Known for transforming stages into emotionally charged visual landscapes, Jiji discusses how she uses light as a temporal instrument, controlling pace, pulse, and the passage of time in productions. From the incandescent glow of a recording studio in Stereophonic to portrait lighting in The Importance of Being Earnest, this episode is a deep dive into the dramaturgical thinking behind one of theatre's most celebrated lighting designers.We also talk about opera, working in Europe, collaborating across language barriers, the parallels between parenthood and tech week, and why Jiji rarely describes her lighting designs in advance, and why that works.🎙️ CHAPTERS0:00 – Golden nugget0:26 – Welcome & Jiyoun Chang introduction1:35 – Current project: The Importance of Being Earnest in Houston4:33 – Using lighting to play with time periods within a single production7:35 – Portrait lighting as concept: making the set feel like a museum piece13:00 – Stereophonic deep dive: lighting time jumps in a recording studio17:22 – Working without a lighting tech: trusting process over planning22:30 – Lighting as scenic thinking: Jiji's dual sensibility24:39 – The labor/theatre metaphor & pure joy of the work28:15 – Parenthood, tech, and finding balance31:10 – Raising theatre kids & watching your child find their own stage34:20 – Traveling for work: New Haven to New York to Austria37:58 – Opera vs. theatre: process, pace, and paper set models43:50 – Lucia di Lammermoor in Austria: design presentation & collaboration47:08 – Working with German crews: cultural communication in tech51:11 – Why Jiji rarely describes her lighting before tech55:37 – Teaching intuition: advice to a Yale directing student57:57 – Wrap-up: responding as a superpower in the roomScene Shift: The Podcast is hosted by performance designer Maureen Weiss and set designer Sibyl Wickersheimer, co-authors of Scene Shift, a book of conversations between mostly women and nonbinary theatrical designers.🔔 Subscribe for more conversations with working designers in theatre, opera, and performance.#TheatreDesign #LightingDesign #JiyounChang #SceneShift #Stereophonic #BroadwayPodcast #TheatrePodcast #TonyAwards #SetDesign #PerformanceDesign

In this episode of Scene Shift: The Podcast, New York based set designer Afsoon Pajoufar reflects on working across the US and Europe, comparing cultural approaches to risk, resources, and sustainability in theatre making. The conversation moves through what it means to be brave and bold as a designer, standing behind strong conceptual choices, embracing limitation, and allowing emotion to leave a visible trace in the work. Afsoon also speaks candidly about material responsibility, reuse, and whether theatre is “dying” or could simply shift into new, more intentional forms of making.Music by Claire McKeown "Sarabande in D minor"More info about Scene Shift. Like, subscribe, and join our newsletter for our latest episodes and news!

In this episode, Scene Shift's set designers Maureen Weiss and Sibyl Wickersheimer learn so much from lighting designer Pablo Santiago. He explains the process of lighting design in theater, his career path from film, and the art of collaboration with other designers and directors. They discuss the importance of embracing imperfections and the role of lighting in storytelling, drawing insights from experiences with renowned directors like David Lynch and José Luis Valenzuela. The conversation dips into the creative process, the balance between the technical and artist expression, and the aspirations for making impactful moments in theatre.Music by Claire McKeown "Sarabande in D minor"https://open.spotify.com/track/33X6NXAFqKXffxbdxCJ80A?si=2163333f328d4722More info about Scene Shift https://www.scene-shift.com/Like, subscribe, and join our newsletter for our latest episodes and news!

In this episode of Scene Shift: The Podcast, hosts Sibyl Wickersheimer and Maureen Weiss reconnect with their former student-turned-colleague Shing Yin Khor, an installation artist, cartoonist, game designer, and puppeteer exploring Mythic Americana, collaborative storytelling, and new human rituals. What began over twenty years ago in the Cal State Long Beach scene shop has evolved into a friendship built on shared curiosity, respect for craft, and a refusal to follow prescribed norms.Khor reflects on the journey from set design to creating immersive installations, graphic novels, and independent games, and how puppetry became a liberating practice for exploring gender, embodiment, and control. The conversation moves fluidly between the tactile and the philosophical: cordless drills and band saws, the joy of making, and a rejection of digital detachment captured in Khor’s memorable line, “Computers do not make me happy.”Together, they unpack how physical labor connects to moral intention, how commercial art differs from independent work, and how creative collaboration can serve as quiet resistance to capitalism’s demand for productivity. The trio also begins to explore the concept of moral ambition: what it means for artists to pursue work that not only tells stories but reshapes culture with integrity, care, and purpose, a topic inspired by Rutger Bregman.Chapters00:00 – Origins in Set Design05:00 – Ritual and Mythic Making10:00 – Puppetry & Gender25:00 – Labor and Tools38:00 – Commercial vs Independent Art49:00 – Moral Ambition & Creative IntegrityMusic by Claire McKeown "Sarabande in D minor"https://open.spotify.com/track/33X6NXAFqKXffxbdxCJ80A?si=2163333f328d4722More info about Scene Shift https://www.scene-shift.com/Like, subscribe, and join our newsletter for our latest episodes and news!