Scenic Design

SPEAKING IN TONGUES

A play by Luis Alfaro

Directed by Jose Luis Valenzuela

LATC Latino Theater Company

In a small Pentecostal church surrounded by the cornfields of California’s San Joaquin Valley, faith, family, and community are being tested. For years, Hermana Romie has quietly written the sermons preached by her pastor husband, keeping her own gifts hidden within the patriarchal traditions of the church. But when he suddenly disappears, Romie finds herself at a crossroads. As immigration raids threaten their community and her daughter prepares to leave for a new life in Los Angeles, she must decide whether to remain in the shadows or step forward and claim her own voice.

Scenic Design by Prairie T. Trivuth

Costume Design by Samantha Jo Jaffrey

Lighting Design by Lee (Xinyuan Li)

Projection Design by Yee Eun Nam

Sound Design by Robert J Revell

Photography by Grettel Cortes and Prairie T. Trivuth

PRESS

As soon as we entered the space, both Gigi and I were wowed by the uber-creative set by Prairie T. Trivuth. It depicts the outside area in front of the church, and on top is a…cornfield!!! That was unexpected. — Karen Salkin, It’s Not About Me

The play concerns a Pentecostal congregation, and is set presumably in the present day at a church beside a cornfield (the imaginative, awards-worthy multi-level set is by scenic designer Prairie T. Trivuth). — Hollywood Progressive

As is typical of this director’s work, the production is best savored as a panorama, with sound, visuals, projections and set design as startling and vital to the story as any performance. Prairie T. Trivuth scenic design is a two tiered affair — the bottom tier is a rudimentary dwelling, the communal meeting place of the congregants, while above is the evocation of a cornfield, filled with tall yellowing stalks, where Romie and Tiri are seen to wander. In nighttime sequences, the set is bathed in reds or blues and greens (lighting design by Xinyuan Li) with images of fireflies or butterflies (designer Yee Eun Nam), and the commensurate, almost musical, sound of insect and animal life (Robert J. Revell). All this translates into an understanding of this particular place on earth — one that, cosmically speaking, might be considered the middle of nowhere, but for these characters is the place where they have made their home. — Stageraw