Elevating the Audience Experience: T. Paul Lowry

(L-R) Matthew Wright & Joe Pine in Dobama Theatre’s 2019 production of The Nether. Prod. design by T. Paul Lowry Photo: Steve Wagner

​The basic formula for a modern staging of a play hasn’t changed very much over time. Lighting, sound, set, costume, direction, stage management and performance are among the required elements. But now the language of live-performance storytelling is evolving rapidly, courtesy of projection design. 
 
What was once an experimental and expensive complement to other design elements has become an accessible and integral part of a production’s manufacturing of atmosphere, landscape, perspective and animated special effects.  Now the immediacy of theater and the density of computer generated imagery have joined forces so that the lines between set design, lighting design and projection design blur and audiences can’t tell where one stops and the others begin.
 
On the local front, T. Paul Lowry, 44, is the projection designer of choice when it comes to solving visual production problems, telling and propelling stories, and making moments on stage look particularly cool. “Projections have now become a dramaturgical element in many Cleveland productions,” notes T. Paul.
 
When he started designing projections professionally, he was usually brought into a project late in the process, after the set was designed and because the creative team was looking for a specific effect.  “Now,” as was the case with Dobama Theatre’s production of The Nether, “theater companies bring me into the process at the beginning” and he approaches his work the same way he would building sets and lights. 
 
For the full article, go to: http://canvascle.com/t-paul-lowry/