BRIGHT HALF LIFE

The Challenge

Lead creative process for Syracuse Drama’s mainstage production of BRIGHT HALF LIFE during the pandemic - adapting table work, production meetings, and dramaturgical discussions for remote collaboration and safety protocols, while preserving the emotional intimacy of the piece.

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The Insight

Queer love often grows in spaces, systems, and structures that weren’t designed to hold it.

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The Directorial Concept

This production was shaped by a single question: how do we nurture queer love within the constructs of a heteronormative world? Inspired by Tanya Barfield’s choice to structure the play as nonlinear and cyclical - punctuated by shifting benchmarks of marriage equality and parenting milestones - we built the production around a large, imposing platform, slightly askew. The set transformed throughout the story, becoming, at different moments, a playground for their courtship, an emotional battleground, and the Ferris wheel where it all began. The design subtly echoed the architecture of the city they call home: rigid, masculine-coded buildings contrasted by softer, more fluid forms achieved through lighting - drawing inspiration from New York City’s Oculus, a rare moment of openness within a hardened skyline.