Memoirs of a Sailor II
One stage, transformed through image.
Set in Kuwait’s pearl-diving past, Memoirs of a Sailor II needed to move between boats, courtyards, streets and imagined underwater worlds without constantly rebuilding the stage.
As Senior Video Designer at 59 Studio, I worked closely with the stage designer and director to develop the visual language of the show, shaping how projection, layered surfaces and animation could transform a deliberately minimal set throughout the performance.
Role
Senior Video Designer
Created at
59 Studio
Format
Theatre / Projection
Location
Kuwait City, Kuwait
One set, many places
The stage was designed as a modular framework rather than a finished world.
Elements could move and reconfigure to become a dhow, an old Kuwaiti street or an enclosed courtyard. Projection then did much of the visual work, adding architecture, texture, weather, atmosphere and depth without losing the flexibility the performers needed.
Designing the set and media together meant the same physical structure could keep becoming something new.
Layers of illusion
Some of the most theatrical moments came from combining projection surfaces rather than relying on a single backdrop.
Images played across the rear wall, physical scenery and transparent screens at the same time, creating depth and allowing performers to appear inside the image.
That approach could take a pearl diver beneath the water, surround the stage with coral or dissolve the physical scenery into something much more dreamlike.
Built for the stage
The visual language had to survive contact with the real production.
During technical rehearsals, scenes continued to change as projection, performance, sound and staging came together. I led an animation team of four to five artists, while adapting the work in the room with the director and wider production team.
The project was also my first major theatre production at 59 Studio, an important lesson in designing work that can keep evolving right up to opening.
Project credits
Senior Video Designer: Max Italiaander at 59 Studio
Video design developed in close collaboration with the stage design and wider creative team for Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Cultural Centre.
Max led the projected content design and animation team through production and technical rehearsals.
Production imagery courtesy of 59 Studio.