You won’t see Marjorie Bradley Kellogg on stage, but you may have seen her stage work.
The scenic designer, who teaches in IJʿ’s theater program, has designed sets for high-profile Broadway shows, lavish operas, university productions, and regional and non-profit theaters across the nation.
Kellogg talks about the creative process that occurs before the curtain opens in the latest of IJʿ Conversations, the podcast that highlights members of the IJʿ community.
“My job is at the front end, and then the actors take over. It becomes their set, their theater, their event, and all you can do is watch and let them do their thing,” she says in the podcast.
Kellogg describes how that “front-end” work can involve months of creative collaboration or a few weeks, depending on the production’s scope and the director’s working style.
Kellogg’s sets for the latest production of the opera Margaret Garner and for the play Gee’s Bend have won high praise in recent newspaper reviews.
Kellogg’s long list of credits also includes Broadway shows such as American Buffalo, with Al Pacino, Lucifer’s Child, with Julie Harris, Da, Arsenic and Old Lace, and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.
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| Marjorie Bradley Kellogg is designing a set for The Diary of Anne Frank at Syracuse Stage. |
In the podcast, Kellogg talks about working with the late, great George C. Scott on two plays in Circle in the Square Theater in New York City: Death of a Salesman and Present Laughter.
Scott was “smart, focused, and had a dangerous kind of presence,” she says.
As an associate professor of design at IJʿ, Kellogg works closely with students in the classroom and in the scene shop. It’s important, she says, for theater students to understand all the processes involved in putting on a show.
She designed the set for the most recent University Theater production, Brian Friel’s Lovers: Winners, which was directed by the university’s Adrian Giurgea.
Kellogg is already working with the new artistic director of Syracuse Stage, Timothy Bond, on a production of The Diary of Anne Frank. Other upcoming projects include the play Legacy of Light, at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., and Paradise Lost, Clifford Odets’ play that is part of the 2009 Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
To listen to Kellogg talk about these projects and more, please to listen now or right-click and “save target as” to download file. You also can go to the IJʿ Conversations or iTunes for more download options.