We sat down with Video Projections Designer S. Katy Tucker to find out her thoughts about Faust, inspiration, and her brush with one of the greats.

North Carolina Opera: How did you get started in the arts?
S. Katy Tucker: I studied fine art and thought I’d pursue painting or video installation art.  In college I spent summers in NYC as a studio assistant for a few artists.  Though they were wonderful, inspiring people, I felt their working lives were at times solitary and people didn’t always see what they spent all of their time working on.  I grew up seeing theatre, my mother always took me to the Broadway Series in Louisville, KY, where I grew up, so I had a deep love of musicals and theatre.   I thought, well, why not do something in theatre.  So after graduating from college, I got an internship at the Metropolitan Opera, working in their technical department, amongst all the glorious sets, costumes, and free opera!   Whilst working at the MET, I got to make copies for Julie Taymor, take costume photos of Renee Fleming, watch famous scenic designers like Michael Yeargan and George Tsypin work, and many nights I’d get a free ticket to see the operas.  It was an incredible experience and I fell in love with the Met and opera.  One day while doing something menial like sharpening Joe Clark’s pencils, a very loud voice asked me “Who are you?”  I turned around and it was the very tall Francesca Zambello, at the time working on her Cyrano.  Not used to the acknowledgment by one of the greats, I hesitantly answered.  Long story short, she asked me what I really wanted to do.  I told her I loved video installation art and wanted to do something like that in conjunction with theatre.  She then told me “these people that you meet here can all help you with your career.  Let me know if I can ever help you.”  Six months later I worked up the nerve and sent her an e-mail. The next day I had a job assisting a projections designer.  Here I am five years later, about to design my 2nd & 3rd show for her.  I feel quite lucky.

NCO: Do you have a special way that you get inspired for a new project?
SKT: When I’m starting to think about a new project, I tend to think of it in terms of fine artists/ artistic movements.  The way I relate to stories, most of which have some historical basis, is through pictures, and typically through art.   My small brooklyn studio is filled with art books that I’ve collected/ received over the years, and I typically consult these first.  With Faust, I already know the story and have worked a lot with James Marvel, so we already have a visual language that we pull from.  Both of us have a great love of the German Expressionists, (Grosz, Dix, etc) so I immediately consult those books.   Then we take it from there.

NCO: Do you have a process in which you work from the beginning ideas to the final product?
SKT: I’m typically working on 4 projects at once, so if I have a process its probably (dis)organized chaos!  And most of the time, the projects are extremely different but somehow they build off one another. At the moment, I’m working on Faust, a Broadway musical, Wonderland inspired by Alice in Wonderland, a musical collaboration about Sappho, Gotterdaemmerung, a new opera Heart of a Soldier and a ballet.  All 6 are completely different, but having the opportunity to work a little bit on each at the same time, helps prevent hitting a wall.  I would say initially I collaborate at great length with the director & other designers.  Figure out how we want to tell the story, what visual world does it live in?  How do we want to use the video?  Does it help set a scene? Or does it help emphasize the emotional state of the piece?  Then I’ll typically come up with my ideas and a storyboard to help organize my thoughts and then re-discuss.  Eventually we all settle on a language and I’ll spend months making the content.

NCO: What is one adjective that you would use to describe this production of Faust?
SKT: Unique

NCO: What would you like people to say about the show after they’ve seen it?
SKT: In a perfect world, I’d love for them to say, wow, this is the greatest piece of art I’ve ever witnessed, I’ve waited my entire life to see an opera like this.  BUT, in the unlikely event of this happening, I’d like them to feel like they’ve experienced something memorable, something they weren’t completely expecting.  We have an amazing cast, and Tim’s conducting is incredible, Tlaloc’s lighting design is always quite beautiful, and everything James does is memorable and challenging, so I’d love for them to feel like their environment was transformed for the 3 hrs they’re in the Meymandi, allowing them a night off from the stresses of life and to just feel something.