Inside The Outsiders with the Creative Team

Get a glimpse inside the creative process of The Outsiders with Tatiana Kahvegian (Set Design), Brian MacDevitt (Lighting Design), Sarafina Bush (Costume Design), Cody Spencer (Sound Design), Hana Sooyeon Kim (Projection Design), and Lillis Meeh (Special Effects Design).

SET

The Cast of The Outsiders. Photo by © 2024, Matthew Murphy

“We refer to the scenography as a ‘memory playground for lost boys.’ The set is grounded in historical research and is inspired by drive-ins and outdoor communal spaces like parks, lawns, and junkyards.

The landscape evokes Ponyboy’s internal life. Fragments of architecture and objects remain present in his mind as he reflects on the love and the losses he experienced on his journey to becoming a writer.

The wall structure is modeled after the back of a drive-in movie theater screen and sits on a dirt floor; wooden boards, a jungle gym structure, tires, junkyard objects, and two cars — one for the Greasers, and one for the Socs — are featured as emblems of the two groups.

At the beginning of the play, the back wall of the set is solid, echoing the socioeconomic confinement of the Greasers. As the show unfolds, openings begin to appear in the back wall, removing the limits between Tulsa and the rest of the world. There is more access to the sky, and the air, and to the possibilities that lay beyond. The colors and textures are charred, and a church window is revealed. The death of Johnny as a result of the fire and their heroism are forever imprinted in Ponyboy’s memory.”

— Tatiana Kahvegian, Scenography by AMP featuring Tatiana Kahvegian

LIGHTING

Pictured: The Cast of The Outsiders – Photo Credit: © 2024, Matthew Murphy

“One of the things we’re keying into with lighting is using restraint in color. We use a tight palette of color rooted in reality. The color of incandescent light and of daylight. The other colors of light are motivated by actual things on the set — the red that you would see in taillights and the white that you would see from headlights of the period. And then there’s the sky, which we see more and more as the piece goes on.

The set starts as a very enclosed dark space that gets perforated with light and slowly opens up; I think that parallels what happens to the kids — Ponyboy and Johnny — who are growing and maturing. The role of the lighting is literally to ‘illuminate’ so that the audience can see, but it also creates a spiritual illumination. Just like painting and photography can be poetic, lighting can also be poetic. Stage pictures can be poetic. This is a great piece because it asks us to be ugly as well, emotionally ugly. At the same time, there can still be a beauty to it; it’s got teeth, but it also has heart. What’s happening in this story is a memory of something real, so that memory can inform emotional triggers both good and bad.

At the same time, there is also the idea of Tulsa as this dream space, and that is experienced through the color gold, which appears in three key moments; it peeks through at the movietheatre, at the church, and then is full out at the end. Last color to fill the space is gold.”

– Brian MacDevitt, Lighting Designer

COSTUMES

The Greasers (Top Row) Jason Schmidt, Renni Anthony Magee, Daryl Tofa, Tilly Evans-Krueger, Sky Lakota-Lynch, Joshua Boone, Brent Comer; (Front Row) Brody Grant. Photo Credit: © 2024, Matthew Murphy

“The world of The Outsiders is sorted into groups the way that society likes to label and identify people to tell them where they ‘belong.’ So, we have the Socs — the haves — and the Greasers — the have-nots.

The idea of the memory play, in which we see everything through Ponyboy’s lens, informed our costume design. The first time we see the Socs, we see them as the epitome of prep. The epitome of what it means to have — to have homes, to have closets, to have wealth to buy clothes — so they are crisp, they are vibrant, they are shiny-looking, almost in an intimidating way. In contrast, the Greasers’ uniform is t-shirt and jeans, but it also expresses individuality in the way that each Greaser styles what they have.

To enhance the idea of memory, every single character wears just one costume throughout the play; it is the essence of who that person is and how Ponyboy remembers that person. Because there is only one costume per actor, we can really focus on the details.

By the end of the play, when we reach the rumble, the colors of the Socs costumes recede in all the elements that are happening on stage — the rain, the dirt, the lighting, and the projections. All the expectations that society puts on these characters get stripped away; it’s just kids and bodies so that audiences can see that at their core, maybe they are not all that different.”

– Sarafina Bush, Costume Designer

SOUND

“We are using a Spatial Audio system by L’Acoustics called L-ISA. As opposed to the typical Left/Right/Center speakers in musical theater, we use five arrays across the proscenium. With this, we separated the vocals and band to fill the room more to make it sound more realistic. We can source the vocals to realize where they are onstage and separate the band across the arrays to get a more even sound. It also enables us to move sound effects around the room so that no matter what seat you are in, even if you are in the back in the corner, you are feeling everything. For the band, we are staying very analog, very true to the instrument sound and not digitizing them to keep a rich full tone.”

– Cody Spencer, Sound Designer

PROJECTIONS

“The key characteristic of projection design is that they are very ephemeral, but at the same time, they can be more concrete than lighting because we’re also incorporating specific images. In the case of The Outsiders, we’re using projection as an expression of energy. Ponyboy is a young man with an active imagination. The projections help us access his point of view — his dreams and memories — in a way that tries to capture what he sees and what he feels.”

– Hana Sooyeon Kim, Projection Designer

SPECIAL EFFECTS

The Cast of The Outsiders. Photo by © 2024, Matthew Murphy

“Special effects add an extra layer of storytelling and realism on stage — that bit of extra theatre magic — to help push the story forward. For this show, we have helped to create all the elements — the rain, the fire, the smoke, the blood.

Our process started with a conversation with Danya, our director, to get an understanding of her vision. From there, we devised the systems to deliver and integrate those effects in the theatre setting. Safety is our number one priority. Always. Above everything else. And sustainability. Our effects need to work eight shows a week, hopefully for a very long time, so the systems need to be robust, and they need to be easily maintained. After we devised the ideal systems, we entered a Research and Development phase. We set up tests; we shot demo videos; we invited creatives into our studio space, and eventually we moved into the theatre. Time is always our biggest constraint, and we were continually refining throughout the preview process.

All our work is inspected by the New York City Fire Department Explosives Unit and the local battalion. Backstage for every show, we have a licensed pyrotechnician, who operates the fire extinguishers and oversees putting anything out. Our stage manager, who is also fire guard certified, is in front of house, with additional fire extinguishers. Communication is key and this includes the actors. I always tell them, ‘If you see something, say something. You are empowered to stop this show if it’s a question of safety.’”

– Lillis Meeh, Special Effects Designer

STAGECRAFT

One of the most iconic scenes in The Outsiders is the rumble at the end of the story. Achieving this effect on stage in live performances involves both art and science. Engineers, lighting designers, plumbers, and environmental conservationists are amongst the many experts who help to build, design, and maintain the rain system and make it look authentic on stage.

This article originally appeared in The Outsiders study guide.

READ MORE

• Historical Context Behind The Outsiders
• The Outsiders: Adapting the Story
• The Outsiders: Directing the Story
• Authentic Storytelling in The Outsiders
• The Outsiders: Storytelling Through Movement
• The Outsiders: Inside the Music and Lyrics

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