Rob Eastman-Mullins, on Scenic Design, Lighting & KITF.

Do you have aspirations in scenic design, lighting, directing, or the performing arts? This is for you.

Meet Rob Eastman-Mullins, an American scenographer, whom it was a delight to have at the 11th edition of the Kampala International Theatre Festival (KITF).

Rob Eastman-Mullins is a scenographer–designing scenery, lighting, and costumes–He is also a Professor of Design & Production at Wake Forest University. He has designed for Syracuse Opera, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, Triad Stage, Florida Studio Theatre, New Theatre (Miami), Mosaic Theatre, Festival Stage, NC Shakespeare Festival, and served as Art Director for the film China. A fan of working on new plays, Rob has designed for premieres with such playwrights as Jeff Baron, Catherine Bush, John Strand, Melinda Lopez, Vanessa Garcia, and Shirley Lauro. His work has been seen on a national tour of Turkey and exhibited in Prague (2019 Prague Quadrennial), Calgary (2022 World Stage Design), Toronto, Seoul, Los Angeles, North Carolina, and Virginia. He serves on the International Committee for USITT and is the US delegate to OISTAT for the Performance Design Commission, for which he also served as Chair. Rob co-founded OISTAT’s Space Design Sub-Commission with Fiona Watt (UK). He was tapped for the UN World Intellectual Property Organization’s ad hoc group on intellectual property in the live arts. Rob holds an MFA (Scenic & Costume Design) from the North Carolina School of the Arts. (Source – remarts.com) 

In conversation with Rob, here’s a few subjects in question, regarding his experience at KITF, and his work as a scenographer.

How have you found the festival so far?

I’ve really had a great time. I’ve learned so much about Uganda and East Africa, a little bit about the continent,  but my favorite thing has just been the connections, the relationships, and meeting people I would never have an opportunity to meet. 

Thank you, you facilitated a workshop at the 11th Edition of KITF. What would you say it was about?

My workshop was about using what you have to create bigger ideas. I’m a professor so I like to have my students design or come up with the idea before they start saying ‘We can’t do this or we can’t do that.’Get the idea, and see what you can do with that idea, other than what you can’t do. 

Watch video of Rob Eastman-Mullins, in Workshop at the Kampala International Theatre Festival.

This is all in line with theatre or about anything?

Probably about anything, but I just do it with mostly the performance design. Well, I am a scenographer so I just work with the atmosphere and not with the performers directly. We also made some improvised performances in the workshop, so they can be used by anybody to develop ideas. We worked with a lot of writers, and directors, and we hope they walk away with something that might change the way they work. 

Is this the first KITF you have attended?

Yes, it is.

How would you rate the scenography? What you’ve seen, from a scenography standpoint?

I was very impressed with the scenography team that is supporting all of these productions. Not all of them needed scenographic support but for them to take on all these productions and build that, is good. 

The show the other night, ‘People of Mine’, obviously that was a very big set and I think considering the time and the resources they had, I think it was very successful, so I am looking forward to what else I’ll see. 

Of course, the German performers brought their own scenography, oh I was also impressed with the first night’s performance ‘The Greenline at the Horizon, the scenography for that, I thought you know, I thought if they had had more rehearsal time with the scenery, they could have used it even better. But that’s the nature of the festival. So yeah, 

So I would love to maybe in future, do a workshop about changing the idea, of having a lot of scenery, to having specific scenery. It’s kind of what I do, I don’t do very many of realistic settings or if its realistic like the play ‘People of Mine’, I won’t have as much stuff, It would have to get to the heart of what the play is about, use something that maybe describes that, You need to illustrate the play. Say you need the wine bar, but I like to try and peel away as much as possible in order to get to something a little less realistic, but that’s my style. 

How would you say that the experience here, in comparison to other experiences you’ve had out there, how would you say that has shaped or reshaped your perspective of theatre? 

That’s a really good question. I teach a class called World Theatre, and it’s part of the reason I like to come to certain places. I don’t know everything about theatre and every country, so getting to see it here, how it’s been done. The thing that strikes me the most is how everybody is so young and that gives me some hope that theatre especially here in Eastern & Southern Africa, or sub-Saharan Africa really, that it’s still going. Still growing. 

In the United States, people talk about theatre dying all the time. It is a lot of competition, right? With movies and the internet and all of that, but it’s different. What we do is different, I love seeing how well the audience is interacting, and I hope that there was a good local audience, and not just the friends and friends, which sometimes happens, but I have no idea. Yesterday there were lots of children, I am hoping to see what develops here. 

I spoke with Steven Rwangyezi today, and we talked about Indigenous performances, and we talked about whether it’s possible for Ugandan theatre to become ‘less’ Western influenced. From the history that’s all we know, we’re seeing in the theatre, but I would love to see those Indigenous traditions, storytelling, narratives, or native performances. And create a uniquely African live performance theatre. Or at least more indigenous and less colonial, and I am a descendant of colonialists, so yeah, I think it’s possible. 

These Below, are questions in detail regarding scenic design and other works Rob is involved in.

1. Interacting with your work, I was mesmerized by your scenography, but your paintings like ‘Son of Krampus’, ‘Light of the World’, and ‘Industrial Landscape’ are even more intriguing.  How do you capture such neat, highly creative, and mind-blowing pieces? What inspires you?

That’s interesting that you were most struck by those, as I do far less of that. The Light of the World is a copy of a William Holman Hunt painting that I had to replicate painting with dry pigment (a difficult experience) as a project for graduate school. The Industrial Landscape is also a graduate school painting project. Both were conventional paintings (except that no one uses dry pigment anymore). The Son of Krampus is actually a digital painting, however. I took that on to explore digital media with the app ProCreate. That’s not a very satisfying response, I know. My painting style was heavily influenced by my rendering professor in graduate school at the North Carolina School of the Arts: Franco Colavecchia. Franco emphasized the use of light and chiaroscuro in painting. While we don’t paint in a similar style, this influence certainly carried over in my own painting identity.

2. How have you managed to deliver or create ‘out-of-the-box’ high-quality work over the years?

Research, research, research. But not the, what I call, denotative research; the real stuff like architecture or furniture or clothing or landscape. No, I relish the CONNOTATIVE research; the images that may not seem to directly relate to the script but feel like the play; that evoke the same emotions and ideas that the script does. I love looking at modern sculpture or abstract painting or evocative photography to tap into feeling what the play is REALLY about. How it makes me feel, what is emotive about the work. That part of the process never fails to yield compelling results.

3. Have there been cases where perhaps you’ve compromised and felt that your scenic designs, lighting or other works did not yield the desired effect? How did you deal with the situation?

Almost every time. That is not to say I am never satisfied with my work; I nearly always am. But one of the most important parts of the design process is reflection; looking back at the work and the process and critiquing yourself and finding what you would do differently if you could. There have been a very small handful of projects in which I was disappointed. These are almost always from somewhat external circumstances: not enough production time, or an irresolute director. But most of the time I push myself and the team to extract a good result for the production.

4. How do you respond to a dissatisfied client or audience, if there have been cases like that? Or even, personal dissatisfaction from your end?

If a director is communicating dissatisfaction with something, I try to talk through the issue and get to the heart of what they really want or what they feel they aren’t getting or what they are seeing that I am not. It is far more difficult with a director who has some issue but doesn’t feel comfortable expressing displeasure or concern. I can’t fix what I don’t know about, and I try not to let any of my work become precious to me so that I can’t alter it. Those cases are rare, but I’ve been there.

5. How’s the process of creating these scenic designs like for you?

Any scenic design, or the problem ones? I assume you mean any scenic design. I am a big believer in process in the design of ANYTHING. If you work the process, you will have a successful result nearly every time. If you circumvent the process or give one of the steps short shrift, you will sabotage yourself every time. To me the first two steps are the most important: Analysis and Research. If you don’t do those properly, the following steps will always be compromised.

6. Some scenography from Macbeth for instance, I find it very creative, minimalist, and mind-boggling. How do you come up with designs like that? Do you also have a background in architecture?

It’s funny you say that. Before I went back to school to get a terminal degree, I was considering performance design or architecture. Ever since I was a little kid I loved architecture. I would draw dream buildings or restaurant groundplans, etc. I took drafting in high school and would have taken architecture classes, had I not moved to a place that didn’t offer such things. Ultimately my decision was made because I didn’t want to take some additional math and science classes that I hadn’t taken in undergrad! So, by avoiding some math, here I am. I actually think it was a good decision, as I believe that the profession of architecture, as we have known it, is dying. It’s rarely the creative pursuit it once was.

7. Blending lighting, costumes, and set design to creative mind-blowing scenic designs. The dynamics of all these, how’s your journey been like?

I love designing across multiple disciplines for a production. This is more common in Europe where often scenery and costumes go hand-in-hand. But the US is increasingly specialized, so fewer designers design in more than one discipline. I am probably really a director at heart (another field I considered pursuing at one point), so I like developing the whole picture. I enjoy lighting my own sets (and then it is always easier to blame the scenic designer for your problems). But the opportunity to design costumes is rare because I don’t build clothes or make alterations. That’s been disappointing because I really enjoy doing costumes and I think I am pretty good at it. I have had a few times where I was able to design scenery, lighting, AND costumes and I really relish those experiences. I am always searching for the right production to do that again.

Below is another video Interview, where Rob shares more about his workshop ‘Found Objectives’ at KITF.

Enjoyed this Blog? Find more on KITF by tapping the ‘Performing Arts’ and ‘Blogs’ section on the Menu.

The Kampala International Theatre Festival (KITF) is an annual event that brings together theatre practitioners from around the world to showcase their work. The festival is platform for artists to share their stories, exchange ideas, and connect with audiences. Produced by Tebere Arts Foundation, this year’s (2024) / the 11th edition featured artists from Uganda, Germany, Rwanda, Columbia, Namibia, South Africa, Kenya among others.

This Blog has been sponsored by Tebere Arts Foundation.