AJ Wester -Director
Productions - Musical Theatre
Sondheim and St. Petersburg OPera
One of my greatest joys that I have had in my directing career has been directing two of Sondheim's brilliant shows: Into the Woods and A Little Night Music. This was St. Petersburg Opera's first ventures into musical theater. It is always a challenge to do musicals. These shows have to flow. The Palladium in St. Petersburg is a former Christian Sceince church. There is no wing space and no fly space. Set pieces had to be minimal and they couldn't move. In both shows the costumes told the story more than the set. Prouduction-wise I went for clean looks on both proudcitons. This brings more focus to the actors. I was fortunate with both casts to have fabulous singer actors.
MTX and Merit School of Music
Much of the most interesting work that I have been doing has been with teenagers. Creating ownership is a theme in my work. In Ragtime, the hope that the students would create the iconogphy that could be used in the telling of the story through graphic images that were projected on an above screen. In OKLAHOMA, we collaborated with the Animation and art studios to create the world of Oklahoma in the turn of the Century. In ONCE UPON A MATTRESS the students worked with the design team to create a new version of an old classic.