Creation Stories and All the Important Importants
Venue: Lincoln Center Theater
Premier: Oct 1, 2026
ROLE: Projection Designer
CREDITS:
written by mfoniso udofia . direction by tamilla woodard . movement direction by adesola osakalumi . scenic design by jason ardizzone-west . associate scenic design by emma antenen & sean sanford . lighting design by alan c. edwards . projection design by katherine freer . costume design by sarafina bush . sound design by uptown works . props supervision by nicole rozanski . puppet consultation by aaron haskell . stage management by siena yusi . artistic direction of lct3 by maria manuela goyanes . cast: abigail chinazam onwunali, donnetta lavinia grays, savannah commodore.
DESCRIPTION:
Centering on a midlife Black woman pulled between her many selves—child, future daughter, artist, possible mother—the play pulses with longing as its heroine races against the clock and the limits of her own body. Moving across time and space, from ancestor to AI, from dream cycle to IVF cycle, through music and ritual, Udofia weaves her own surprising folktale on the cost of creation and the impossible work of becoming.
Full Production Recording
Please Note: The Projections in all the night sky sections are very over exposed in the video recording. Please refer to the photographic documentation for a more accurate balance.
Process Overview:
The creation stories collaborative process was a whirlwind. It was a deeply collaborative, all hands on deck race to the finish line. When working on a new work, things are constantly shifting. The creative team needs to be in constant conversation. Things are changing nonstop. The set changed twice. We got new pages every day. We would re-stage the opening, the ending, and everything in between. What was really important that we had clear communication and a lot of passion and respect for the artistry of everyone in the room. This was a heavily multimedia piece with video and sound and lighting constantly in conversation. One element is so closely tied to the other. One of the things that set us up for success is that we put in a lot of work before we got into tech. As the multimedia designer, I was creating renderings and sharing them with the creative team, communicating shared vocabulary, and making sure that everyone knew what the intention was before we got into the space, so we could really hit the ground running.
Part of this process was also organizing a film shoot to create all the content that was projected from the perspective of the little girl and her memories, one of the major things about this is communicating really closely with the costume designer and the scenic designer, so that we could get all the pieces ready for the shoot, which happened a week before we went into tech, and also get all the set dressing for the space. This clear communication structure and deep passion of everybody inside of the creative team really set us up for success.
We worked up until the very last day of previews before we froze the show. There were new pages that morning. There was new content that evening. At the end of the day, we are all extremely proud of the work that we're putting into the world.
Role of Projections:
In Creation Stories the multimedia world embodies three interconnected roles: time/memory, space/place, and text/creation.
Time/Memory
The memories experience and the memories imagined. Echo remembrance. Time is is an echo. Echoes of self that are forgotten
Space/Place
The physical and metaphysical locations in habit, in and out of time with the characters. The patterns of place and space. Circle and spiral existence. Moving through the literal world, but also pulled into the macro of the cosmos and the micro of the cellular.
Text/Creation
The intersection between the natural world, the spiritual world, and relationships with past present future
Research Imagery:
Visual Vocabulary:
Zoetrope
An early pre-film animation device that produces an illusion of motion, consisting of a cylinder with vertical slits, a sequence of pictures, and a rotating base. This rotating, flickering, repetitive processing of time and the world will visualize the cyclical patterns, the loop theGrownWoman has created and is caught in.
Mediation [Glitch, Blur, Focus]
Utilizing the language of glitch aesthetic and datamoshing to rip, shift, and manipulate time. Focus and blur will be folded into this world to also connect to characters’ interior journey.
Natural world, built world, and the Cosmos
The macro echoed in the micro, fractals. Something bigger than you can even imagine that makes you feel small and connected all at the same time. The cells of the body and the patterns in the universe
Language
Literal text. The pages of the play itself. This is the manifestation of creation.
Pre Production Process:
A major part of the pre-production process is getting the design of the system and content approved. Included in this is submitting a projector plot, system diagram, and storyboards, all displayed below.
Projector Plot (click for PDF)
System Diagram (click for PDF)
Storyboards
