From the very first production meeting, it was clear that Roustabout was something so incredibly unique and special to those on the design team and crew.

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The Haggenbeck-Wallace circus was one of the largest and most famous three ring circuses in the United States in the early 1900s, only second to the Barnum and Bailey Circus. The spectacle created in their shows astounded and stole the hearts of thousands of onlookers. On June 22, 1918, the circus train carrying well over 400 circus performers, workers, and supplies was hit by an oncoming military train. The accident resulted in the injuries of an estimated 100 people and roughly 86 killed. The real total of injuries and deaths are still unknown to this day due to the scale of which the bodies were unable to be identified. The lost souls taken that early June morning now reside in a mass grave in the Woodlawn Cemetery in Chicago with many gravestones marked plainly as "unknown female #35" or "unknown male #24" simply because their remains couldn't be identified after the massive accident. The two on board of the military train were released from all manslaughter charges simply because the "circus folk" were deemed replaceable in society; thus, never offering those whose voices were silenced the chance for proper redemption.

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This show gave our team the chance to honor those who weren't honored properly in the past, making the desire to put on the best show possible that much greater.

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Our director, David ("Dave") Rzeszutek wanted his concept to revolve around the works of Bertolt Brecht and meta-theatre, meaning a lot of the choices for lighting was to influence the weight of the production, as the set was a simple 7 wooden cubes, and 5 circus posters that rolled in at certain times in the production. There was to be exposed lighting instruments and an exposed back wall of our theatre (until the final song, that is), showing the staircases, ladders, and other technical elements that would otherwise be covered up in a realistic production. This desire to show the audience that we were putting on a production in a theatre, not suspending their reality as we would normally, changed a lot of things I wanted in the process. In true Brechtian inspiration, I utilized a lot of isolation lighting and stark lines with shutter cuts onstage to showcase different settings (i.e. the Neo-futurist reality versus the reality of the Haggenbeck-Wallace circus folk) and also a way to illuminate the rolling circus posters throughout their time onstage.

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From the beginning of my reading the script, I wanted to utilize the classic Edison lamps onstage somehow as a practical to represent specific characters in the production. Not only were the lamps a nod to each character somehow, but they were also a way to reflect the time period the circus took place in. After researching specific lamp styles for several days, I decided upon the original style of lamp that Thomas Edison was using back in the early 1900s, this was also a fun nod to the character of Thomas Edison in the production itself.

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There was also a utilization of LED dome lights to mimic the look of a classic marquee sign for the called-for "Fact" and "Fiction" signs within the script that reflected what each scene or specific moment meant in the production. The patch in the lighting board made the sign look as though some of the pucks didn't work until the finale "Heaven" sequence in which all of the lights were magically restored and colorful once more.