Esai's Table

In Esai's Table, destiny meets eternity for three young black men atop an ancient magical table in this mythic tale of black lives, friendship, family, and love. The stage play premiered in 2019 at Briggs Opera House with plans for an Off-Broadway premiere at Cherry Lane Theatre. I created animations to be projected on the stage set.

Background

In Esai's Table, destiny meets eternity for three young black men atop an ancient magical table in this mythic tale of black lives, friendship, family, and love. The play is co-produced by Vermont's JAG Productions and Cherry Lane Theatre in New York City. The play was written by Nathan Yungerberg. The JAG team approached Dartmouth's DALI Lab about working with their illustrator, Patience Lekien to create animations that would be projected on the stage set.

Mr. Jones

Below is one of the animations I created for the project. The decision to include animations of this particular style within the play was related to one of the characters, Michael, who is passionate about drawing comics. Michael's infant son is the subject of his comics and within the surreal story of this play, his comics turn into animations about his family and the families of his two companions: David and Adam. This particular animation features a conversation between David (portrayed by an actor) and his father Mr. Jones (depicted with this animation projected on the back wall of the set).