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Medea

Project type

Set and Lighting Design (Paper Project)

Location

NYU Tisch School of the Arts

Date

Fall 2025

Deliverables

- Concept development and visual research
- Massing and scale modeling

Set and Lighting Design by Seoin (Kacy) Kim.

This project was developed as a class concept and is entirely fictional. It does not represent any existing production.

Medea is a Greek tragedy about love, betrayal, revenge, and, above all, fate. As a kid, I found classics distant and intimidating, so I wanted to make this classic feel less classy. Inspired by children's pop-up books, I designed the stage as a visual storytelling that is easy to follow. The set unveils from right to left, with its height rising and falling to match the story's structure. I wanted to tell the story with intuitive but interesting visuals.

The Concept

The design is inspired by the Red String of Fate, representing the invisible bonds that connect the characters. A red beam and physical strings attached to the actors become more tangled as the story unfolds, showing how fate and personal choices trap them.

Mirrors are another key element. They reflect both the characters and the audience, suggesting that revenge always comes back to the person seeking it.

Together, these elements portray Medea not simply as a villain or a victim, but as a human being caught between love, betrayal, and fate.

The Space

The audience sits close to the stage, creating an intimate experience. Their eyes naturally travel from right to left as the story unfolds. Stark lighting and a limited palette of blue, red, and black guide the emotional journey: blue represents sorrow and distance, red symbolizes fate, passion, and violence, and black reflects grief, death, and the cost of revenge.

The Execution

The final project included a fully built scale model, supported by lighting studies that explore how beams, shadows, and reflections strengthen each emotional moment.
Building it allowed me to test and learn composition, sightlines, and lighting before finalizing the design.