SHADOW/LAND THE PUBLIC THEATER | playwright: Erika Dickerson-Despenza; director: Candis C. Jones; actors:: Joniece Abbott-Pratt , Lynnette R. Freeman, Perri Gaffney, Lizan Mitchell, Christine Shepard, Joy-Marie Thompson; scenic designer: Jason Ardizzone-West; costume designer: Azalea Fairley; lighting design: Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew; sound Designer: Palmer Hefferan; composer: Delfeayo Marsalis; hair, wig and makeup Design: Earon Chew Nealey; movement director: Jill M. Vallery; intimacy coordinator: Ann James; voice & speech coach: Julie Congress; dialect coach: Dawn-Elin Fraser; production dramaturgs: Nissy Aya, Jack Phillips Moore; production stage manager: Janelle Caso; casting: Heidi Griffiths/Kate Murray; line producer: Audrey Frischman; company manager: Heather Fichthorn; production manager: Haley Miller; associate scenic designers: Emma Antenen, Baron E. Pugh; assistant scenic designers: Gaya Chatterjee, Laura Valenti, & Teresa Williams.

PRESS

THEATER MANIA REVIEW
”Scenic designer Jason Ardizzone-West has created a spectacular scenic effect in which the set is flooded by the filthy, oil-tainted waters of the Mississippi, leaving Ruth and Magalee to take refuge on top of the bar. The moment is arresting, bringing the natural devastation of Katrina into the theater — provided it works (two performances I was scheduled to attend were canceled before the production team finally worked out the technical difficulties of the set).

Still, Ardizzone-West has delivered what the playwright dictated: “This is a waterlogged play,” Dickerson-Despenza writes in the script, “all the water is real.” The superintendent in me shudders at the thought of lasting water damage, but leave it to the Public (I suspect there are still grains of sand nestled in corners of the Anspacher) to fearlessly take such a risk.”
https://www.theatermania.com/news/review-in-shadow-land-two-women-cling-to-life-and-legacy-in-the-rising-waters-of-hurricane-katrina_1701239/

WALL STREET JOURNAL REVIEW
”The terrific set, by Jason Ardizzone-West, captures the bar’s faded but still atmospheric beauty, and the rising of the water is depicted with chilling authenticity, not symbolic imagery”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/shadow-land-review-family-history-in-hurricane-katrina-5400c6ba?st=6ooz04sob4zv9fv&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

NEW YORK TIMES REVIEW
”Of course, what they already have is about to be drowned in oil-black water. It’s a collision course that Dickerson-Despenza and the director Candis C. Jones render in 90 dread-filled, soul-seeking minutes, zooming in on the devastation of lives otherwise seen by outsiders only from a drone-footage distance. Behind the bar, a wall of black-and-white photos chronicle Magalee and Ruth’s ancestors, as floodwaters gurgle up through the floor and leave their survivors stranded on the bar top (set design is by Jason Ardizzone-West).”
link to review

NEW YORK THEATER REVIEW
”Scenic designer Jason Ardizzone-West, in creating an old bar beneath a wall festooned with photographs celebrating its history, helps us understand the once solid legacy of the family business, and lighting designer Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew makes us feel how much it is now in the shadows (and, by extension, suggests the larger issue of the erasure of Black history.)  As the storm worsens, the designers bring us closer to the horror.”
https://newyorktheater.me/2023/05/04/shadow-land-off-broadway-review-in-the-eye-of-hurricane-katrina/

TALKIN’ BROADWAY REVIEW
”Before long, Ruth and Magalee are trapped in the bar as the city floods, which is brilliantly represented by the production's design team, including Jason Ardizzone-West (scenic), Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew (lighting), and Palmer Hefferan (sound). (Azalea Fairley designed the costumes and includes a humorous reminder why mothers have often reminded children to wear their best underwear in case of an emergency.) The two women are stranded on the bar that resembles a deserted island in the middle of a vast, unforgiving sea, and they seek comfort and safety among the spectral inhabitants of Shadowland.”
https://www.talkinbroadway.com/page/ob/05_04_23.html