James Faerron resides in San Francisco, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, where he presently is the Producing Manager for Z Space and Co-Artistic Director for Encore Theatre Company. He is also the Resident Set Designer for theater companies Campo Santo and Encore Theatre and the Technical Theater Instructor for San Francisco University High School

San Francisco University High School

San Francisco University High School is an academically focused, college preparatory, private high school located in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, California...

.

James’ design career started in Miami, Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

, where he worked for The Actor’s Playhouse and The Area Stage Theater Company. His move to San Francisco in 1996 led to becoming the Technical Director and Production Manager for The Magic Theatre

Magic Theatre

The Magic Theatre is a theatre company founded in 1967, presently based at the historic Fort Mason Center on San Francisco's northern waterfront...

 where he met and joined forces with Lisa Steindler (Encore Theatre) and Sean San Jose (Campo Santo.)

James is known as a minimalist designer. His designs focus on the word and forward movement of the script. For the past 15 years he has concentrated on developing new plays and designing sets for many World Premieres by playwrights such as Octavio Solis, Adam Bock

Adam Bock

Adam Bock is a Canadian playwright currently living in the United States. Adam was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He is an artistic associate of the Shotgun Players, an award-winning San Francisco theater group. His play Medea Eats was produced in 2000 by Clubbed Thumb, who subsequently...

, Erin Cressida Wilson

Erin Cressida Wilson

Erin Cressida Wilson is an American playwright, screenwriter, professor, and author.Wilson is known for the 2002 film Secretary, which she adapted from a Mary Gaitskill short story...

, Denis Johnson

Denis Johnson

Denis Hale Johnson is an American author who is known for his short-story collection Jesus' Son and his novel Tree of Smoke , which won the National Book Award. He also writes plays, poetry and non-fiction.- Biography :...

, Naomi Iizuka

Naomi Iizuka

Naomi Iizuka is a playwright. Iizuka's works often have a non-linear storyline and are influenced by her multicultural background.Iizuka's mother is an American Latina and her father is a Japanese banker. Born in Tokyo, Iizuka grew up in Japan, Indonesia, Holland, and Washington, D.C., United...

, Greg Sarris

Greg Sarris

Gregory Michael Sarris is a college professor, author, screenwriter, and a member and current Chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria. He was chosen in 2005 to fill the Endowed Chair in Native American Studies at Sonoma State University...

, Mark Jackson

Mark Jackson

Mark Jackson may refer to:* Mark "Jacko" Jackson , Australian rules footballer and actor* Mark Jackson, HarperCollins attorney associated with Judith Regan's firing and subsequent receipt of an apology and legal settlement...

, Yussef El Guindi, Loretta Grecco, Jose Rivera

Jose Rivera

Jose Rivera may refer to:*José Antonio Primo de Rivera , Spanish politician*José Eustasio Rivera , Colombian politician and writer*José Rivera , American playwright...

, Carl Djerassi

Carl Djerassi

Carl Djerassi is an Austrian-American chemist, novelist, and playwright best known for his contribution to the development of the first oral contraceptive pill . Djerassi is emeritus professor of chemistry at Stanford University.He participated in the invention in 1951, together with Mexican Luis E...

, Dave Eggers

Dave Eggers

Dave Eggers is an American writer, editor, and publisher. He is known for the best-selling memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and for his more recent work as a screenwriter. He is also the co-founder of the literacy project 826 Valencia.-Life:Eggers was born in Boston, Massachusetts,...

, Philip Kan Gotanga, Kevin Fisher

Kevin Fisher

Kevin Fisher is a fictional character on the CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless, portrayed by Emmy Award-winning actor Greg Rikaart since July 11, 2003. Rikaart won a Daytime Emmy Award for his portrayal of Kevin in 2005....

, Jessica Hagedorn

Jessica Hagedorn

Jessica Tarahata Hagedorn is a Filipino-American playwright, writer, poet, storyteller, musician, and multimedia performance artist.-Biography:...

, Teresa Walsh, Luis Saguar, Jorge Ignacio Cortinas

Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas

Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas is an American playwright. He first studied playwrighting with Octavio Solis, Cherríe Moraga and María Irene Fornés. He received an MFA from Brown University and currently lives in New York.-Plays:...

 and Zayd Dohrn.

Selected Designs for World Premieres

• Peter Nachtrieb, "T.I.C.," directed by Ken Prestininzi (Encore Theater);
• Zayd Dohrn, "Sick," directed by Aimee Hayes (Southern Rep);
• Junot Diaz, "Fuku Americanus," based on his book "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao", (Campo Santo);
• Octavio Solis, “Bethlehem,” directed by Octavio Solis (Campo Santo);
• Octavio Solis, “The Ballad of Pancho and Lucy,” directed by Octavio Solis (Campo Santo);
• Octavio Solis, “June in a Box,” directed by Octavio Solis (Campo Santo);
• Adam Bock, “Five Flights,” directed by Kent Nicholson (Encore Theatre);
• Adam Bock, “The Shaker Chair,” directed by Tracy Ward (Encore Theatre and Shotgun Player);
• Adam Bock, “Thursday,” directed by Kent Nicholson (Encore Theatre);
• Adam Bock, “The Typographer’s Dream,” directed by Annie Kauffman (Encore Theatre);
• Erin Cressida Wilson, directed by Rhodesa Jones and Margo Hall (Campo Santo) (Co-designed with Donyalle Werle);
• Denis Johnson, “Hellhound On My Trail,” directed by Val Hendrickson (Campo Santo);
• Denis Johnson, “Shoppers Carried by Escalators Into The Flames,” directed by Nancy Benjamin (Campo Santo);
• Denis Johnson, “Psychos Never Dream,” directed by Darrel Larson (Campo Santo);
• Denis Johnson, “Purvis,” directed by Deliah McDougall (Campo Santo);
• Denis Johnson, “Soul of a Whore,” directed by Nancy Benjamin (Campo Santo);
• Denis Johnson, Stories From “Jesus Son,” directed by Sean San Jose (Campo Santo);
• Naomi Iizuka, “Polaroid Stories,” directed by Delia McDougall (Campo Santo);
• Naomi Iizuka, “Hamlet: Blood in the Brain,” directed by Johnathan Moscone (Campo Santo and Cal Shakes);
• Greg Sarris, “Joyride,” directed by Margo Hall (Campo Santo);
• Claire Chafee, “Darwin’s Finches,” directed by Lisa Steindler (Encore Theatre);
• Terry Tarnoff, “The Bone Man of Benares,” directed by Mark Routhier (Encore Theatre);
• Mark Jackson, “American $uicide,” directed by Mark Jackson (Encore Theatre);
• Adam Rapp, “Dreams of the Salthorse,” directed by Sturgis Warner (Encore Theatre);
• Yussef El Guindi, “Back of The Throat,” directed by Tony Kelly (Golden Thread);
• Yussef El Guindi, “Jihad Jones and the Kalishnikov Babes,” directed by Mark Routhier (Golden Thread);
• Loretta Grecco, “Passage,” directed by John Rodaz (Area Stage and Coconut Grove Playhouse);
• Jose Rivera, “References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot,” directed by Hector Correa (Campo Santo);
• Carl Djerassi, “Calculus,” directed by Andrea Gordon;
• Dave Eggers, “Sacrament!,” directed by Kent Nicholson (Campo Santo);
• Philip Kan Gotanga, “Fist of Roses,” directed by Philip Kan Gotanga (Campo Santo);
• Kevin Fisher, “Monkey Room,” directed by Mark Routhier (Magic Theater);
• Jessica Hagedorn, “Stairway to Heaven,” Nancy Benjamin (Campo Santo);
• Teresa Walsh, “Body Revolution,” directed by Roberto Varea ;
• Luis Saguar, “Hotel Angulo,” directed by Margo Hall (Campo Santo);
• Jorge Ignacio Cortinas, “Maleta Mulata,” directed by Paulo Nunes-Ueno (Campo Santo)

Other Selected Set Design Credits

• "Skin" by Steve Yockey (Encore and Climate Theater) Directed by Mark Routhier;
• "Mauritius" by Theresa Rebeck (Magic Theatre) Directed by Loretta Grecco;
• "The Brother's Size" by Tarrel Alvin McCraney (Magic Theater) Co-designed with Sarah Sidman and directed by Octavio Solis;
• "The Seafarer" by Conor McPherson (Southern Rep) Directed by Mark Routhier;
• “Texts for Nothing” by Samuel Becket (Magic Theater) Performed by Joseph Chaiken;
• “Hidden Parts” by Lynne Alvarez (Encore Theatre) Directed by Lisa Steindler;
• “Simpatico” by Sam Shepard (Encore Theatre and Campo Santo) Directed by Margo Hall;
• “A Thousand Clowns” by Herb Gardner (Actors Playhouse, Miami Fl.) Directed by David Arisco;
• “The Last of the Red Hot Lovers” (Actors Playhouse, Miami Fl.) Directed by David Arisco;
• “Tomfoolery” (Actors Playhouse, Miami Fl.) Directed by David Arisco;
• “Five Flights” (Rattlestick Playwright's Theater - NYC) Directed by Kent Nicholson;
• Selected Musicals: Oliver!, A... My Name is Alice, West Side Story, A Chorus Line, Gun Metal Blues, Anything Goes, Pippin.

Selected Producing Credits

• "The Companion Piece" conceived by Beth Wilmurt and directed by Mark Jackson (Encore Theatre and Z Space)
• "Octopus" by Steve Yockey (Encore Theatre and Magic Theatre)
• “Five Flights” by Adam Bock (Encore Theatre, San Francisco; Rattlestick Playwright's Theater, NYC);
• “The Shaker Chair” by Adam Bock (Encore Theatre and Shotgun Players, San Francisco);
• “Simpatico” by Sam Shepard (Encore Theatre and Campo Santo, San Francisco);
• “The Trail of Her Inner Thigh” by Erin Cressida Wilson (Campo Santo, San Francisco);
• “Hidden Parts” by Lynne Alvarez (Encore Theatre, San Francisco);
• "In On It" written and directed by Daniel MacIvor (Encore Theatre, San Francisco);
• “Thursday” by Adam Bock (Encore Theatre Company);
• “I Think I Like Girls” by Leigh Fondakowsiki (Encore Theatre and Black Sheep, San Francisco);
• “Darwin’s Finches” by Claire Chaffee (Encore Theatre, San Francisco);
• “The Typographer’s” Dream by Adam Bock (Encore Theatre, San Francisco);
• “Dreams of a Salthorse” by Adam Rapp (Encore Theatre, San Francisco);
• “The Bone Man of Benares” (Encore Theatre, San Francisco);
• “American $uicide” by Mark Jackson (Encore Theatre and Z-Studio, San Francisco)
• "Skin" by Steve Yockey (Encore Theatre and Climate Theater, San Francisco)

Other Credits

• Design Consultant: "The Lily's Revenge" by Taylor Mac (Magic Theatre);
• Tour Stage Manager / Set Designer: “Encuentros del Son” (Mexico, California Tour);
• Road Manager: “Klezmer Mania” (North America Tour);
• Stage Manager / Light Designer: “Gamelan Sekar Jaya” (North America Tour);
• Production Manager and Technical Director: Magic Theater, San Francisco;
• Technical Director and Resident Set Designer: Actor’s Playhouse, Miami, FL;
• Resident Set Designer: Area Stage Theater Company, Miami, FL;

Associations

• Encore Theater Company (Set Designer and Producer) - San Francisco;
• Campo Santo - San Francisco;
• The Climate Theater - San Francisco;
• The Magic Theater - San Francisco;
• Word For Word - San Francisco;
• Rattlestick Playwright's Theater - New York;
• Shotgun Players - Berkeley;
• Intersection For The Arts - San Francisco;
• East Bay Center For The Arts - Oakland;
• Noh Space - San Francisco;
• American Conservatory Theater - San Francisco;
• The Aurora Theater - Berkeley;
• The Actors’ Playhouse - Coral Gables, FL;
• Golden Thread Productions - San Francisco;
• Thick Description - San Francisco;
• The ESP Project - San Francisco;
• The Djerassi Foundation - Woodside, CA;
• Area Stage Theater Company - Miami, FL;
• The Z-Space Studios - San Francisco;
• CAL Shakes - Orinda, CA;
• Southern Rep - New Orleans, LA;
• San Francisco University High School - San Francisco;
• University of San Francisco - San Francisco

Selected Awards

• Best Set Design, Bay Area Critics Circle, for "Hellhound On My Trail" by Denis Johnson
• Outstanding Set Design, Goodman Award, for "Hellhound On My Trail" by Denis Johnson
• Outstanding Set Design, Goodman Award, for "Hidden Parts" by Lynne Alvarez
• Outstanding Set Design, Goodman Award, for "Polaroid Stories" by Naomi Iizuka
• Best Set Design, Carbonell Award Nomination, for "Passages" by Loretta Grecco

Selected Reviews

“Hidden Parts”
San Francisco Examiner – “Steindler and her designers make excellent use of the Thick's tall, narrow performance space. Faerron's striking set uses two rows of tall, late-summer-tasseled cornstalks to suggest vast fields, with a two-tiered, nightmarishly skewed farmhouse growing out of the opposite wall. The crazy-angled upper porch, with its antique rocker, is the aerie from which crude, menacing, hawk-eyed family patriarch Thomas Arn (John Robb) surveys his domain. The patio below - with its half-heartedly festive party decorations - is the realm of his nervous, absent-minded wife Cynthia (Nancy Madden).”

“Back of The Throat”
San Francisco Chronicle – “James Faerron's grungy, low-rent, basement apartment

Basement apartment

A basement apartment is an apartment located below street level, underneath another structure—usually an apartment building, but possibly a house or a business. Rent in basement apartments is usually much lower than it is in above-ground units, due to a number of deficiencies common to basement...

 set is a character- defining extension of the semi-bohemian, intellectually curious, impoverished would-be writer Khaled”

“Monkey Room”
Talking Broadway – “James Faerron has devised a breathtaking meticulous lab room that is perfect in every detail.”

“Shaker Chair”
Talking Broadway – “James Faerron has devised a strikingly pristine set with a plain beige wall with an entrance doorway and two significant chairs: a stern Shaker chair and a more comfortable chair.”
San Francisco Chronicle - “Dolly wallows self-indulgently in her personal soap opera and a broad, decadently comfortable armchair - the only such luxury in James Faerron's strikingly pristine set, its spartan white walls and clean lines echoing the architecture of the former church that's become Shotgun's Ashby Stage.”

“Beirut / Kvetch”
Miami News – “Scenic designer James Faerron turns the stage into a cavernous hovel by using a pastiche of hurricane shutters, graffiti, and wood. This intricate set finds itself transformed on alternating nights when an entirely different show, the two-act Kvetch, takes the stage. The new set, a black-and-white op-art representation of the inside of a neurotic brain (designed, again, by Faerron) proves to be the most imaginative aspect of this overwrought comedy...”

“Hellhound On My Trail”
Berkeley Daily Planet – “James Faerron’s set is quite striking. Windows downstage left and right plunge upstage center with a highly exaggerated angle of perspective. In the first act, with the addition of well-used wooden furniture, it is a schoolish bureaucratic interrogation room. In the second act, a hotel coffee shop. In the third act, a no-frills Texas motel.”

“Psychos Never Dream”
San Francisco Weekly – “James Faerron has built an ideal split-level set, with crisp town scenes on top and disordered farm scenes below...”
San Francisco Chronicle – “...as James Faerron's inventively versatile set – beautifully used by Larson throughout – unfolds to reveal a stunningly shoddy ranch interior...”

“Five Flights”
Curtain Up – “James Faerron's abstract set manages to accommodate it all, including some modest projections to announce the "scenes" and a locker room encounter that creates a mini-hockey match with an empty shampoo bottle retrieved from an off-stage shower.”
San Francisco Chronicle – “Everything rises on an updraft with the script. James Faerron's set, exquisitely lit by David Szlasa, uses a few white benches and a French curve to say everything that's required.”

“Pancho and Lucy”
San Francisco Chronicle – “James Faerron's set, creatively lit by Jim Cave, is a perfect low-rent bar, from its odd art and half-working beer signs to its Elvis-bedecked corner bandstand….”
SF Guardian – “... sharply choreographed by codirector Erika Schuch on James Faerron's lovingly detailed, atmospheric set.”

“The Typographer’s Dream”
San Francisco Chronicle – “The stage is stripped to its bare walls for Faerron's creatively spare set, the floor covered with a network of schematic architectural outlines that will set up a clever homage-lampoon riff on Lars von Trier's "Dogville."”

“Soul of a Whore”
San Francisco Chronicle – “Masha's, John's and HT's lives continue to intertwine with Jenks' as the action moves from bus station to intensive care unit to death row, each location beautifully suggested by shifts of the concrete-like, structural frames of James Faerron's set and changes in Jim Cave's architectural lights and Drew Yerys' ambient sound effects.”

“June in a Box”
San Francisco Chronicle – “Composer Beth Custer and accordionist Isabel Douglass strike up an engaging corrido, framed in an odd trapezoid window in the patchwork junkyard wall of James Faerron's striking set.”

“Stairway to Heaven”
Oakland Tribune – “....she cooks elaborate meals in a dingy apartment (the wonderfully stained, crumbling set is by James Faerron) and dictates her eloquent, poetic memories to Mickey, a possible junkie, who scribbles it all into a notebook.”

External links

• http://www.sfuhs.org/page.cfm?p=20&start=21&dgid=1
• http://www.stageclick.com/person/20959.aspx
• http://www.curtainup.com/5flights.html
• http://www.goldenthread.org/press.htm
• http://www.encoretheatrecompany.org/
• http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117935668.html?categoryid=33&cs=1&nid=2562
• http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/04/20/DDG70CB2HI1.DTL
• http://www.terrytarnoff.com/plays_reviews.php
• http://www.crisishopkins.com/
• http://www.theaterdogs.net/category/octavio-solis/
• http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_20050422/ai_n15822313
• http://www.curtainup.com/balladofpanchoandlucy.html
• http://www.talkinbroadway.com/regional/sanfran/s960.html
• http://www.playbill.com/news/article/83321.html
• http://www1.sfbg.com/entry.php?page=3&entry_id=2239&catid=&volume_id=254&issue_id=307&volume_num=41&issue_num=43
• http://sfbayguardian.com/entry.php?catid=160&entry_id=2939
• http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117936817.html?categoryid=33&cs=1
• http://www.aislesay.com/SF-DARWINS.html
• http://www.ibabuzz.com/backstage/category/z-plays/
• http://www.eastbayexpress.com/artsculture/hog_in_the_limelight/Content?oid=605041
• http://www.rattlestick.org/pastShows/65
• http://www.allbusiness.com/services/amusement-recreation-services/4567136-1.html
• http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/02/11/DDGILB8VSL1.DTL
• http://www.playbill.com/news/article/116545.html
• http://www.miaminewtimes.com/1995-10-05/culture/loud-and-fast-doesn-t-always-rule/2
• http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb1437/is_199906/ai_n5939502
• http://www.shotgunplayers.org/castshaker.htm
• http://www.talkinbroadway.com/regional/sanfran/s947.html
• http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2007-12-18/article/28757?headline=The-Theater-The-Shaker-Chair-at-Ashby-Stage
• http://www.sfbaytimes.com/index.php?article_id=6105&sec=article
• http://www.magictheatre.org/season0708/monkey_bios.htm
• http://listenandbeheard.net/archives/2006/08/09/fascinating-and-funny-dream-in-berkeley/
• http://www.examiner.com/a-568881~The__American__way_of_death.html
• http://foghorn.usfca.edu/en/2378/scene/252/
• http://www1.sfbg.com/printable_entry.php?entry_id=2130
• http://www.sfbaytimes.com/index.php?sec=article&article_id=8098
• http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2000-08-08/article/997?headline=-Hellhound-could-be-the-start-of-something-big
• http://www.miaminewtimes.com/1995-07-27/culture/not-so-deep-house/2