SQUEEZE
By Trista Baldwin & The UMO ENSEMBLE
Scenic & Sound Design
Directed by Elizabeth Klob
April 2025
Lighting Design by Madison Dillon, Costume Design by Elizabeth Klob
Physical theatre on an intimate stage…
In a landscape shaped by climate change, housing insecurity, wealth disparity, and social disconnection, our characters adapt to seek stability, connection, and space. Meeting in a bar, they ponder, "How did we get here?" Through humor, grace, and physical skill, "SQUEEZE" challenges us to adapt and connect in a world on the edge.
The scenic design worked to expand the world of Seattle Public Theater, a very intimate space. By painting the wall and floor with a white base, the perception of space increased. These characters are adrift in a vast world marred by rain, floods, and a changing society, and the set mirrors this. Abstract shapes evoke continents adrift, isolation, rivers, sky, lightning, great upheavals of all sorts. Painted primarily with coarse brooms and brushes, the paint feels alive and frenetic, much like the performers. Plastic sheeting is used on the back wall to create texture and catch light. The plastic also continues the motif of flooding, as plastic tarps are often used after a disaster to patch a roof, or keep water at bay. In this case, the plastic is eventually used to create water, a greate flood that forces the characters together in the end.
The UMO Ensemble - Seattle Public Theater