CATS Café 3D Miniature
Art Direction Final, December 2022
Eve Cauley, set decorator for Home Alone (1990) and production designer of Bound (1996), tasked my class with a 3D dance model of our choosing that could take place at the Stevens Center in Winston Salem. Eve, who comes from a theatre background, believed it was important for production designers to familiarize themselves with the parts of a theatre in the event that a film takes place in one. Having done musical theatre in high school, I chose to create a model after CATS.
Wide shot of the model
High angled shot of center stage
Close-up of the set, with scaled-figures from the show
Cat-themed menu items on the left proscenium wall
Enlarged cat playground on the right proscenium wall
Overhead view of the model
Interchangeable wall with cat wallpaper
Interchangeable legs with cat-ified famous paintings
Interchangeable legs with plant decor
Concept & Design
My model concept came from the question: what if CATS the musical took place in a cat café? CATS is known for it's junkyard stage design, typically lit and colored blue and purple from the night sky. My version was to be a much lighter, earthy, clean set inspired by the cat cafés of Japan. Both versions, however, would feature oversized furniture and decor, as our human dancers are only the size of cats. As a result, the design features large paintings, fixtures that drift out of the audience's view, and even a wall mounted playground with a scratching post. I incorporated the natural wood tones from the balsa and birch into my designs, and it pulled the palette together very nicely.