Treyana Lema Gubatan

Wheat Fields

"Wheat Fields" is an exploration of stage design, lighting, movement, and narrative set to the song "Wheat Field/Finale Ultimo" from the concept musical "Starry". Over the course of four months, the project went from the ideation & conceptualization phase to planning & storyboarding to physical prototyping. The final product is a video capturing the lighting direction, stage movements, and special effects.

“What I love about theatre is the way everything works together to bring a story to life. From the set to the lighting to the acting, each aspect of a production is essential in telling a narrative and creating a captivating performance.My passion for production design begins with this project. "Wheat Fields" takes the finale scene from the concept musical "Starry" and imagines how it would be staged. Because of the ambiguity of the setting, I decided to go with a minimal set, featuring only the iconic Starry Night tree physically on the stage. Rather, I used lighting and projection to achieve grandeur—I wanted to feature the titular Van Gogh work in a way that felt almost overwhelming and larger than life. With the timing of the music, I use lighting to highlight the singers, choreographing and planning the movements of the actors in tandem with the spotlights. I wear many hats for this projects: artistic director, set designer, storyboard illustrator, choreographer, lighting designer, cinematographer, and stage hands. But, at the end of the day, my role can be summed up in one word: storyteller.”