Press
The Music Man
Olney Theatre Center, 2022
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Washington Post:
“Honed by a creative team that includes deaf artists [Sandra] Frank, director of ASL Michelle Banks, and scenic designer Ethan Sinnott, this “Music Man” imagines a River City that’s no mere huckster’s patsy. Rather, it’s a place where a substantial deaf community is fully integrated with hearing residents. The vision is a vivid one, thanks to the gossipy, companionable, squabbling interactions of the characters on the nifty, stylized set, with its farmland greens and picket-fence whites. A fine-sounding 10-person band led by music director Christopher Youstra arcs along the back of the stage.”
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Maryland Theatre Guide:
“Ethan Sinnott’s scenic designs are very clever and Rosemary Pardee’s costumes designs are period and reflect each character…[…]…“The Music Man” is a thunderous success. Don’t miss this most amazing production. It’s a summertime must and perfect for all ages.”
Broadway World:
“Scenic Designer Ethan Sinnott has created a unique set that is a significant departure from the way that the show is traditionally staged. (The Music Man is a throwback to the golden age of musicals, when scenes and songs were deliberately written to be performed in front of the curtain, while elaborate set changes took place behind it.) The set is spare and minimalist, with a large, circular platform taking up most of the center of the stage, with a corkscrewing ramp built into it that allows for a wide variety of levels and entrance points. Fixed lattice work creates a light and airy feel, and smaller moving lattice pieces are used to design smaller spaces. The minimal set allows for faster scene changes, which comes in handy, because the show runs long. Sinnott also cleverly used the fly system to lower a constellation of band instruments as The Wells Fargo Wagon brought the first act to a stirring conclusion.”
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A Raisin in the Sun
National Players Season 72, 2021-22
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Maryland Theatre Guide:
“Richardson’s direction is interesting. He uses large trunks and crates to create furniture, stoves, and other household items. Props are often placed in these pieces after use which helps speed the production. (It is also perfect for a company that travels.) He helps the actors hit all the right notes in interpreting Hansberry’s masterpiece. This ingenious set is the work of scenic designer, Ethan Sinnott, creating that small flat in Chicago’s Southside. Jen Gillette’s costumes also embody that time and place. I most appreciated Ruth’s clothing which was neat, clean, unstylish, and worn. Sarah Tundermann’s lighting design and Roc Lee’s sound design also help to the create mood and authenticity.”
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Native Son​
Mosaic Theater Company, 2019
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Washington Post:
"Washed in William K. D’Eugenio’s high-drama lighting, Ethan Sinnott’s stylized Chicago-streetscape set frequently becomes a canvas for Dylan Uremovich’s projections (falling snow, the Dalton mansion, a 1930s newsreel and more). Nick Hernandez’s sound design (including a furnace’s murmurs) adds to the pervasive air of danger. With these sensory cues evoking a restless apprehensiveness, it often feels as if we are inside Bigger’s mind as he recalls and broods over the factors that have enveloped him — and the Black Rat — in tragedy."
DC Theatre Scene:
"Ethan Sinnott’s set features a huge photo of Bigger broken into about twenty separate shards. It is distorted, but still recognizable. This may have been meant as a metaphor for the effect which White racist society had on Bigger, but it also serves as a capsule description of what Kelley has done to Wright’s story, which is also distorted, though still recognizable."
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DC Metro Theatre Arts:
"Set designer Ethan Sinnott’s cold, lifeless building façade captures the silent grayness of tenement living. He uses a minimum of props that center upon two large, imposing trunks that symbolize the secrets held in Bigger Thomas’ turbulent life."
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Broadway World:
"The sparse, versatile set (the work of Ethan Sinnott) has just enough edge (literally, in the case of the pieces styled to look like broken glass) to carry the tone of the play, especially when paired with William K. D'Eugenio's dark mood lighting."
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Les Deux Noirs: Notes on Notes of a Native Son
Mosaic Theater Company, 2019
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DC Theatre Scene:
"The designers are on top of their game as well. An amazing montage in the middle of the show starts out innocently enough when the writers pose for a photo, then escalates as tensions heighten and images of black sambo, black gloved raised fists at the Olympics, Dr. King and the Civil Rights movement float across the stage, so many that Brandi Martin’s projected sequence feels like a musical syncopated riff. [...] The set by Ethan Sinnott presents a Parisian café with 3 tables scattered across the ample stage cleverly designed with the two-story tenement building background that serves nicely for both Les Deux Noirs and Mosaic’s companion piece, Native Son. Lighting by William K. D’Eugenio captures the fun, tension and rage and nuances in-between."
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Hooded, or Being Black For Dummies [remount]
Mosaic Theater Company, 2018
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DC Theatre Scene:
“To experience Hooded feels similar to watching “This is America,” Childish Gambino’s work of art that went viral during the same week as the Hooded opening remount. Both are chock full of symbolism, fraught with the whiplash of joyous highs and earth-shattering pain, and devoid of one clearly stamped takeaway. They leave you hitting the replay button over and over in your mind’s eye or on the computer, seeing something new upon every watching, and feeling no closer to an emotional resolution. Both are impossible to forget. And both share one line that feels core to digesting the stories. […]
In Hooded, the spectacle comes from every sensory angle. Ethan Sinnott’s kaleidoscopic shipping container set morphs with jaw-dropping agility to portray homes, school, a pizza shop, and mythic dreamscapes.”
DC Metro Theatre Arts:
“The play creates a perpetual state of duplicity for the audience. Each line and movement serves dual purposes to highlight a flaw and laugh at its absurdity, in various forms and themes, but all the while addressing the topic of being black in America. […]
The technical design for the show is one fluid body. The style of the show is atypical and Director Serge Seiden has done a phenomenal job creating a piece that is so complete and precise that it feels more like you’re watching a movie.
The set, designed by Ethan Sinnott, matches the multi-dimensional feel of the show. Two large units rotate, fold, and unfold to reveal a holding cell, a bedroom, or courtyard. Sound design by David Lamont and lighting design by Brittany Shemuga make the transitions between scenes feel like brief musical interludes, accentuating the tone and pace of the production. […]
Mosaic Theater Company has an amazing production. The world of the story that the cast and creative team present is fully imagined and engaging. The show deserves every accolade it has earned.”
Broadway World:
“…a remount, featuring almost all of the original cast, has arrived by popular demand. As timely as ever, it uses elements of realism, surrealism, and Greek mythology to convey what it’s like to be a young black man in America at this very moment. I’ve called plays from Mosaic ‘essential viewing’ before, and that description certainly applies here.”
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Hooded, or Being Black For Dummies
Mosaic Theater Company, 2018
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DC Metro Theatre Arts:
“Observing the action from the sidelines and sometimes playing a part in it is the cop who busted Marquis, Officer Borzoi, a stern and stalwart Frederick Strother. He also does the pre-show speech, which establishes the show’s delightful metatheatricality. (There are, for instance, instant replays of certain scenes during which things turn out slightly different each time.
Set Designer Ethan Sinnott hauls on stage two huge metal containers that look lifted from a ship’s hold. They can be rolled around, at times they open to reveal scene settings inside, as if in a world of flux and concealment that deconstructs before our eyes. […] Mosaic’s world premiere of Hooded, Or Being Black for Dummies is an extraordinary experience—a crackling good comedy that unwraps what’s no laughing matter.”
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DC Theatre Scene:
“Brilliant is barely adequate to describe Hooded, or Being Black for Dummies, which blurs the line between comedy and drama with the infinite precision, speed, and flash of a polished penny spinning on end. It’s funny, poignant, and remarkable in the way it marries pop culture, culture, and art to elevate a conversation to a place it should have reached long ago.
Playwright Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm’s dexterity with words and command of literature, culture, philosophy, and pop culture infuse not just this moment, but the whole show, and buoy a heavy topic with laughter aimed at stereotypes—across the board. His story is quick, sharp, and biting, excellently directed by Serge Seiden, and bolstered by an ingenious set—mainly two moveable shipping container-esque pieces carved to play multiple scenes. […]
Hooded is an amazing production, all around. Hands down, one of the funniest, most important, deeply aching plays I have ever seen.”
Broadway World:
“Serge Seiden, assisted by Vaughn Ryan Midder, has done a masterful job of managing Chisholm's often-quirky script, which relies heavily on a "rewind" motif where a long sequence of scenes begins with the same opening line. Ethan Sinnott, meanwhile, has created an industrial, metallic neo-Constructivist set that revolves, opens and shuts, making good use of the Sprenger Theatre space.”
Metro Weekly:
“Hooded, Or Being Black for Dummies doesn’t have time to dismantle every single stereotype characterizing or demonizing young African-American males in America, but it makes its bones deftly tweaking, deconstructing and subverting a few. […]
The play employs a tricky rewind and repeat device, restating and reframing information as Tru and Marquis circle each other over and over inside their cramped cell — part of scenic designer Ethan Sinnott’s inventively modular, moveable set.”
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The Cherry Orchard
Faction of Fools Theatre Company, 2018
DC Metro Theatre Arts:
“Set Designer Ethan Sinnott has created the illusion of a vast space in the small Eastman Studio Theatre. The estate’s windows are tall and provide a grand view of the titular orchard of monochromatically painted trees extending as far as the eye can see, and passages leading what one guesses to be a booby-trapped labyrinth for Two-Times Two-and-Twenty Troubles. Kristin A. Thompson’s lighting design, meanwh ile, allows the paneling of the nursery to change colors with the time of day and the seasons, from sky and navy blue at dawn to olive green and cream in sunlight. […]
Of course, The Cherry Orchard is not simply a classic from the early days of the last century that can be mined for comic reinvention. Like Chekhov’s characters, we too are living through a period of economic disruption. The norm of full-time work is being replaced by gigs and contracts, while entrepreneurs seem to compete on who can create the business plan that comes closest to a pyramid scheme without running afoul of the law. Indeed, much as with Konstantin Stanislavski’s 1904 premiere, it is hard to see the comedy when tragedy is so close at hand. Perhaps Chekhov’s play as imagined by the Faction of Fools is what we need to laugh at our current era.”
DC Theatre Scene:
“The set design by Ethan Sinnott is the most sophisticated I’ve seen from this troupe, with a full length back frame of cut out windows and several door exits, that fold on a massive hinge to create a more snuggled intimate space. Behind the frame in abundant splendor are full cut outs of the beloved cherry trees with all the history they represent for Lubov as she periodically gazes longingly at them. All the while, the superb Kathryn Zoerb as Lopakhin makes menacing motions of cutting them down at every opportunity.”
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Word Becomes Flesh
for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf
Theater Alliance, 2016
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Washington Post:
“If Sandra L. Holloway’s choreography in ‘colored girls’ flows, Tony Thomas’s movement in ‘Word’ is more percussive and explosive. The sonic influence is not jazz but hip-hop, a style provocatively analyzed in one monologue that asks why the music has to be so hard. The quintet moves athletically across the stage’s staggered, dramatically lighted platforms (Ethan Sinnott did the scenic design), and the actors speak with verve. They lean skillfully on rhythms and rhymes, and bring savvy to bitter, knowing lines such as ‘It wouldn’t be called a system unless it worked.’”
DC Metro Theatre Arts:
“There is a critical conversation going on in Anacostia right now that may be one of the most urgent and honest exchanges between black women and black men the American theater has ever known. […]
The two casts of these two plays stand on the same stark stage—multilevel gray slabs designed by Ethan Sinnott. They wear costumes by the same designer, Marci Rodgers (hip-hop athletic wear for the men, gorgeous gowns for the women). But the most significant fact about them is that, implicitly, their characters now inhabit the same world. One doesn’t necessarily know that watching the plays one at a time. In Word Becomes Flesh, the women in these men’s lives are mostly offstage and we don’t hear from them (except briefly when they’re mimicked). In for colored girls… the men in these women’s lives are mostly offstage and we don’t hear from them (except briefly when they’re mocked). But there’s something about the performances that is sure to share a time and place in one’s mind afterward. […]
I have never seen a double bill that comes anywhere near doing what these two paired plays do. I have never before experienced such great theater in the interstice and implicit cohesion between two such singularly powerful works.”
Broadway World:
“Theater Alliance's for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf and Word Becomes Flesh are both beautiful theatrical experiences; when presented together their power and resonance only magnifies.
While it's tempting to call both pieces "plays", they're really more than that. Part spoken word, part dance and movement, part metered poetry, both pieces explore what it means to be a person of color in the United States today. […]
Ethan Sinnott's multi-level set provides both ensembles with just the right amount of space, of which Deidra Starnes' and Psalmayene24's direction makes full and effective use.”
Maryland Theatre Guide:
“These two productions dance together. They create and say, ‘We are here.’ Award-winning directors, electric cast and amazing content blend to connect with the audience in the most intimate of ways. Clad with skilled movement and bodily formations that bring the set to life, timely humor and modern day wit, this dual production is history (and herstory) in the making, sharing testimonies of love, life and what it means to have one’s humanity ‘colored.’ Trust me: you want to experience this.”
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A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Gallaudet University, 2016
in conjunction with First Folio programming
DC Metro Theatre Arts:
“Like a gift that keeps on giving, Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream keeps on rekindling. Dreamer after dreamer reconceives it as if anew. And last night that classic spark reignited at Gallaudet University, where the Theater and Dance Program presented a production to be delighted by—whether this be your first Dream or umpteenth.
‘It is sweet comedy,’ Bottom reminds his fellow Pyramus-and-Thisbeans. The same must be said of Director and Scenic Designer Ethan Sinnott’s staging, although it is, in a very funny way, pitch dark as night. The set, for starters, is a stark all-black abstraction with a cascade of askew stairs, irregular shapes and odd angles, and cutouts and floor vents through which Lighting Designer Annie Wiegand has light peeking in as if from stars in the sky or some netherworld. No royal palace or enchanted woodland this, it is a macabre magic box. Branches of birch stripped of foliage are stuck in holes about the floor to indicate forest, but that’s as lush as it gets. The sense we are in some underworld rather than fairyland is underscored when we meet the fairies.
And by gosh they look like riffraff punks or downtown goth kids dressed all in black leather with studs and chains […] The distance between one’s preconception of airy spirit sprites and this merry band of marauders remains a hilarious cognitive dissonance throughout the show.
The effect is made all the more fun by the actors, who play it to the hilt. […] In a nice touch, Sinnott has the fairies meddle in scenes even when they’re written to be offstage, including when the Rude Mechanicals are prepping their preposterous playlet. […] This production is packed as full of sight-gag delights as a piñata. Much of the pleasure stems from the hilariously hyper-expressive physical comedy in the acting style that animates the Bard’s poetry into ASL. The result is that the actors literally transcend the text by adding a whole other dimension of humor. […] No one is credited as fight and tumbling choreographer (or mating-dance captain), but someone amazing put these actors through the paces that became breathtaking stunts.
I can’t help thinking Shakespeare would be tickled to see his words so alive in motion.”
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Doctor Faustus
Gallaudet University, 2015
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DC Metro Theatre Arts:​
“The prime movers of this absorbing spectacle are Gallaudet grads James Caverly and Brian Suchite. Jumping off from Marlowe’s The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus—a fraught religious allegory for religiously overwrought times—Caverly and Suchite have found in steampunk an apt way to depict the high hokiness of the 1594 narrative using a hip and edgy contemporary aesthetic…[i]n this endeavor they are aided and abetted by the stage-magic arts of Scenic Designer Ethan Sinnott (whose handsome set is a sinister clockwork gearbox), Light Designer Jason Arnold (whose gazillion light cues blaze and amaze), Costume Designer Elizabeth Ennis (who can dress a mean android Mephistopheles, or whoever the devil else happens onstage), Sound Designer DJ Nicar (whose steampunk hooks rock and rule), and Projection Designer Robert Hayes (who at one point elevates the entire stage and makes it fly, using but aerial motion photography)."
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Not Enuf Lifetimes
The Welders, 2014
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DC Metro Theatre Arts:
“There is a shortlist of great American plays about hopes and dreams, wrenching and emotionally exacting dramas exposing the anguish when righteous aspiration is tragically not enough. Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman is one. Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun is another. Such plays endure not just because they are uncommonly well written and playable but because they take us into the heart of strivers with such specificity and universality that their stories stay in us long after we walk out of the theater and forever after illuminate how we think about life. Last night a new play opened on H Street that joins that list. Caleen Sinnette Jennings’ Not Enuf Lifetimes is, quite simply, destined to become an American classic….Jennings’ fine script has been staged with great inspiration and integrity by Director Psamayene 24. Scenic Designer Ethan Sinnott has created a splendid multiplatform playing space, dressed by Scenic Artist Kelley Rowan in graffiti and urban clutter, that artfully contains both interiors and exteriors. At several points there are flashbacks that pick up from and enact an incident being told, and Lighting Designer Allan Sean Weeks fluidly shifts our visual fields to make these transitions in time and space seem perfectly seamless.”
DC Theatre Scene:
“The drama pivots smoothly from cozy bedroom to indie coffee shop to gusty city streets with only a few steps, thanks to the collaboration between set designer Ethan Sinnott and Lighting Designer Allan Sean Weeks. Their crafty world-building allows the Welders’ intimate space in the Atlas Theater to play bigger than actual size.”
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She Kills Monsters
Rorschach Theatre, 2014
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Washington Post:
“She Kills Monsters appealingly brings Dungeons & Dragons to life on a game board set by Ethan Sinnott that sprawls across one of the larger theaters in the Atlas Performing Arts Center complex.”
DC Metro Theater Arts:
“I knew that Qui Nguyen’s fantastical comedy She Kills Monsters had something to do with the famous (or infamous) role-playing game, Dungeons & Dragons. But when I was confronted by the gigantic, three-dimensional board game that was the set, painted over with arcane symbols and strange numerals, I knew I was out of my league. So, in order to better educate myself, I swarmed a young lady (who will remain anonymous so as to protect her reputation as a theatre professional) who happens to be a stone cold D&D fanatic. She opened my noob mind to the world of Dungeon Masters, 20-sided dice, week long D&D fantasy marathons fueled by Pepsi and pizza rolls, and a desire to lose oneself in the comfort of an imaginary world. Before and after the show, Ms. D&D was mobbed with people who wanted more, more info about this game that they hardly understood. And it is this episode that illustrates the unique pleasure offered by She Kills Monsters: for one night, any one of us, from the theatre geek to the gamer nerd, could be a sexy, heroic paragon of bad-assery.
Indeed, She Kills Monsters is bad ass. Fight Choreographer Casey Kaleba mounts some truly exhilarating brawls, featuring spears, axes, and even a curious gelatinous cube. Like kids with no adult supervision, the dozen cast members leap joyfully between the angular platforms that make up Ethan Sinnott’s excitingly dynamic set.”
DC Theatre Scene:
“Not all of She Kills Monsters’ battles are rhythmic, though they are highly choreographed…[t]hese battle scenes, played out over raised hexagonal platforms, give the show’s action an added dazzle as well as the perception that the characters are actually moving across the tiles of a board game.
Though Dungeons & Dragons has often been characterized as an escapist crutch for those struggling in gym class, She Kills Monsters channels the game’s traits of imagination and innovation allowing Agnes to come face to face with her and her sister’s demons and in the end prevailing mightily. The warning at the beginning of the play proves accurate: D&D is not therapy. It’s shock therapy.”
Maryland Theater Guide:
“Qui Nguyen’s She Kills Monsters succeeds in introducing the world of the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons to the outside world while never condescending to its adherents. In director Randy Baker’s vibrant production for Rorschach Theatre at the Atlas Performing Arts Center, it’s also a celebration of the mid-90s, a time now 20 years past, with all of its flashy (and nostalgically familiar) musical cues and dances.
Some things never age, though, and that’s the high school hive of cliques, petty hatreds and humiliations. And on this vast landscape – Ethan Sinnott’s stage is like a big, wide gym for nerds, honeycombed like the dice of the role-playing board game that captured so many – a deeper story plays out about a sister who never knew much about her younger sister and her nerdy friends…the fighting on the multi-level stage wielding a big sword in a number of battle scenes [are] so intricate and impressive Casey Kaleba gets a warranted front page credit on the shows’ program. It’s a wonder there aren’t injuries or accidents with so many swirling swords and fighting sticks. Some of the demons who fight also do cartwheels and as this plays right before the four sets of seats, it’s fairly spectacular.”
Washington City Paper:
“The cast bursts from all portals of the theater-in-the-round carting medieval weapons, wild costumes, and dialogue that luxuriates in goofy pomposity (D&D, we learn in an opening line, was “forged by the hands of nerds”). It’s hard to imagine any other acting company this season enjoying themselves more than Rorschach’s crew. As Agnes, Maggie Erwin displays solid physical comedy chops, dodging baddies with a bemused attitude and genuine yelps of terror…Agnes’ party, including the ghost of her dead sister…and a slacker troll who would rather be watching Quantum Leap…campaign across a set that smashes together a high school, a girl’s bedroom, and a multilevel battlefield, leaving the audience to imagine the flights of fancy in-between. She Kills Monsters is unabashed nerd theater, a goofy treat for anyone willing to admit they enjoy some fairies, dragons, and gelatinous blobs now and again.”
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Titus Andronicus
Faction of Fools Theatre Company, 2014
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Washington Post:
"The minute you walk into the performance space, you know what you’re in for, and not just because a sign is posted for audience members in the first few rows warning that the substance about to be liberally spilled can be washed out of clothing. The smartly geometric set by Ethan Sinnott is another tip-off: It is spotlessly white. But not for long. Wilson’s panache comes on this occasion in liquid form. Blood will soon be spurting — mercilessly, merrily, messily...sanguineous bliss."
DC Metro Theatre Arts:
"Under the direction of Artistic Director Matthew R. Wilson the company has embraced the violence and absurdities of the original text; rather than explain away or avoid the play’s difficulties, the cast gleefully employs them to better show the costs of violence and revenge. The set by Ethan Sinnott...[is] entirely white, serving as a literal canvas for the show’s bloody demonstrations...[t]his Rome is pristine, untouched by the costs of its foreign ventures until Titus’s triumphant return from war leads to deaths in the street."
DC Theatre Scene:
"Perhaps the most delightful of the sick ideas Wilson and the Fools have come up with is one of the simplest – using almost exclusively the color white in the design. With so much blood being spilled, set designer Ethan Sinnott’s choice to make the expanse of the stage pure white is such a masterstroke it seems a necessity. We can see everything, and we can’t forget any of it. (Moreover, Sinnott’s clever shapes and steps allow plenty of opportunities for deliciously awkward deaths, falls and reveals.)"
Showbizradio #1:
"The Titus set design by Ethan Sinnott is a constructed imperial city that fills the stage at the Elstad Annex at Gallaudet University. There are multi-level play areas, doorways for entrances and exits along with several trap doors and well-positioned windows. It is painted a luminous pure white made even brighter by the white-hot lights from Michael Barnett. Over the course of the performance the pure white becomes a crimson red abstract expressionist canvas of blood splotches, splatters and swirls courtesy of designer Casey Kaleba."
Showbizradio #2:
"There is a serious point behind all the lunacy, and that point is also made visually. Ethan Sinnott’s set and Denise Umland’s costumes are white, as are the actors’ comedia makeup and Aaron Cromie’s well-executed masks. As the production proceeds, everything white becomes covered — saturated is not too strong a term — with the free-flowing gore, as the production displays the craziness of unrestrained violence to the audience in vivid red-on-white. Director Wilson’s program note underlines the point, when he says 'There is nothing funny about murder or rape but there is something absurd about the culture of violence and patriarchy that produces these atrocities.' FoF turns a problematic script into a stylistic and darkly funny triumph."
Washington City Paper:
"The pristine white set and costumes don’t stay clean for long, quickly becoming a canvas for the darkening hues that catalog the ever-rising body count. Not that we mourn for these ambitious and conniving characters when they meet their violent ends. Although Titus is considered Shakespeare’s first tragedy, director and co-choreographer Matthew R. Wilson has transfigured it into a dark comedy, the better to take in a cruel and unforgiving world with a spoonful of sugar."
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Cinderella: The Remix
Imagination Stage, 2014
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Washington Post:
"Forget ballgowns and glass footwear: The latest incarnation of Cinderella has dreams of a different order. Rather than coveting Disney-princess attire and an invitation to a royal party, the heroine of Cinderella: The Remix...dreams of being a hip-hop DJ...four accomplished Washington area theater and music artists have her back. Writer-director Psalmayene 24, composer Nick Hernandez, choreographer-performer Paige Hernandez and set designer Ethan Sinnott all share a vision of hip-hop as a joyous, empowering art form. When they collaborated on Zomo the Rabbit: A Hip-Hop Creation Myth, which Imagination Stage premiered in 2009, the experience was so positive that they reunited for P.Nokio: A Hip-Hop Musical at the same theater in 2012. Now they have regrouped again for Cinderella: The Remix―the third installment in what is being dubbed 'the Hip-Hop Children’s Trilogy.'”
DC Metro Theatre Arts:
"The final production in Psalmayene 24′s highly successful Hip-Hop Children’s Trilogy, this Remix is everything that a powerhouse children’s production should be– thrilling, fun, and with an inspirational message that pulses through the show like an electric current. For Scenic Designer Ethan Sinnott, the details are in the backdrop. Leaving the stage itself bare for dance numbers, the multi-leveled set is framed by an urban city, using bold, modern cut-outs and TV screens that show video clips throughout the show, which lend a technical edge."
DC Theatre Scene:
"Cinderella: The Remix at Imagination Stage is a children’s musical with layers – themes of sexism, racism, and intersectionality (the intersection between different forms of oppression) mixed with a cutting critique of pop culture and fairy tales. As one of the pioneers of Hip-Hop Theater, playwright and director Psalmayene 24 brilliantly remixes the Cinderella story...Ethan Sinnott’s set and Zachary Gilbert’s lighting are flashy, fun, and functional..."
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Gilgamesh
Constellation Theatre Company, 2013
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Washington Post:
"Dramatizing the celebrated ancient Middle Eastern epic, this world-premiere production conjures up — among other mythic events — the forging of an improbable friendship between the title character, a swaggering tyrant, and a mysterious figure named Enkidu. As they wander through a spirit-haunted landscape in director Allison Arkell Stockman’s staging....Enkidu, curled up on the ground, is the first figure we see on Ethan Sinnott’s elegant sand-colored set, whose cuneiform-peppered panels evoke the tablets on which the Gilgamesh legend was recorded as far back as 2100 B.C."
Washington Times:
"With the help of Klyph Stanford’s evocative lighting, Ethan Sinnott’s spare but imaginative set, and Kendra Rai’s exotic costumes, not to mention this production’s marvelously stylized, poetic script, Constellation actually approximates the look, feel, and sensation of a story at once ancient and contemporary. Sinnott’s rocky, cave-pocked, cuneiform-marked set conjures up to a surprising degree the sense of a harsh, Tigris-Euphrates desert space, likely now part of modern Iraq, where the mythic story of Gilgamesh unfolds."
DC Theatre Scene:
"The mythmakers at Constellation Theatre Company, who previously produced The Ramayana, The Green Bird, and Metamorphoses, have now gone after the world’s oldest story. Gilgamesh, the ancient Mesopotamian tale of a king’s quest to defeat death, teaches that death is eternal; the production relishes in the fact that legends are, too. The epic resurrects looking pretty splendid, considering it’s at least 4,000 years old. With Constellation’s characteristic cocky flair, a host of Babylonian gods and demons come to life looking decadent in costume designer Kendra Rai’s swaths of silk and chiffon...Rai’s partner in weaving the story’s lavish aura is composer-percussionist Tom Teasley. Stabled stage left, Teasley unleashes a stampede of sounds including drums, flutes, and a magic xylophone. Along with Ethan Sinnott’s set of sandstone ruins riddled with cuneiform, these excellent designs conjure a Mesopotamian dream-world."
DC Metro Theatre Arts:
"It’s not often that a company can so completely remake a piece of history and claim it as their own. Gilgamesh is an amazing display of storytelling, and the production is a fantastic example of Constellation Theatre Company’s dedication to integrating multiple art forms in their work."
Broadway World:
"Audiences, prepare to be enthralled; Constellation Theatre's poetic staging of the ancient Sumerian saga Gilgamesh is an absolute delight for the eyes and ears....What makes the journey of this "Gilgamesh" so utterly delightful is Constellation's commitment to the eye of the beholder; Kendra Rai's costumes evoke all the exoticism and eroticism of the tale, and Emma Crane Jaster's choreography is spell-binding; her turn as the the seductive Woman of Red Sashes is one of the highlights of the show. Ethan Sinnott's multi-level set, complete with ancient cuneiform figures carved in stone, succeeds in reminding us of the story's antiquity but with a touch of the region's geographical features as well. Klyph Stanford gives the lighting grid a good workout, and achieves some stunning effects."
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A Commedia Christmas Carol
Faction of Fools Theatre Company, 2012/13
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Washington Post:
"If you’re in search of a new take on the old story, head to Gallaudet and be assured that once the action hits the stage, A Commedia Christmas Carol crackles and amuses with abandon over a swift 90 minutes....The Fools commit high-spirited revelry on a London street of storefronts and mansard roofs designed by Ethan Sinnott to lean slightly askew, as if the carpenter’s level had been a half-bubble off."
DC Metro Theatre Arts:
"The set by Ethan Sinnott is a masterpiece. Eight exits and four balconies and a staircase provide more than enough nooks and crannies for every complicated action and the stacked doors, windows, and chimneys perfectly convey the chaos of rapidly expanding and industrializing Victorian England. The actors seem to have great fun running all over and through every door and window during the play."
Maryland Theatre Guide:
"The production’s scenography is also excellent. The set design by Ethan Sinnott marvelously conflates the Town Square with the living room, offering a whimsical vision of folk art in the guise of high aesthetics. The costume designs of Denise Umland provide plenty of comic pizzazz to the spectacle, as does the sound and music designed and composed by Thomas Sowers and Jesse Terrill, respectively. And, of course, the masks, designed by Tara Cariaso and Aaron Elson of Waxing Moon Masks, are eye riveting, particularly the Tiny Tim / young Scrooge mask that beseeches the entire audience whenever it takes the stage." (2012)
"The other stars are the production team. The set by Ethan Sinnott...with lighting design by Andrew F. Griffin, is beautifully executed and lit. Slightly skewed in perspective with many entrances, staircases and “balconies,” the Victorian English setting is rich in detail. Scrooge’s bedroom wallpaper is a collage of masks. A chestnut seller’s cart miraculously transforms into Scrooge’s desk and back again as the seller pops out of the desk. A shop window becomes a movie screen projecting a surreal black-and-white film – giving Scrooge a look into Christmas yet to come." (2013)
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P. Nokio: A Hip-Hop Musical
Imagination Stage, 2012
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​DC Theatre Scene:
"All of the design elements work together for a cohesive, well-turned effect, starting with the brilliant colorful two-tiered set by Ethan Sinnott, with bulb-lit doorways for entrances and exits. Perfectly timed sound effects and costumes by Nick Hernandez and Kendra Rai maintain the appeal, and the director’s great pacing keeps everything in flow. Innovative use of video and projections by Erik Trester pop the production into an ultra modern dimension."
DC Metro Theatre Arts:
"If you missed P.Nokio: A Hip-Hop Musical the last time it played at Imagination Stage earlier this February, or if you have not heard of it yet, grab your kids, your nephews or nieces, or some kids in your hood and go see this encore presentation of a ‘Pinocchio meets Hip-Hop’ play at Imagination Stage. Delivering a triple knock-out by writing, directing, and acting, Psalmayene 24 impressed the heck out of me and my 8 year-old. And the design is stunning: Ethan Sinnott’s two-tiered set, great sound effects by Nick Hernandez, hip costumes by Kendra Rai, and cool projections by Erik Tester added to the fun!"
Maryland Theatre Guide:
"The small cast and production staff of P.Nokio does an amazing job of making this show look and feel like a large Broadway musical. Each actor has multifaceted talents that contribute to the vitality and flair of this contemporary and interactive hip-hop fairy tale. Jiminy Cricket himself could not wish for more."
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Hamlecchino
Faction of Fools Theatre Company, 2012
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​Washington Post:
"The relatively solid production values help. Ethan Sinnott’s cement-gray set, roomy enough for the show’s acrobatic hamming, vaguely suggests a Giorgio de Chirico painting."
DC Metro Theater Arts:
"The shows’ design elements enhance the topsy-turvy world that is a Shakespeare-turned-Commedia dell’Arte production....The show makes mobile Ethan Sinnott’s stark, chilly set that sets the tone well for the eerie, ghost-filled nights and disordered days that characterize Shakespeare’s – and Faction of Fools’ – play."
ShowBizRadio:
"At first glance, the set (Set Designer Ethan Sinnott) is some eerie concept derived from a Fritz Lang film. The lighting (Lighting Designer Andrew F. Griffin) supports that initial impression until the music (Composer and Adapter Jerry Terrill) starts and the dissonance develops. Elsinore is not reconfigured as German silent film Expressionism but as the sinking Titanic fatally listing in the ocean minutes before the lights go out forever."
The Washingtonian:
"The show provides its share of off-kilter surprises. An early scene between Hamlet (Wilson) and his father's ghost (David Gaines) is exasperatingly funny, as the players chase the spectre through Ethan Sinnott's expansive marble-esque set, a melange of hidden, slamming doors."
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The Wind in the Willows
Imagination Stage, 2011
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DC Theatre Scene:
This must-see 75-minute musical adaptation by Richard Hellesen follows the novel as closely as possible....To keep us in touch with where we are, scenic designer Ethan Sinnott has concocted a clever amphibious set made up of labyrinthine paths that wander off upstage. Hanging water plants suggest a river. But when daylight dims (well-synchronized lighting is by Andrew F. Griffin), ominous cattails that stand straight up like popsicles become darkened trees that blink with the flashing eyes of nocturnal animals, and we’re in the scary “Wild Wood,” where Mole gets lost."
Maryland Theatre Guide:
"Christopher Baine’s sound design evokes a wooded enclave in early twentieth century England as imagined by Set Designer Ethan Sinnott. Stalks of rigid willows stand at attention in the backdrop as if guarding the wood. When a wooden picnic table rolls out onstage carrying a carousing trio of rodents you can’t help but smile."
ShowBizRadio:
"These charming and sometimes raucous adventures are set against a lovely backdrop of fanciful willow branches and enormous cattails evocative of the unspoiled countryside with which Grahame was familiar, designed by Ethan Sinnott...The actors make full use of Imagination Stage’s theatre space, with little or no separation between the stage and the house."
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Junie B. Jones: Jingle Bells, Batman Smells!
Imagination Stage, 2010
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DC Theatre Scene:
"Adapted by Allison Gregory and directed by Kathryn Chase Bryer, Junie B. captures the crayon-bright chaos of childhood—enhanced by Ethan Sinnott’s primary color schoolroom set–and portrays the first-grade set as they truly are—sometimes petty, sometimes aggravating, always worth your time."
"Adapted by Allison Gregory and directed by Kathryn Chase Bryer, Junie B. captures the crayon-bright chaos of childhood—enhanced by Ethan Sinnott’s primary color schoolroom set–and portrays the first-grade set as they truly are—sometimes petty, sometimes aggravating, always worth your time."
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