Tomás and the Library Lady
Design Notes
This story is rooted in real life: Tomás Rivera, son of migrant farm workers, follows the harvest from Texas to Iowa, where he steps into a Carnegie library and discovers something that will change everything. The design needed to honor that history and make the audience feel the journey—through place, language, and possibility.
I drew on the Carnegie library not just as a setting, but as a symbol—public belief in education and access. In Iowa, communities long embraced Carnegie’s challenge: to build places where everyone could walk in, sit among books, and change their own story. The set reflects that heritage: a sturdy, welcoming structure of wood; books everywhere; light that invites you in.
Since this is a bilingual TYA production, language is a character itself. Tomás listens, learns, stumbles over English; he treasures stories in Spanish. We needed the space to support both worlds—and the transformations between them. Sections of shelving shift; platforms become stage and school, or field, or home; light and color change as he crosses thresholds—literal and figurative.
My goal is that when children and parents enter this theatre, they feel seen: that being bilingual, being a migrant child, loving books, and struggling with language all belong here. The library is warm, generous, alive with possibility. It’s where Tomás’s courage and imagination take root—and where we all feel the magic of learning and belonging.
