¡LOTERIA: GAME ON!

The scenic design for ¡LOTERIA: GAME ON! began in a familiar suburban basement family room, the kind of space where a young person might gather with family, retreat into imagination, and build a world of play from whatever is at hand. That realism provided the launch point for the evening, grounding the story before the design expanded into something brighter, faster, and more theatrical.

At the center of the room was a large pillow fort that functioned as both a child-built refuge and a theatrical engine. As the story shifted, the fort and surrounding furniture allowed the basement to transform into a playful 8-bit-inspired Lotería world. The design embraced a game aesthetic without losing the handmade quality of live theatre, letting the stage move between domestic intimacy and heightened spectacle.

Projection became a major storytelling device in that transition. Gaming consoles, cards, and visual effects carried the audience into the rules and rhythm of the game, while keeping the performers at the center of the action rather than burying them inside technology.

The overall goal was to create a world that felt flexible, playful, and immediately legible to young audiences. Scenic elements needed to support quick shifts in space and tone, while still feeling rooted in the live presence of actors and objects. LED integration, Rosco black light paint, and projection helped push the production into a heightened visual register, but the design always returned to the idea of shared imaginative play.

Rather than separating realism and fantasy, the production treated them as part of the same continuum. The photographs show how the room could open outward into theatrical possibility while still feeling connected to the emotional core of the story.