The Marvelous Wonderettes: Dream On
A familiar high school gym stage becomes a container for time, letting 1960s polish shift into 1970s warmth, nostalgia, and reunion energy in Wonderettes: Dream On.
- Year
- 2021
- Company
- Okoboji Summer Theatre
- Project
- Musical Theatre
- Location
- Okoboji, IA
The Marvelous Wonderettes: Dream On is set at a reunion, but the design was really about time. At Okoboji Summer Theatre, I built the world around a recognizable high school gym stage with wood paneling, risers, school signage, and mid-century basketball backboards.
The structure stayed the same between acts. What changed was tone. Act One leaned into early 1960s polish with tinsel, clean lines, and a crescent motif that made the performers feel almost like a televised variety act.
By Act Two, the space loosened into warmer color, balloon arches, and deeper saturation. The gym aged with the characters, allowing nostalgia to become active rather than decorative.
Creative team
- Written by
- Roger Bean
- Director
- Lauren Haughton
- Music Director
- Tom Andes
- Scenic Design
- Brandon PT Davis
- Costume Design
- Asher Lipscomb
- Lighting Design
- Savannah Bell
- Sound Design
- Austen Yim
Million Dollar Quartet
The Merry Wives of Windsor Cove
The Glass Menagerie
Bell, Book, and Candle
Head Over Heels
Romeo & Juliet
Much Ado About Nothing
¡LOTERIA: GAME ON!
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Romero
Urinetown
An Inspector Calls
All's Well That Ends Well
Little Shop of Horrors
Tomás and the Library Lady
The Penelopiad
Company
American Idiot
Parliament Square
An Enemy of the People
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
Boeing, Boeing
The Bald Soprano
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike
The Man of La Mancha
Dial “M” for Murder
All My Sons
Last Train to Nibroc
Rich Girl
