For me, the design became a love letter to Southern California—a community and visual landscape I have grown to love. Major inspirations included Disneyland and the iconic Balboa Island Banana Stand, particularly their playful use of architecture, color, signage, and scale.

Rather than recreating a historically exact 1950s beach town, I wanted the scenery to feel like a heightened memory of one. Surfboards, nautical details, colorful signage, and compact seaside architecture helped establish Windsor Cove. Disneyland also influenced the idea that familiar architecture could be simplified and exaggerated to communicate a place immediately.

That heightened quality felt especially appropriate for a musical adaptation of Shakespeare. Windsor Cove could be colorful, slightly exaggerated, and openly theatrical. The architecture has personality, while the surfboards and beach-town details reinforce both the setting and the comedy. The resulting world sits somewhere between a real coastal community, a mid-century postcard, and an idealized California beach town.

Designing for New Swan’s outdoor, in-the-round theatre also meant creating scenery that could be understood from every direction. Rather than one traditional stage picture, the architecture establishes a community around the performers and audience. As daylight changes throughout the performance, Southern California itself becomes part of the scenic design.

Ultimately, The Merry Wives of Windsor Cove celebrates a colorful, optimistic, and slightly eccentric vision of 1950s Southern California—filtered through Shakespeare, music, surf culture, Disneyland, the Balboa Island Banana Stand, and my own affection for the place I now call home.