Romero

When I first read Xiomara Cornejo’s Romero, I knew the design had to hold more than history—it had to hold ghosts. Set in the final hours of Archbishop Óscar Romero’s life, the play bends time and invites the dead to speak. It is not realism. It is a ritual.

The scenic world emerged from this tension between sacredness and rupture. At the center stood a cruciform arch—part cathedral, part memory portal. Below it, a fractured platform and a textured black floor marked with five-point stars anchored the action in both earth and spirit. The design became a container for mourning, transformation, and resistance.

Created in Vectorworks and refined in Photoshop, the set was engineered for fluidity. The play’s nonlinear structure demanded a space that could shift between a beach, a church, a war zone, and the afterlife without literal transitions. Projection surfaces echoed the altar at Hospital de la Divina Providencia, while lighting and media traced the line between past and present.

Puppeteer Lil Lamberta’s masks and oversized figures punctured realism, while Cherie Sampson’s layered projections grounded each moment in living memory. The entire design was built to support rupture—to allow sudden shifts in tone, time, and identity while still holding the audience.

This was not a play about one man. It was about a nation in spiritual reckoning. Designing Romero meant listening, holding space, and letting the silence speak.

Scenic Design — Drama — World Premiere

University of Missouri – Columbia — April 2024

Romero — Scenic Design Rendering — Created in Vectorworks

Romero — Scenic Design Rendering — Created in Vectorworks

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A theatrical scene with five actors on stage, two of whom are facing each other with outstretched arms, while three others are standing behind them, including one with face paint and another with a mask, against a backdrop depicting a dimly lit corri
Two actors on stage, one kneeling and one standing, engaged in a dramatic scene with intense expressions, stage lighting, and background performers.

Creative Team

Written byXiomara Cornejo
Directed byDavid Crespy
Scenic DesignBrandon PT Davis
Costume DesignMark Vital
Lighting DesignVincent Williams
Sound Co-DesignMichael Webb, Joseph Seevers
Projection DesignCherie Sampson
PuppetryLil Lamberta, Claire Bronchick
PhotosRebecca Allen