In 1988, a group of Northwestern University graduates founded the Lookingglass Theatre Company in Chicago. Over time, the company grew to become an influential force in contemporary theater in the city and beyond, but its early years were itinerant and scrappy. “The old joke was, ‘I have some sheets. Let’s make a play,’” says John Musial, a member of Lookingglass’s interdisciplinary ensemble since 1991. “We very much came from a place of, ‘Well, what do you have in your garage?’”

You don’t need a theater background to understand how scrounging for resources would have established conditions for innovative scenic design, a legacy that persists today. Some sets are see-it-to-believe-it spectacular. For Metamorphoses, auteur and ensemble member Mary Zimmerman, a Tony Award winner and recipient of a MacArthur Foundation genius” grant, set her production in and around a pool of water.

Other sets are spare. Nelson Algren: For Keeps and a Single Day, which Musial wrote and directed, features one actor, two musicians and white sheets onto which he projected the films that, in 2008, earned him a prestigious Jeff Award for Videography. Musial, who also works in architecture at the firm Mark Miller Architects, calls himself a film- and theater-maker because few other titles are broad enough to cover the different disciplines he plies at Lookingglass. At various points, he's been a filmmaker, writer, director and—the focus of his conversation with Communication Arts—a light and set designer. 

Most recently, Musial turned his attention to designing the set for Lookingglass’s February 2009 production of the 1938 classic, Our Town, directed by Jessica Thebus and Anna D. Shapiro, both of Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre. It has to be one of the most interesting design problems that a set designer could undertake to solve. Playwright Thornton Wilder called for his play about small-town, turn-of-the-century New Hampshire to be performed with no scenery and minimal props.

Even beyond that, Our Town seems an unusual choice for Lookingglass. The company doesn’t often perform “plays” written in isolation by playwrights. More typically, various members of the 22-person ensemble—led by one or more director/writer—work together to extract theatrical experiences from texts that often were not intended for the stage: historic accounts, ancient myth and literature like The Brothers Karamazov and 1984. 

The Our Town cast had just finished rehearsal when Musial met with me at the theater, now ensconced—with city support—in the historic Water Tower Waterworks building on Michigan Avenue. In the lobby, surrounded (appropriately) by stacks of chairs and props, Musial explains why Our Town isn’t such an odd choice for Lookingglass after all. And he describes how he answered the Koan-like design question Wilder set up some 70 years earlier: How do you design a set without a set?  

CA: You’ve been with Lookingglass for eighteen years. Based on your accumulated experience, can you tell me what makes a set great?

Musial: Actually, I’d say that I’m more interested in creating theatrical events than in making great sets. Because when I see theater, I generally don’t want to look at the set. I think it should disappear.

CA: Really? Lookingglass sets are so visual. I don’t think I’d want them to disappear.

Musial: But the set shouldn’t be the star. Even if an audience applauds a set when the lights go up, which does happen sometimes, it should be integral to the performance. One of the architects I admire is Frank Lloyd Wright, who talked a lot about organic architecture. When you see a Frank Lloyd Wright house, you understand what he meant. It will have an organic relationship to the hills it’s built into—and to the people it’s made for. I approach scenery in the same way. Yes, there are times when a set comes forward, but it’s got to be an organic part of the performance. 

CA: So how does a company like Lookingglass—known for its super-physical, innovative, original theater—decide to do a classic like Our Town?

Musial: Well, it is a sort of strange show for us to do, because we tend to do original work. But when Anna Shapiro and Jessica Thebus came to us with the idea, they said: “You really should do this. Because Lookingglass is Our Town.” And it is. The play is about life in a small community. It’s about the commitment of the members of that community to each other. And that’s what Lookingglass is, a small community of people who have lived and grown together, and who are committed to each other as members of the community.