Cabaret — Immersive Lobby Experience Design
An immersive pre-show experience that extends the world of Cabaret beyond the stage, implicating guests in comfort, inaction, and denial.
“In fact, with its overall messaging and look, Orlando Shakes has outdone the latest buzzy but gimmicky New York revival.”
– Orlando Sentinel
Role, Scope, and Responsibilities
Experience Designer and Project Manager
- Budgeting, procurement, fabrication, install & strike
Multidisciplinary team coordination
$3,000 production budget
400+ feet of installed fabric
Full lobby transformation (design > install > strike)
Two-week install under live-theater constraints
While developed collaboratively, I ultimately led the narrative vision, design decisions, budgeting, procurement, scheduling, installation, and strike. I was involved in every element from concept through execution, coordinating the team and ensuring the experience remained cohesive under real-world constraints.
Statement of purpose:
The Kit Kat Club lobby experience invited guests to indulge their senses while quietly confronting the cost of inaction. Set in Berlin during the rise of Nazism, the transformed lobby juxtaposed intimacy, decadence, and warmth against a growing undercurrent of hardship, ignorance, and oppression.
Through subtle environmental storytelling, guests were asked to consider their role within the space, and by extension, within history, before stepping into the world of Cabaret.
Design Pillars
Lived-in — Evidence of people passing through, staying, disappearing
Low Light — Comfort that conceals consequence
Eccentric — Excess, distraction, performance
Intimate — No distance between guest and story
Narrative Framework
Every design decision was guided by a single question:
Would this exist in the Kit Kat Club — and why?
Objects were not placed for aesthetics alone. Each element had to feel justified by the lived reality of the space, the people who moved through it, and the time period it represented. This narrative constraint became the engine for all creative choices.
This constraint prevented spectacle for spectacle’s sake and ensured every element served the story.
Initial Concept sketches
Key Story Moments
These moments were designed to be discovered, not announced — rewarding attention and implicating guests through environment rather than instruction.
Arrival: The Warning Disguised as Welcome
As guests approached the lower lobby, they first encountered a partial phrase: “LEAVE.”
Only upon descending the incline did the full message reveal itself — “Leave your troubles outside.”
The moment functioned as both invitation and warning, echoing the MC’s words while quietly asking guests whether comfort was worth ignoring what lay beneath.
Luggage & Keys: Absence Made Physical
A large pile of luggage sat unattended, accompanied by a bowl of loose keys.
The objects referenced the transient nature of the club — while also implying those who entered and never returned to reclaim what they left behind.
Mirrors & Frozen Time
Mirrors and time-based objects were used to implicate guests directly within the space.
Time appeared suspended — a deliberate choice to reflect collective denial and the comfort of pretending nothing was changing.
Time Progression Through the Space
Before the show, the lobby featured 1920s art deco–style posters celebrating performers and nightlife.
During intermission, magnetic overlays introduced Nazi imagery from the 1940s — visibly corrupting the original artwork and signaling that time had moved, whether guests wanted it to or not.
A planned final layer incorporating modern extremist imagery was ultimately removed by request of the theater stakeholders, due to its emotional weight.
Reflection
This project was one of the most demanding experiences of my career, completed alongside full-time work, graduate coursework, and family responsibilities. It reinforced my belief that immersive environments are not built through visuals alone, but through discipline, leadership, and an unwavering commitment to story. We created something from nothing, and it changed both the space and the people who built it. I am so proud of what we made.