Spill
by Leigh Fondakowski
Cornell University, April 26 - May 4 2019
Director: Caitlin Kane. Sets: Kent Goetz. Lighting: Joey Moro.
Costumes: Sarah Bernstein. Projections & Photography: Elizabeth Mak.
Leigh Fondakowski’s Spill is a docu-drama describing the events that led to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil well explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, as well as its aftermath. Culled from interviews that Ms. Fondakowski conducted, it paints a clear picture of how corporate greed and negligence caused the death of many onboard the rig and the continuing pollution of the region. When I was brought onboard for projections, director Caitlin and I talked about how the set was a largely static abstraction of the oil rig, and we wanted how projections needed to embody the unrelenting force of nature, pushing back against the humans who would exploit her for their own gain.
Aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig
The set had oil painted on it, so I painted over the oil with light and used a displacement map to make the oil look like it was swirling and pulsing in the background to create a sense of unease leading up to the explosion.
The center of the play calls for the dramatization of what went down aboard the rig, hence lots of fire and explosions.
Post-explosion, BP needed a way to stop the oil from spilling out and released videos of them capping the stack to appease the public. We took that actual footage and put it into the show.
Shortly after the disaster, BP resumed drilling in the Gulf.