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Speculative Project for Contemporary Play

Play by Chuck Mike, Antonia Kemi Coker, Tonderai Munyevu
Director: Tonderai Munyevu
Set and Costume designer: Jiayi Ding
Location: Embassy Theatre.  Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

ZHE is a true story that follows Antonia and Tonderai as they navigate their past, exploring memory, identity, and personal history. Spanning from childhood to the present, the narrative invites the audience into an intimate and emotional journey, forming a real connection with the characters' lived experiences.

The design concept is inspired by the dialogue between the two characters and the way their memories intertwine throughout the story. I explored materials and projection techniques to visually reflect the fluid, layered nature of memory and identity, creating a space where the past and present coexist on stage.

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Concept Art Collage

Costume Design

The costumes are inspired by the whimsical aesthetics of children's storybooks—playful, colorful, and character-driven.

Through the narrative of a man and a woman, the performance invites the audience to journey back into their own memories. Figures from childhood reappear, brought to life once more in vivid. I designed bright, storybook-inspired costumes to create characters that feel as though they've stepped off the page—responding to the nostalgic atmosphere and evoking the emotion and wonder of forgotten moments.

Set Design

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Sketch

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1:25 Model Box

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Projection on stage

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Projection Composition

The set design is set in warm tones to evoke a nostalgic visual journey, tracing the emotional landscape of two characters drawn from real life. Elements such as sand and transparent fabric are used on stage to symbolize fragmented memories—Sand, as a visual metaphor for an hourglass, indicates the passage of time.

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The projection concept responds to the fluid, non-linear timeline in which the two characters’ stories continually intertwine and shift across different moments in time. It is designed using layered, overlapping visuals that reflect the nature of memory—blurred, fragmented, and reassembled.

Prologue 

When people breath and tell stories about themselves.

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Chapter 1 

Early Childhood memories of Mum in Zimbabwe

Chapter 4 

Shifting between Mum&Dad running away

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Chapter 6

Boarding School

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