ABRIL   JIANG

    Scenographer & Production Designer

WORK  

ABOUT  


Scenes From MetamorphosesDesign Process
CalArts Chouinard Pool May 5-8 2026

THE FABLEMyths withstand the test of time because they continue to speak to our innermost longings. In these myths, water stands in as a representation of our unconscious minds – our dreams and, equally, our nightmares. Immersed, we are transformed by these longings; some conscious, some unconscious. Sometimes we are transformed through desire, sometimes through pain. But with every transformation, no matter how painful, we learn how to become more vulnerable to love.
CHAPTERS
  1. Midas
  2. Alcyone and Ceyx
  3. Orpheus and Eurydice
  4. Eros and Psyche
  5. Baucis and Philemon

TEAM
DIRECTOR                                Anne Kelly
CHOREOGRAPHER              Nathan Makolandra
SCENIC DESIGNER              Abril Jiang
SCENIC ASSISTANT             Kelly Hayes
COSTUME DESIGNER         Kaiqi Zhang
COSTUME ASSISTANT        Sage Collopy
LIGHTING DESIGNER           Kyle Eichinger
LIGHTING ASSISTANT        
Quinn Iris
HEAD ELECTRICIAN              
Lonnie Kim
SOUND DESIGNER               Simon  Linsteadt
SOUND ASSISTANT              Lonnie Kim
TECHNICAL DIRECTOR       I-Hua Huang
TECHNICAL ASSISTANT    Khoi He
PRODUCER                               Keely Cobb
PRODUCTION MANAGER  Jeffrey Teeter
ASSISTANT PRODUCTION MANAGER

                                                      Darby Huffaker
STAGE MANAGER                 Ruiqi Tong
ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER  AndreaVelázquez
ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER  Cherin Kim




LINK TO SHOW PRODUCTION PHOTOS 


STORYBOARD VISUALIZATION - FINAL PASS

Midas  |  “Grant me that everything I touch... will turn to solid gold.”
Alcyone and Ceyx  |  “Reef the sail! Bail the water! Secure the spars!”
Orpheus and Eurydice  |  “Farewell.” That was his last sight of her.


But he saw it again and again.
Alcyone and Ceyx  |  She began to run toward Ceyx, transforming.


By the time she reached him, she was a bird.
Baucis and Philemon  |  “Why bother knocking here? Whoever lives here 


obviously has nothing.”
Eros and Psyche  |  The soul wanders in the dark, until it finds love.

SCENIC DRAWINGS - FINAL


SITE-SPECIFIC AUDIENCE SEATING


PROCESS MODEL




DESIGN FABLEScenes from Metamorphoses is a fresh and inventive staging of Mary Zimmerman’s adaptation of Ovid’s timeless collection of Greek myths, brought to life through a highly choreographic, site-specific activation of Chouinard Pool.

Design-wise, Metamorphoses is about the transformation of the site—about bringing the audience into an expanded imaginative world through the site itself, allowing the space to shift, unfold, and metamorphosize through five myths into a world larger than the space we are in.

FIRST DESIGN REVIEW