This week’s “Artist of the Week” is putting a spotlight on the crew behind MSU’s production of “Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play.”

Costume designer Alexis Scoggins, assistant lighting designer Brayden Young and makeup artist Kathyrn Murman all shared what they have done while working on “Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play” and what they’ve learned from their time at MSU.

Though theater tech senior Brayden Young is also taking the stage during the play, his work behind the scenes helped bring the show to life through lighting. Young is the assistant light designer as well as the assistant head electrician for the show.

The play takes place in the world of The Simpsons in an irradiated Springfield years after a meltdown at the nuclear power plant. With this in mind, Young is excited for the audience to see what he and drama department chair Eric Koger have come up with.

“Act one is, I think seven years after this meltdown has taken place, and act two is seven years further, and act three is like 75 years further than that into the future. So, I’m really excited for the audience to see our concept and what we think that would have sort of snowballed into,” Young said.

“What we’ve been really interested in is the way radioactivity works in this post-electric world, and so one of the effects that we’re looking into is radioactive water and what that looks like. Like, how does that reflect off of surfaces, how do we create that look. So that’s something really interesting,” Young explained.

Despite this being Young’s first year as assistant light designer at MSU, Young has some experience lighting for one-act play projects as well as an apprenticeship with Dallas Children’s Theater.

“So I’ve done lighting for one-act projects as well as I’ve worked with Dallas Children’s Theater as a lighting apprentice, just learning about the electrician’s side of things and light design. And this is uh, now my first project I get to work on as a main-stage,” Young said.

Young originally got into theater through acting in his high school’s one-act play. He said it wasn’t until he got to MSU that he learned he really enjoyed his job as a theater electrician.

“It wasn’t until a little over a year ago that I was assigned head electrician for a show and I loved it, I love working on lights,” Young said. “I don’t know what it was about it but, I was like, ‘This is fun.’ I like setting up all the LED lights and addressing them, and you know hooking everything up. Like, knowing that it’s all set up properly feels really good.”

Young said his love of lighting was further nurtured by the light design class he had that semester.

“I loved the process of reading the script and coming up with a concept and sort of deriving all of the decisions from that concept,” Young said.

Young has had many challenges working with lighting due to only having experience in acting.

“Sort of getting a feel for, you know, safety and also implementing the physical properties of the lighting plot. Like, all of those things I’m not really like, I wasn’t really seasoned, or like, experienced with, so there were definitely like some bumps there along the way,” Young said. “But that’s also a plus, I would say, of going here, is this is a really safe place to make those mistakes and learn before we’re out, like, in the professional world. So that’s something I really like about my time here.”

Young said his time and experience at MSU has pushed him towards getting his masters after he graduates in the fall, and that he has decided to pursue his love of lighting design after finishing his undergraduate studies.

“I’m on track to pursue an MFA post-graduation, so, I am currently working over-hire lighting at Dallas Children’s Theater and Dallas Theater Center. And just getting as much experience as I can to build my portfolio, my lighting portfolio, so that I can pursue a light design MFA somewhere,” Young said.

As for theater tech junior Kathyrn Murman, she brings the characters to life in a different way. Murman said that though theater is collaborative in nature, the makeup is what really draws her in.

“It all comes together in one cohesive thing, and makeup to me, it makes it feel more real,” Murman said.

Murman’s job for the play is to create makeup looks for the cast to help bring their characters to life. During the run of the show, Murman and her crew will be waiting off-stage to help out if anything goes wrong with makeup or hair. She will also help the actors get ready in between acts due to the short intermission.

“We have to make sure the process goes smoothly, everybody’s makeup is on, their hair is good, and obviously costumes need to be good,” Murman said. “And it’s just, we gotta make sure the timing is correct. But, I like being backstage and making sure things go right and if there— if something does go wrong I can help out.”

Murman started her theatrical makeup journey before she came to MSU. In high school, she would do makeup for productions. During COVID, she decided to experiment and use household items to create a zombified look.

“It started during COVID, I used old latex and, like, random stuff I found around the house and like made my mother’s knee look like it was like, zombified. And so I was like, ‘Maybe I want to do this for a living,’” Murman said

Though Murman is a theater major, her love of horror movies is what inspired her to get into makeup design. She said the practical effects of different horror movie franchises piqued her interest.

“I had always been interested in, like, horror movies and how they get those special effects. Like um, like in ‘Alien’ whenever they have the chest-burster, I always found that very fascinating in how they made that look so real,” Murman said. “And so, I started looking into it more, watching my favorite Youtubers, figuring out how they do their makeup looks, and then I just started experimenting from there.”

Among the whirring of sewing machines is where theater education junior Alexis Scoggins helps bring theater to life. This is the first year Scoggins is taking the lead as head designer for MSU’s costume department.

Scoggins said she has always had a love for costuming because of the nature of the process.

“I think it’s mostly because costumes is such, costumes is a very place, for me at least, because it’s so physical,” Alexis said. “Because I’m a very physical, visual learner, so if I can create something, I know how to do it.”

Costuming for “Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play” has brought about challenges for Scoggins. One of these challenges has been figuring out what Scoggins was willing to compromise and what was a hard boundary. However, Scoggins explained that she loves that part of the process.

“Something I really love about being a designer is the push and pull of it. You push, others pull on you. They ask you for things, you ask them of things,” Scoggins said. “So that’s what I really enjoyed, the collaboration aspect of it.”

With its “post-electric” setting, Scoggins decided to collaborate with the art department to get unique designs printed on fabric for two of the costumes. With the help of art professor Catherine Prose and art juniors Hailey Padilla and Jess Zimny, Scoggins used screen printing to help make unique fabrics for the show.

“We’re gonna screen print our fabric because I, when I was thinking I was like, when I was thinking of the things that would still be around, and I was like, ‘Newspapers!’ Because, if you do it properly, newspapers live, they move on. Same with pet-food bags,” Scoggins said. “So for Homer, because he has that iconic white button down, with the short sleeves, we’re going to print a newspaper on it, to make it look like a bunch of newspapers with the ink blurred and run down. Because even if newspapers have all become biodegradable and stuff by then, they still have those old fashioned printing presses.”

Though being a first-time designer can be nerve-wracking, Scoggins said she has learned to love the process.

“Going into a room with my professors and my fellow peers, at first, and presenting my ideas and stuff seemed really scary,” Scoggins said. “But I learned that it’s presenting it to them and getting their ideas and getting their feedback is truly the most fun and enlightening part because it teaches me things.”

Despite being the head designer for costumes, Scoggins said she has always had a love for acting. Scoggins explained that she loves both and if she were to do one without the other, it would feel like something is missing in her life.

“That’s kind of why I chose teaching as my thing, so I could continue to have, have places in both worlds. I can teach my kids how to design costumes, but also, at the same time, I can teach them how to act and stuff. That way I’m focused in both worlds,” Scoggins said.

With each person’s job in the theater being so different, everyone had their own unique perspective to bring to the table. Despite that, each person expressed that their work at MSU has helped mold them into the designers they are and will be.

“I’m learning new things everyday, and it makes me very excited to be a designer,” Scoggins said.

“Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play” will run at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 10 through Saturday, Oct. 12. The final performance will be at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 13. Tickets can be purchased here.