KATE NOLL

“Finally, the family confronts its demons in a weird therapy session as Kate Noll’s amazing set seems to turn inside out, transforming the compact desert home into a skewed-perspective space ship hurtling through the cosmos and into the characters’ collective subconscious.”

“It’s an understatement to say that Wills and Caswell have some help from set designer Kate Noll. Her living room set, which literally turns itself inside out, is worth the price of admission.”

“Designers for this production have outdone themselves. Kate Noll’s scenic design is stunning in its immensity, especially for an off-Broadway theatre. The set reveals the interior of an Arizona ranch style, but as it moves gently, we get to see bits of the outside. We can see the ladder to the roof directly through the kitchen sink window. The outside of the house and the roof create even more depth. And then there is the amazing trick of flipping the family room on its side. It is a marvel of stagecraft in so many ways.”

“They learn this – and so does the audience – in a scene that is the unmistakable highlight of “Wet Brain,” which has opened tonight at Playwrights Horizons. The scene is memorable thanks largely to scenic designer Kate Noll, but everybody has a hand in it, including playwright John J. Caswell Jr. and the fine five-member cast.”

“Kate Noll’s set is remarkable and uses every inch of Rattlestick’s stage area to its advantage. Downstage of the imposing garage door is the main playing area. The massive garage door opens to expose the upstage area where fantasy bleeds into the present and the present explores the regions of the subconscious. A ceiling fan serves both to quietly move the air and represent the loud rotors of a helicopter leaving Vietnam.”

“Kate Noll’s garage set is a study in naturalistic detail; anyone who grew up in a small town or suburb will instantly recognize it.”

““Entering the huge, dark space, they saw in the far distance a tiny lit-up opera, which grew larger and more audible as they made their way toward it, until they finally took their seats and were swept up in the utterly convincing, life-sized performance. It was an image I will treasure as long as my own direct experience of this Così—and that, I suspect, will be forever.””

“Amid a fine overall creative effort, Kate Noll’s set stands out too, a greyed-out kitchen that looks baked by the sun. The world of this damaged family feels all too real, both emotionally and physically.”

“Kate Noll’s set design is appropriately claustrophobic and dour.”

“The Design team pulled off a victorious win with a unified design. ... Scenic designer Kate Noll created a small home that was strong in detail. The tiny intricacies were a welcome addition.”

“Kate Noll’s set perfectly conveys the ordinary Texas kitchen”

“Although the children are never seen, Kate Noll’s deft kitchen design reminds us of their presence...”

“Using Kate Noll’s very interesting and mysterious set, the space transformed from location to location. The set was basic with light-colored and slightly textured walls, allowing Scot Gianelli’s lights to add a different atmosphere to each. One of the most interesting aspects of the Noll’s design was the circular proscenium. It allowed you to look into this crazy world through a lens... the final moment of the evening featured a grand reveal, fog and greens and all.”

“Kate Noll’s set design is ominous and captivating: a circular partition downstage frames sharply diagonal walls and an abrupt turn, creating an off kilter tone, suggesting audience members themselves should tilt to watch the performance.”

“The ultimate star of the show is the set design. Kate Noll’s triptych from Act One is echoed in Act Two, and the center panel from the opening makes a dramatic reappearance in the final moments....The set is a major reason the show transcends whatever time-stamped baggage it brings with it,”

“This production honors the play’s legacy by staging it professionally and treating it like the monument it is. There’s a beautifully triptych of tableaux vivants as the show begins, and a rousing, neatly choreographed climax at the end.”

“The set by Kate Noll works ingeniously well.”

“Kate Noll’s scenic design embraces the traditional proscenium arch, deftly finished to look crumbly and deteriorated, that frames the police station interior... A large, old spot light points to center from its position downstage near the audience, and serves as a symbolic reminder that all this silliness strives to shine light on very important issues.”

“Production points, too. Behind a crumbling proscenium, YSD third-year student Kate Noll’s creates a wonderfully artificial world where the absurdity can flourish.”

“All told, complete with a terrific set design by Kate Noll, this take on The Accidental Death of an Anarchist is as breezy, uproarious, and meaningful as a political satire can be.”

“Kate Noll’s terrific set strips away all pretense that this is anything other than a performance. It’s a dingy police station that looks straight out of a 1970s cop show, but the set is much smaller than the stage, surrounded by lots of visible scaffolding and low-hanging stage lights. A crumbling faux proscenium arch frames the stage.”

“Set design for this commedia del arte farce is note perfect. Just as Maniac becomes an impostor and uses all the other characters as unpaid actors in his farce to painlessly suggest that we’re all actors in someone’s drama, Kate Noll’s scenic design of the Italian police station remains framed in a large window of crumbling concrete and nested in the larger stage, with exposed ladders, lighting trees, musicians and assorted stage paraphernalia. Under any other circumstances, such obviousness would be like someone telling you about theatre in an eat-your-brussels-sprouts kind of way; however, in this production, it raises the humor even more, allowing Epps to briefly riff off of being the stage manager of “Our Town.””

“Here we see a creative and charming piece of staging by Kate Noll in which the backdrop slides to move the action from the first to the fourth floor.”

“a marvelously detailed set by Kate Noll, which has the look and feel of a 70s sitcom”

“The set is a marvel of dishevelment...”

“Kate Noll’s set is a wonder. If you’ve been to the Cab more than once, you know that the space tends to rely on a lot of make-believe in turning the basement space into anything approaching a “real place.” Not so here: the kitchen where all the action happens has the kind of “below stairs” look we’ve all gotten to know from Downton Abbey or (for elders) Masterpiece Theater.”

“The production is enhanced by a rich, detailed kitchen set (designed by Kate Noll) that not only gives the actors plenty of props to play with but underscores the much-commented-upon unseemliness of Miss Julie descending into her servants’ work area.”

“In her lime green dress with straight lines out of Mary Quant, her hair and false eyelashes à la Twiggy, Miriam is a creature of the late Sixties that all concerned—Williams, Bannow, Arias, and Kate Noll’s moddish costumes—get exactly right. The voice, the cigarette, the body language bespeak an “It Girl” still looking for “it.””

“The cast here is juggling several styles, which could be confusing but instead invigorates the proceedings. There’s a sense of ‘60s hipsterism and experimentalism in the colorful costumes and muted lighting.”

“Bold, innovative, the design for The Maids makes a drama out of our efforts to see the drama. No more telling staging of how we pry—the idea of our age as one lacking in any sense of privacy is common—could be imagined. The implications about private life and the public imagining of intimacy provide a layer of suggestion to The Maids that goes beyond the old upstairs/downstairs dichotomy that can seem a bit stuffy by now.

Inspired and arresting, The Maids is unsavory and seductive, making us all somewhat suspect, like people watching other people watch other people have sex.”

“Surveying the season, I’ve come up with five top picks in thirteen categories... the last named is my top choice.... For Sets .... the improbable rooms within a room, meticulously outfitted and wrought for The Maids, by Kate Noll (*14).”

“The Scenic Design by Kate Noll, assisted by Carmen Martinez, contributes the cracked sense of décor that reminded me of a kind of Miss Havisham boudoir, New Orleans-style, with a big brass bed, lots of mirrors, old books, draped crepe, muslin curtains ”

“And so it’s time for a “thanks for the memories” moment to take note of the more memorable productions, performances, and displays of artistry that took place in the 2011-12 Cabaret season: In Set Design: . . . Kate Noll for the Miss Havisham-like clutter of The Funnyhouse of a Negro.”

“Consider Kate Noll’s set in its vivid use of middling detail. Quite marvelous. Now stay through intermission to see it transformed into a seedy lavatory, complete with urinals, graffiti, and a coffee maker. Both sets are wonderfully realized”

“The Scenic Design (Kate Noll) is quite a spectacle—particularly effective are the backdrops of Russia, complete with suspended sickle moon—and the staging area is surrounded by fascinating clutter. ”

“Kate Noll’s set recalls Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas, that morality tale from the Eighties that also featured a husband on a hegira, with its receding telephone lines in an otherwise desolate place. The openness and depth of the stage works too, giving the set distinct spaces that never quite cohere.””