For Annamarie Goosley ’23, theatrical scenic design is about much more than simply building a backdrop. It is about creating a world for characters to inhabit and audiences to visit, if only for a few hours. Over the course of her time at Le Moyne, Goosley designed scenes for numerous shows, including Boot and Buskin’s Cabaret and Gifford Family Theatre’s Naked Mole Rat. Creating these spaces required the Binghamton, N.Y., native to use every inch of herself as an artist, storyteller, collaborator and human being, and she wouldn’t have it any other way.
Goosley has always had a particular appreciation for place. When she was a child, her family’s home was flooded, and for a while she lived with her grandparents. By the time she had arrived at Le Moyne in the fall of 2019, she knew that she wanted to spend her professional life creating spaces for the others to inhabit – on stage. She chose Le Moyne in part because the College’s small size and hands-on approach would give her the opportunity to do just that. Before she knew it, the theatre arts major was channeling her energy and imagination into scenic design and working with others to stage productions that would captivate audiences. She was also discovering that “if you love something and want to do it, get to where you need to be and go from there.”
She is certainly well on her way to getting where she needs to be. This summer Goosley’s conceptual scenic design work was featured in John Logan’s Red at the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space. The Prague Quadrennial was established in 1967 to bring the best of design for performance, scenography, and theatre to life. The theme for the event in 2023 was “rare,” and was meant to be “a nod to the unique and raw realities that artists create.” It is one of the most fun and challenging projects Goosley has taken on to date.
“What I love most about being in the creative field is that it is not work for me,” she said. “It is my hobby. It is what I love. Even if I had a different job this is what I would be doing for fun. It’s how I bring something to the world.”
This fall Goosley will enroll in a master’s degree program at the Savannah College of Art and Design.