Andrea Bechert is a member of United Scenic Artists * IATSE Local USA829*
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Produced by TheatreWorks.
Directed by Amy Gonzalez, Scenic Design by Andrea Bechert, Lighting Design by Steven Mannshardt, Costume Design by Noah Marin, Sound Design by Cliff Caruthers.
Presented at the Mountain View Center for Performing Arts in Mountain View, California.
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Review excerpts from NATIVE GARDENS with TheatreWorks:
“…before any of the principal characters ever appear on stage, Andrea Bechert's impressive
scenic design transports the audience to the Washington, D.C. suburb the playwright has imagined.
Bechert teaches design and technology at San José State University. If there are any students reading this
who want to learn about stagecraft, they should sign up for one of her classes. Bechert created the backyard
facades of two adjacent brick homes. They summon up the milieu of a stately East Coast neighborhood, and
what that neighborhood represents. These evocative two-story houses are so tall they reach up to the theater
rafters. One yard's manicured lawn is lined with purple iris and hydrangea. The window shutters are painted a
cheerful blue. The shutters on its twin next door have been neglected. Weeds poke up from the earth, and the
limbs of a giant oak tree stretch far and wide. When the characters do enter the stage from their respective
back doors, these exterior signs line up with the interior lives of both couples.”
“Just one look at Andrea Bechert’s set speaks volumes — a partially deconstructed house with
an elegant interior and run-down exterior, as if past and present were coexisting side by side. Some of the
walls are missing so that the arch of the roof and a second-floor window hang in midair.”
“Andrea Bechert’s magnificent set design is a study in scale and nuance crowned by a sprawling
Southern manse sitting center stage. It’s a down-home palace crammed with nooks and crannies. The
meandering delights of a back porch, a sturdy tree and a wonderfully vintage mint-green kitchen ground this
TheatreWorks Silicon Valley production in a delicious sense of lived-in complexity. Everywhere you look
on this set, there are new layers to explore.”
“The set, by Andrea Bechert, is one of the most beautiful I've seen; each yard a thing of
detailed wonder and full of realistic botanicals….”