From the South Florida Sun-Sentinel

JUDDY LANE

White Orchard Theater art director

April 20 2005

Juddy Lane's soft, lilting Latin accent can hardly contain her excitement. "I can't wait to get to the opening night," she says, bubbling about her first show as art director with the White Orchard Theater company, a production based on Leo Tolstoy's Kreutzer Sonata, which will open this week at Florida International University's Biscayne Bay campus. "To see everything together -- sound, costumes, acting, lighting."

Judging by Lane's dramatically staged and hauntingly nostalgic art photographs, it's no surprise that she gravitated to the theater. The Fort Lauderdale-based, Peruvian-born artist, whose first name is pronounced "Judy," was initially hired by White Orchard director Irina Sundukova as a promotional photographer. Before long, she was working on the design of the company's Web site, for which she also put together a slide show, as well as collaborating on staging, costumes, props and other promotions.

Although she wasn't familiar with Tolstoy's moralistic tale, Lane is more than comfortable with the late-19th-century setting, an era she often evokes in her photographs. However, her challenge was to create costumes that were inspired by that era but not specific to it, so as not to distance contemporary audiences. The story, which reveals the Russian writer's thoughts on relations between men and women, may still have something to say to audiences in a far different century.

"It's a psychological drama about a man with a twisted view of marriage," Lane explains. "And on the other hand, it's a tragedy of his wife, trying to keep up appearances of a perfect family life. She was living a hell inside."

The experience is Lane's first with theater, though not with staging. Her photos, which can be viewed at www.juddylane.com, make use of models whose garb, hair, makeup and attitude are meticulously designed to call up another place and time. Inspired by silent movies and 19th-century post cards, Lane set about re-creating the surreal atmosphere of those artifacts. She also sees her work as a hunt, as she strives to reveal some kind of psychological truth, something that depends upon her establishing a link with her subject. She says she was able to do just that with a photo shoot she conducted with the cast of Kreutzer Sonata at a Colonial-style house in Coral Springs.

"They would dress up as the characters, and they were acting. And I was just like a hunter, walking around them with the camera while they were completely immersed," she recalls. "And everything goes more fluidly and passionately like that, because they are acting, and I'm just like a ghost, going around and trying to capture the emotion and also creating interesting images out of that."

Lane says she will take much of this experience back with her to her studio, even as she continues to work with White Orchard on future productions. "I'm exploring with this, too," she says.

Kreutzer Sonata will preview 8 p.m. Thursday and open 8 p.m. Friday at the Mary Ann Wolfe Theater on FIU's Biscayne Bay campus, 3000 N.E. 151st St., in North Miami. Performances will take place 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays through May 8. Call 305/331-1293 or visit www.whiteorchardtheater.com. Tickets cost $35-$40 for opening night, $25 for the regular run.

-- Bob Weinberg