A vibrant stage production of The Wiz, with performers in green costumes dancing under green lights. In the background, the word 'OZ' is illuminated in large, stylized green letters, creating a magical Emerald City atmosphere.

Projection Designer for Theatre & Events

Projection at First Glance

Projection design uses moving images to extend what the audience believes is possible onstage. A blank wall can become a cathedral or dissolve into cerulean light without a single set change. The goal is to make those shifts feel inevitable—as if the story was always meant to be told that way.

What Projection Design Is

In practice, projection design replaces or augments scenery with responsive visuals. A single cue can swing a scene from a hand-drawn sketch to a fully rendered skyline. My job is to ensure those images stay invisible as “technology.” When the glow of a digital sunset matches the warmth of the lighting rig, the scene feels unified and alive.

Why It Matters

Projections give productions flexibility, depth, and scale. They conjure environments too delicate or vast to build in wood and steel, shift locations instantly, and amplify the emotional tone of a performance. Touring shows replace truckloads of scenery with light, making the work more adaptable—and more sustainable.

Notable Moments

Across Broadway houses and outdoor festivals, projections have rewritten what the stage can do. In The Wiz, a single digital backdrop became dozens of physical locations. In another production, we used animation to trigger architectural shifts mid-scene—something that would be impossible to achieve mechanically in real time.

How the Work Happens

Before rehearsals begin, I align with directors, set designers, and lighting teams on a shared visual language. From there, I sketch, storyboard, and build animatics in 2D and 3D tools. During tech, I refine the pacing around performers and scenic shifts, and then lock the playback cues into the theater's control system so they repeat flawlessly eight shows a week.

Tools of the Trade

The toolkit spans compositing and animation software, projection mapping suites, and dedicated playback systems. Mastery matters, but clearer communication matters more. Projection designers often translate the director’s intent into cues that lighting programmers, video engineers, and stage managers can all execute.

Challenges & Resilience

Every show carries constraints—tight timelines, shifting scripts, or surprising behavior once you see content on the actual set. The work succeeds when the team stays adaptable, solving challenges quickly so the story keeps moving.

Growing Recognition

Projection design has moved from experiment to expectation. The discipline now earns dedicated Tony Awards and union categories, reflecting how essential it has become to contemporary storytelling.

Looking Ahead

Real-time engines and generative tools are making interactive environments possible. Designers are experimenting with surfaces like scrims, haze, or water to blur the line between physical and digital. No matter the toolset, the challenge remains: keep the audience focused on the story, not the technology.

For Aspiring Designers

Start with curiosity and a love of theater. Learn how light behaves onstage, listen to every department, and treat technology as a storytelling instrument. The best projection design doesn’t draw attention to itself—it makes the world of the show feel inevitable.