Where The WIld Things Are

“Where the Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sendak from 1963

Students: Finn Jesewski and Lara Schnabl

Inspired by the story’s imaginative world and emotional journey, the concept creates a spatial experience that invites the audience to step into a wild, dreamlike environment, dissolving the boundaries between stage, space, and storytelling.

The book is about a boy, who after a fight with his mother, sails in his imagination to an island where different monsters await him. First Max is afraid of them but towards the end he finds out that these monsters are his emotions and he becomes friends with them.

The stage design is built from a collection of individually created worlds by us (worlds inspired by scenes of the books) developed in Unreal Engine and later merged into a single theatrical space. Although each world emerged from a different visual approach, they are united by a shared focus on Max’s journey—both spatially and emotionally. The environment evolves alongside his dream, guiding the audience both phisically and remote through the play.

The aesthetic is defined by naïve, hand-crafted forms and drawings. Every single drawing comes from us.

Objects are reduced to their most essential qualities, mostly showing only what is necessary to recognize and understand them. This simplicity reflects a childlike perception of the world, where imagination fills in the gaps and meaning is derived from suggestion rather than detail.

So, it enables the user experience to focus on the play itself.

Transmedia Stage:

Our stage that we designed dissolves the traditional separation between actors and audience, placing both within the same shared space of address, presence, and experience. The elliptical stage configuration, enclosed by curtains, creates an intimate and at the same time a very wide environment. Cardboard houses and kinetic elements continuously transform the spatial setting, allowing the stage to shift fluidly between different states like reality and dreaming and the transformation of his room into a landscape.

(or the landscape into a..)