Scenic Designer
Jessica.Parks.Design@gmail.com
All images, drafting and designs shown on this website are the intellectual property of Jessica Parks and cannot be replicated in any way.
The NY Times: "As usual, Jessica Parks, the company's longtime scenic designer, makes the most of the limited stage space. The homey living-dining room of the cottage is rendered with rustic timbers, stone and vintage furniture to create -- ironically, as it turns out -- friendly environs.
The play demands a sudden change of location for the final scene, which Ms. Parks, ever the strategist, accommodates with ease. This visual surprise helps punctuate the woeful resolution of a cautionary drama."
The NY Times: "The first-rate set design is by Jessica Parks, whose sharp eye for detail is always worth praising."
Talkin' Broadway: "Resident scenic designer Jessica Parks continues to amaze with a richly detailed set of Charlie's New Jersey kitchen which features a dazzling array of properties. The illusions of spaciousness which she often creates (in this case, the width of a kitchen) on the small stage at this intimate theatre are dazzling"
The Link: "The set, designed by Jessica Parks, is so authentic that the audience member in front of me exclaimed that the coffee pot, portable black and white TV, and copper molds on the wall had been taken from her kitchen!"
Click Here to see the set.
The NY Times: "Jessica Parks’s set is especially noteworthy."
NYTheatre.com: "In particular, Jessica Parks has established a perfect set. We walk in to the theatre and are confronted with a mish-mash of chairs, tables, rocks, shoes, desks, objects in a disarrayed stack occupying almost half the stage. It’s the rubble of 9/11 of course, always there, always visible, never coherent. The metaphor is further developed by the fact that it is from this heap that the actors pull the props they need for each scene. So smart, so elegant."
The NY Times: "Even Jessica Parks’s set makes a strong statement. It is an ingenious mountain of chairs (and a couple of tables) that look as if they had landed that way after a hurricane. When a piece of furniture is needed for a scene, the actors pluck it from the pile and set it down in place, a striking metaphor for snatching a bit of civilization and comfort from the aftermath of disaster."
Click Here to see the set.
Tri-City News: "The set, always excellent in the hands of designer Jessica Parks, is a bleak maze of brick and metal, perfectly arranged for dramatic shafts of light to strike through and catch the perfect silhouette at just the right time."
NYTheater.com: " But what grounds the actors to the piece, and what lifts the piece to the ambitions envisioned by Werse and Geller, are the terrific set, costume, light, and sound design. Jessica Parks, Patricia E. Doherty, Jill Nagle, and Jack Kennedy, respectively, have created a place in which Werse’s words and Geller’s direction can effortlessly evoke and invoke the noirs of the thirties and forties."
Talkin' Broadway: "The scenic design by Jessica Parks is extraordinary. As I've noted before, the narrow, relatively deep stage has frequently provided well solved scenic challenges. However, Parks' work is unique in that it provides a sense of a large, complexly realistic area which appears to expand into the auditorium. . . .In any event, this set would be a valuable and fascinating study for students of set design."
The NY Times: "Jessica Parks’s shadowy, scruffy waiting room, hauntingly lighted by Jill Nagle, is right on the money."
The Star Ledger: "Designer Jessica Parks has done an exemplary job for New Jersey Repertory Company’s production of “The Tangled Skirt.”
Click Here to see the set.
The New York Times: "Jessica Parks’s scenic design is fantastic. In this tiny theater, where Row A seems inches from the proscenium, audiences can feel that they really are in a wild, green-floored forest with these characters."
SceneOnStage.com: "We’re in a grassy glade just beyond a high school ball field, imagined behind the audience. (What can scenic designer Jessica Parks not accomplish on NJ Rep’s smallish stage? The woman owns the space.)"
The NY Times: “Poetic License” is a bookcases play. That is, one look at the librarylike set (in this case, a particularly handsome one designed by Jessica L. Parks) suggests the characters are almost certain to be college-educated and will demonstrate some verbal acuity."
Backstage.com: "Jessica L. Parks' Brooklyn kitchen is a perfect counterpart to Vermeer's."
The Epoch Times: "The set and props by Jessica L. Parks also rate starring status. . . . it is a stunner."
Click Here to see the set.
The Link: "The scenery by Jessica Parks is a marvelous evocation of Sunshine Villa. . . "
Talkin' Broadway: "Resident Scenic Designer Jessica Parks, who repeatedly performs miracles on the NJ Rep's narrow stage, here has to crowd her three trailers into a tight space. However, Parks manages to provide a realistic, large and fluid space for the outdoor area in which the entire piece is played out."
Talkin' Broadway: "As she does with uncanny regularity, resident set designer Jessica Parks has designed a crackerjack set which hurtles Night Train right into our laps."
The Star Ledger: ". . . Jessica Parks has provided “Night Train” with one of the most handsome sets of the season."
Asbury Park Press: "There’s another star-quality ensemble at work here, and its presence is felt the moment the audience sets eyes upon the grand, deco-infused set by Jessica Parks. . . "