Hello! Please introduce yourself. I am Faust Peneyra, a Filipino scenographer (scenic designer, stage designer, set designer and production designer) based in Hong Kong. I graduated from the University of the Philippines Diliman with a BA degree in Theater Arts majoring in Scenic Design and a Certificate in Theater Arts majoring in Performance. I took further studies in Technical Direction with the Japan Foundation, Lighting Programming with grandMA Asia Hong Kong, and Set Design, Costume Design and Digital Animation at the Central St. Martins, University of Arts London.
Would you say that you have a trademark style or aesthetic in your work? I can’t say if I have one, but I have heard from colleagues in the industry and critics that they would know immediately if I designed a show when they see the set for the first time. So maybe I do have. When I conceptualize a design, I always make sure that it would be clean and balanced; that it would be a force in forging the storytelling forward. I want the audiences to be so captivated with the design that they would feel part of the spectacle. I don’t agree with shortchanging paying audiences with mediocre designs, whether it is big or small budget productions. There is always room for ingenuity. Another personal touch would be functionality. I like creating multi-purpose set pieces that would unravel in front of and surprise the audiences. My assistants would usually call these my ‘transformers’ set. I know am not the best. but I will always cook up something original (hopefully magical too!).
How did you end up in the world of theater production and design? As a child, I’ve always been fascinated with storytelling and spectacle. I was also hyperactive with a bit of obsessivecompulsive tendencies which got me into trouble more often than I would want to. My parents would buy me Lego bricks to play with, just so I can sit quietly in one corner and build things. During those times, my older sisters were all obsessed with musical theater and they would spend the whole day listening to cast albums. From there, my imagination would run wild and I would start recreating a helicopter for “Miss Saigon” and a chandelier for “Phantom of the Opera”. Growing up, my interest in theater and liberal arts didn’t wane. I would always be involved in our school productions whether as an actor, a stage designer or a director. But I think what cemented it for me, the point where I knew I would pursue theater and make a career out of it, was in 1998 when I saw a video of “The Lion King” performance at the Tony Awards on TV. I was astounded by the sheer scale of the production and the vastness of the artist’s imagination in making a live version of this Disney classic with talking animal characters; how Julie Taymor was able to capture the animals’ movements and somehow incorporated it with the actor’s through puppetry and costume and blending it well with the scenic design. That evening I started researching more on her work and it was probably the definitive inspiration that pushed me to continue further on with stage design. To this day, I am still in awe of that production.
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