Reviews of Recent Projects


Hope and Gravity
 
“Anne Mundell’s simple set was beautiful and
seamlessly allowed us to move from locale to locale.”
 
--Pittsburgh Stage
 
“The production design (sets Anne Mundell, costumes Robert C. T. Steele,
lighting Andrew David Ostrowski, music Eric Shimelonis, and sound Joe Pino)
deserves special mention, as it whisks us seamlessly and almost magically
from scene to scene, actors and space transforming almost instantaneously
as the pieces of the story’s puzzle come
together.”
 
--Pittsburgh Tattler
 
Grounded
 
"Anne Mundell’s set features a simple raised cinderblock platform and header, creating McAndrew’s cell from which she delivers her story."
 
--Pittsburgh Stage
 
Other Desert Cities
 
"As so many patrons remarked upon entering the auditorium, Anne Mundell’s set design of the flagstone living room
was stunning. Like its owners, it is elegant and tasteful but frozen in the 1960s down to the chandelier that looks like an exploding atom."
 
--Florida Theatre Onstage
 
"I must say a few words about the set, the first one designed at the Maltz by Anne Mundell, a highly accomplished set designer and teacher of Scenic Design at Carnegie Mellon University's School of Drama. If verisimilitude is the objective of a set, this one is over the top. It IS a desert home and one feels as if real people live there. It is also somewhat monochromatic, like the desert, with people living out their secrets there.  Outstanding. "
 
--Lucanae Musings
Arts Blog
 
"The verbal blood-letting all takes place on a gorgeous stone-and-glass sprawling living room set by Anne Mundell
that befits the family’s wealth."
 
--Palm Beach Post
 
POP!
 
"The overall set by Anne Mundell is a spare factory-like space dotted with pieces of muted images and everyday items that Warhol transformed into multimillion-dollar canvases."
 
--Pittsburgh Post Gazette
 
“The stage is alive with sights fantastic. “
 
--Gordon Spencer WRCT
 
Next to Normal
 
"The ensemble cast projects a real warmth and black humor that makes Anne Mundell’s skeletal, gray framing set positively glow. I also appreciated the visual metaphor of three houses lining the back wall, literally turned upside down."
 
--Ithaca Times
 
"Sans traditional “dance routines”, “Next To Normal” is, however, not without movement, and a lot of it, as the actors move swiftly about a multi-platformed stage set in front of three large cut-outs of houses tipped onto their peaks and lining the back wall of the stage, visually tuning in the audience from the get-go that this is domesticity in serious disarray."
 
--Syracuse Post Standard
 
"The backdrop, consisting of upside-down house cutouts suspended in midair, enhanced the entropic mood of a story set in a traditional suburban neighborhood. The unit set of platforms, stairs and tables — which represented the family’s home — was efficient, with smooth entrances and exits."
 
The Ithican
 
Art
 
“Anne Mundell’s set captures both the aspirational nature of Veronica and Michael’s ambitions by way of an
ostentatiously understated decor, and the way the play shows the raw beneath the cooked:  a large “tear” in the back wall reveals a rough log cabin wall behind the smooth modern surface, just as the character’s civilized niceties, when stripped away, reveal a John Wayne/ frontier mentality at play.”
 
--Pittsburgh Tattler   
 
“The Public took a risk -- staging this small and intimate story in its vast auditorium. Art doesn't require much, only
three chairs and a coffee table. But Anne Mundell's set is elegant nonetheless, and the generous space allows these three hotheads to spread out, to take corners between verbal duels. “
 
--Pittsburgh City Paper
 
"Anne Mundell’s set echoes the seeming simplicity of the painting. It baldly frames the characters rather than diverting your attention to marginal details."
 
--Gordon Spencer WRCT
 
Drowsy Chaperone
 
“Anne Mundell’s scenic design brings two worlds together seamlessly on one stage, making fantastic use of movable backdrops to transport the story through time and space. Man in Chair’s home is inviting in a “Leave It to Beaver” sort of way, with his easy chair and record player at downstage right, and an outsized Philco refrigerator at the back of his center-stage kitchen.”
 
--Seven Day Vermont
 
God of Carnage
 
“Scenic designer Anne Mundell has created a balanced tableau set - suitable for much acting out by the characters - with a monstrously torn curtain of a backdrop which Phil Monat lights progressively from brown to red to heighten the mood.”
 
--Drama Urge
 
When January Feels Like Summer
 
“Contemporary New York City is the setting. And, at first, given Anne Mundell’s convincing generic subway station set you may think that much of what happens will be along such tracks. But, in fact, the set could better suggest characters going places they do not expect.”
 
Gordon Spencer WRCT
 
Hope and Gravity
 
“Scenic designer Anne Mundell and lighting designer Andrew David Ostrowski team up to provide a dynamic setting that’s spare, contemporary and practical.”
 
--Pittsburgh Tribune Review
 
Precious Little 
 
“The set by Anne Mundell and lighting by the ubiquitous Andy Ostrowski move easily from clinical to disquieting.”
 
--Pittsburgh Post Gazette
 
“Anne Mundell (set) and Andrew David Ostrowski (lights) provide the haunting environment for this world.  Brava!"
 
--Pittsburgh City Paper
 
Barnum
 
“Anne Mundell's colorful set and Wendy Stark's spiffy costumes, including the gold-trimmed band jackets, are right on for the show.”
 
--North Country Public Radiio
 
M.I.A.
 
“In the studio space, whenever you go to see a production there you know the stage is going to be unique and transformed for every given show. In "M.I.A", the set is a sand colored and textured blank slate with benches, tombstones and dinner tables seemingly growing from the sandscape.”
 
--Pittsburgh Theatre Reviews from the Eponymous Point of View.