I am Mariya Rose Hawks & I hold my BFA Design & Technical Theatre, with emphases in Scenery & Lighting Design from the University of MInnesota Duluth.

“To see a world in a Grain of Sand,

And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand,

And eternity in an hour.”

~William Blake

My art is to see what is not there, to see beyond what the world has given me. My art is to see the world in the grain of sand, and the heaven in the wildflower. My art is theatre.

I take a bare stage and conjure up scenery that not only tells the story of the play, but has a story and a life all its own. I chase away or embrace the darkness to illuminate the world on stage. My art transcends the constraints of reality, not needing to be bound by the rules of the outside world. A window does not need a wall, nor does light need to come from the sun alone.

What is ugly outside the walls of the theater may be beautiful inside, and what is usually beautiful made ugly. I can challenge your perceptions of reality, bring forward more of the world than meets the eye. I can bring the world to life. If you leave a show I have designed filled with a sense of wonder or deep in thought and that feeling still lingers with you the following morning, I have achieved what I sought to achieve.

I am not alone in this effect, there are others alongside me, working to create the world you see when you walk into the theater. It is the union of my ideas with theirs that helps me to make you think, to challenge your mind and create the sense of wonder I want people to leave with.

Long before you leave a performance, long before you enter the theater, I am working to create the world you will see. The playwright has given me the words I must work with, the director has given me ideas, and it is then my turn to create from my imagination. As I read the play, the words inspire, they set my imagination free, drawing images into my mind’s eye. The words become images, pictures I have found, photos that inspire the world of the play. These picture become sketches, my ideas drawn out on paper.

         Once a final sketch has been drawn, it is not too long before it explodes out of the air on the stage and that empty black void becomes the world I have created. In lighting, I would then continue the bring light to the darkest spaces and throw shadows where there were none. Once all this is done, it is time for the audience to see it. The audience may never know it is my work by looking at it though.

          While I may develop a style of my own in time, for now it is ever changing. The style changes, the look changes, the feel changes. So if you insist on examining my work, do not expect it to sing my name. But expect it to ring true to challenging the audience to see a world in a way they have never seen it before.

Born & raised in Minnesota, I have been practicing the fine art of theatre since I was in high school. From beginning as a sound board operator for high school musicals, I have grown into a passion for scenery & lighting design. Beyond scenery and lighting, I have had the wonderful opportunity to explore costume and sound designs, rounding out my experience in the major design areas of the theatre. I have also been able to hone my skills as a paint charge and scenic artist over the years, with both academic & professional theatres.

Beyond the world of the theatre, I have explored a wide variety of artistic skills that benefit my theatrical work and hold their own. I have experience in oil painting, digital arts, animatronics, film work and a number of traditional handicrafts. Any opportunity for me to learn a new craft is one that I will welcome with open arms in my pursuit of learning all that I can in the creative world that I love.

While my greatest passion rests in the storytelling that is theatre, I embrace the idea of design in all that it entails & will never hesitate to take on an opportunity that allows me to spread my creative wings. Whether it is theatrical design, interior design, concept art or something as simple as a knitted project, I am teller of stories, a creator of worlds & new things, I am a designer.