Fun Home | Ithaca College | 2022

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Fun Home is a true story about Alison Bechdel, a lesbian cartoonist, who uses her drawings to explore her own sexuality, her relationship with her gay father, and her attempts to unlock the mysteries surrounding his life. We see Alison in three iterations, Small Alison, Medium Alison, and Big Alison, and the play is narrated like an amalgamation of memories. As Alison explores her memories and realizes that her life exists in a world of grey, as opposed to black and white like her drawings, she can better understand her father and her own childhood. 

As a team, we wanted the audience to walk away thinking about how complex humans are and that we all live in a world of grey. We thought this show was important to see on stage today because it has a clear message that you should be unapologetically and authentically yourself. For the production, we decided that each time period should have its own feel and that Alison’s arc from hazy memories to clarity at the end of the show should be reinforced with lighting. I wanted each time period to have a distinct lighting quality so that when we jump between memories, we can recognize at what point we are in Alison’s life.