top of page

ABOUT

 Ashley Méndez (she/ her/ hers) is a Mexican-American scenic designer based in San Francisco, CA.  Her work is informed by her multidisciplinary background in literature, performance, and direction一 exploring the relationship between text, body, and space. 

 

Select credits include Mary Glen-Fredrick’s Edit Annie directed by Leigh Rondon-Davis and Nailah Harper-Malveaux (Crowded Fire Theater/ Magic Theater), Deneen Reynolds-Knott’s Babes in Ho-lland directed by Leigh Rondon-Davis (Shotgun Players/ Ashby Stage), Fran Astorga's Exhaustion Arroyo: Dancing Trees in the Ravine directed by R. Réal Vargas Alanis and Fran Astorga (In the Margin/ Cutting Ball Theater),​​ and The Thanksgiving Play directed by Carin Heidelbach (California State University, Stanislaus).

 

​​ @ashleymendez03

BBB663B9-E5DF-4755-971D-6BC2A7349BB5.heic

PRESS NOTES​

  • "One collaborator whose praises must be sung is set designer Ashley Méndez. Her design of Annie’s brick-walled loft should be familiar to anyone who’s been in a start-up, and the way the four plasma screens appear to float in mid-air is impressive. Yet the stage holds its biggest secret for the play’s climax, in which the walls of reality seem to disappear both literally and figuratively." 48 Hills

  • "In the moment after the whopper of a surprise, a religious stillness permeates the theater, like the aftershock of a ghost sighting. The revelation divides time itself, as in the plots of our most hallowed myths. Now there’s a time before you knew and a time after." San Francisco Chronicle  

  • "Cutting Ball’s experimental work is highlighted by wonderful rings or ripples painted onto the floor, echoing tree rings or waves from an underground lake. From every angle—the set, the actors, and the script—the play echoes with new ways of seeing the world we live in." Theatrius

  • “Shrooms bridge the gap between human and rock consciousnesses, but so does Ashley Méndez’s canny set design, which paints the entire floor of the black box theater in trippy, undulating ripples. It’s as if a stone had just plopped into a watering hole in the middle of the stage.” San Francisco Chronicle ​​

  • "The show works best as a sociological study, a slice of an era — the posters of Janet Jackson and Bikini Kill, the plastic floor lamps and Christmas lights and shower caddies and boom boxes, the way on dorm room landlines back then you had to punch in an interminable series of numbers just to call somebody or turn your voice mail on." San Francisco Chronicle​​​​​​

© 2023 Ashley Méndez

bottom of page