The Shark is Broken
Video & Projection Design for Theatre
The Shark is Broken brings the legendary actors of Jaws - Robert Shaw, Roy Scheider, and Richard Dreyfuss - face-to-face with their most absurd challenges during the filming of the iconic blockbuster. With a broken shark and tempers running high, brings to life the hilarious and poignant behind-the-scenes drama of a movie shoot gone terribly awry.
The video and projection design brought to life an animated and immersive New England sea and sky. The design utilized the language of cinema - fast forwards, rewinds, fades, and dissolves - to move through advancing time and shifting weather, ultimately enabling the natural elements to instigate, reflect, and respond to the shifting relationships between the characters. The video design also bookended the beginning and end of the production with a bespoke cinematic overture and a final live cinema denouement.
Production History
George Street Playhouse | New Brunswick, NJ | 2025
Creative Team
Written by: Ian Shaw and Joseph Nixon
Directed by: Peter Flynn
Scenic Design: Anne Mundell
Costume Design: Siena Zoë Allen
Lighting Design: Alan C. Edwards
Sound Design: Joanna Lynne Staub
Video & Projection Design: Adam J. Thompson
Hair, Wig, and Makeup Design: Jennifer-Reneé Mullins
Fight Direction: Jeffrey M. Bender
Production Stage Manager: Christina M. Woolard
Production Manager: Christopher J. Bailey
Video & Projection Team:
Video & Projection Design: Adam J. Thompson
Associate Video & Projection Design: Đạt Peter Tôn
Video & Projection Supervisor: Xavier Vassallo
Performed By
Jason Babinsky: Roy Scheider
Jeffrey M. Bender: Robert Shaw
Max Wolkowitz: Richard Dreyfuss
Photographs by T. Charles Erickson
Press
”The setting for The Shark is Broken is awe-inspiring with the huge ship Orca on center stage and projections in the background that simulate weather and the passing of the days. The talented creative team features projection design by Adam J. Thompson.” - BroadwayWorld
”One of the play’s highlights is a sudden thunderstorm which sends the three actors on a whirling, nearly uncontrollable ride off Cape Cod. The Orca, set on a giant turntable, comes alive in its storm-tossed gyrations, enhanced by…sky and sea projections across the stage’s backdrop by Adam J. Thompson.” - Out in Jersey
“The half-section of the little boat appears to bob against a cyclorama on which film of ocean waves and sky are projected. When the curtain opened at the beginning of the play, boat and background received an enthusiastic round of applause.” - Front Row Center
“[The boat] rotates, to create a sense of the passing of time, and videos, on back screens, of the sea and the stormy skies add to the sense of atmosphere.” - NJArts