Career Profile: Set designer

Wendie Cutcher is not only a student at UNM, but also designs sets for theatrical plays and is a mother of two.

For Cutcher, 43, designing sets means long hours spent at class during the day, and longer hours at night painting and doing construction work. She has two children, ages 13 and 18, who live with her.

“It’s not all the glamour that most people generally think that theater life is,” she said. “You’re usually walking around with dirty hands and wearing an apron covered with paint. There are a lot of aspects to theater where you have to get in there and just get your hands dirty … you have to really want to do the art.”
Cutcher is pursuing a degree in design for theater performance, which would allow her to design sets professionally. She began in 2008, but has only been attending school full-time since 2010 because she takes care of her youngest son.

“If it weren’t for my husband, Mike, I would never have been able to go and work on the set during these late nights that we’ve had,” she said.

“It’s hard work and it’s weird hours. I’ve spent the past month working at the University and some days I’m there until midnight.”
Cutcher was the assistant designer for the play “Electricidad,” a transformation of the classical play “Electra.” It ran this past weekend in the Experimental Theatre inside Popejoy Hall. She, along with a small team of designers, constructed the entire set, which included a nearly full-scale house and yard, and Electricidad’s father’s dead body.

She said that while set making is technically challenging and requires computer drafting, it also appeals to her artistic side.
“It’s not necessarily just about designing sets, it’s more about the aspect of art,” she said. “That’s the part I like more than just the actual sitting down and designing a set. I like to be the person who actually paints the set, who’s more the hands-on person who does the scenic painting.”

Cutcher said that when she receives her degree, she hopes either to design sets for local theater companies or for television and film. She said getting a job with a studio means recurring work.
Cutcher said when television shows such as Breaking Bad and In Plain Sight end this year, more opportunities for new sets will open up.

“New shows will begin at the studios in Albuquerque, and when they do, they’ll need new sets,” she said. “Everything the actors act in is a set that was designed by someone. They need scenic artists to paint it, and it would be really cool to work my way up the ladder and become art director of a television show.”

Cutcher said in order to get hired as a set designer for a theater company or a production crew for a television show, she must have a portfolio of work that is up to professional standards. She is working on building her portfolio at UNM.