Scenic designer Alexander Dodge on his artistic inspiration

I was on a family vacation to my hometown of Meiringen, Switzerland, and hiked up to the medieval watch tower, Burg Resti, with my two young sons. The town had just recently done some restorations to the tower and constructed an inner staircase inside the tower, allowing visitors access the battlements. Looking down into the tower’s hollow abyss from the top with the winding staircase was simultaneously dizzying, mesmerizing, and ultimately inspiring. I did an initial design shortly afterwards and showed it to [the director] Darko [Tresnjak]. At first, I think he thought I had gone a bit mad. But as we talked about the story with the design in mind, as well as the amazing potential for video projection on top of it, we were quickly on our way. Darko and I are both big fans of Hitchcock movies. Vertigo (1958) is one of our favorites. We riffed on the bell tower scene where Kim Novak and Jimmy Stewart race to the top. The scene is terrifying and thrilling in a way that only a Hitchcock movie can be. It seemed an appropriate visual metaphor for this story, and we ran with it.

-Jennifer Levin, Santa Fe New Mexican