Lighting and video projection designer Hana Kim has an impressive resume. She won a Tony for her projection design on “The Outsiders” in 2024. This fall, she opened “Working Girl” at the La Jolla Playhouse, a musical composed by Cyndi Lauper and the national tour version of “The Outsiders.” Kim received her MFA with a concentration in scenic design from UCLA’s School of Theater, Film & Television and has gone on to design award-winning musicals, plays, operas and installations.
Kim spoke with BruinLife’s Rebekah Field to unpack her latest projects, describing her “artist’s touch” and the themes she hopes to explore as a designer.
This article has been edited for length and clarity.
BruinLife: Can you briefly talk about your specific role in “Working Girl”?
Hana Kim: I did video design for “Working Girl” … I was responsible for designing the system for the projections and LED screens. “Working Girl” came to me via the director, Chris Ashley. I’ve worked with Chris before, and I’ve worked at the La Jolla Playhouse before. Thankfully, I think [Chris] saw something in me that could be a good fit for “Working Girl.” “Working Girl” is based on the film of the same name, set at the tail end of the 80s and the beginning of the 90s. The video design in that show really wanted to capture the essence of that time. The composer of the show was Cyndi Lauper, so we really wanted to have the 80s music video aesthetic — like MTV, and giving lots of energy to Cyndi’s songs.
BL: Are there any specific scenes or moments in “Working Girl” where your video work has a central focus?
HK: Whenever we get into songs, that’s when we get into video-heavy sequences. The playwright, Theresa Rebeck, had a chat with me on how she loves how video provides setting. When we depart into song, [“Working Girl”] becomes very surreal and stylistic. It’s a mix of realistic moments, sometimes comical moments and sometimes very motion-heavy dance sequences. What [Rebeck] was talking about really captured the essence of what was doing in the show… In terms of video becoming “central focus,” it’s always dangerous because we always want the performers to be the focus… With “Working Girl” specifically, we played around with perspective in the show… Katharine, our “villain” in the show — she is the counter-character to our protagonist, Tess — once she’s taking us into the journey of the career, the visual of the room gets echoed towards her.
BL: How do you balance working on so many different projects at once?
HK: I try really hard to be versatile. I try to treat each show differently. For me, what’s important is each show having its own color. Inevitably, the “artist’s touch” or “style” will be there in some way, and what I’d love to do is have my style or touch become more about the process of approaching each work versus visual style. There’s one quote that I love from Saul Bass, who’s a legendary motion graphics designer. He said, ‘Design is thinking made visual.’ … That’s how I’m trying to approach it.
BL: Do you ever find yourself comparing your different projects?
HK: I got to do “Working Girl” back to back with “Monkey King” at the San Francisco opera. It’s very different to do a musical with Cyndi Lauper’s music versus “Monkey King” with Huang Ruo’s music, which is classical opera. It’s synth band versus Chinese drums. It sounds very different, and both of those shows looked very different. In terms of juggling the projects, I have to give credit to my team. Video design is highly collaborative… video programmers, associate designers, animators, engineers… So, all of us come together as one department. I would not be able to do anything, really, without this team.
BL: How did it feel to win the Tony for your work on “The Outsiders”?
HK: It was pretty surreal. I didn’t dream of it. I was so surprised at the ceremony. I didn’t quite expect that I would get it. Just getting nominated was already such a huge honor. To win it was a very, very special thing… Quite a beautiful day.
BL: What were some of the key differences in adapting from the Broadway show to a touring production?
HK: A Broadway production is sitting there. A touring production will have to load in a day or two, and it starts the show right away … Everything has to be able to come together really quickly, and I can’t really overcomplicate anything … Broadway is lots of figuring out. We don’t have the final product when we go into tech, so there’s a lot of things that we consider that may not survive in the final version … With the touring production, we know the spirit of the design already, so it’s about modifying it to fit the logistics of touring … The biggest difference about the Broadway and touring production of “The Outsiders” is that we don’t have pyrotechnics on the tour, but we still need fire for the storytelling. We made a fire scene without the actual fire: smoke, lighting and video. That’s the biggest difference, and we had to tech it so it keeps the spirit of the show.
BL: Do you feel like there is any specific message or theme that you want to share through your work?
HK: I try to be involved in the work that speaks to me at the time … I tend to lean to stories of women, stories of dreamers, stories of youth. When we grow up, a lot of people go through that period of feeling lost, and sometimes you hold onto it … In “The Outsiders,” with Ponyboy being a dreamer, there’s something so endearing that personally spoke to me. Also, sometimes it’s an immigrant story. I myself, as an immigrant, I’m naturally kind of drawn to those kinds of stories … Everybody has such multitudes in them. I’m not sure there’s a universal theme or message. It’s just trying to stay true at the moment.
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Featured Image Courtesy of Hana Kim
