Welcome back to Stage & Screen! In this episode, we're visiting with new faculty member Cody Stockstill, who is as Assistant Professor of Scenic Design. Cody talks about his career trajectory — which, in addition to scenic design, includes everything from costume design to puppetry and beyond — and shares his thoughts about what makes theatre in Mississippi unique.
Welcome back to Stage & Screen! In this episode, we're visiting with new faculty member Cody Stockstill, who is as Assistant Professor of Scenic Design. Cody talks about his career trajectory — which, in addition to scenic design, includes everything from costume design to puppetry and beyond — and shares his thoughts about what makes theatre in Mississippi unique.
To learn more about Cody and see some of his designs, visit https://codystockstill.com/
There are two ways to watch the referenced production NEAR/FAR, an original work of Mask theatre that was developed, performed, and produced remotely by Theatre & Film at the University of Mississippi.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theatrefilmatum/posts/4073596689336384
YouTube:
The Department of Theatre & Film is grateful for its patrons and corporate sponsors. As a department we are committed to the high quality instruction that our students receive. Investing in the students’ education and these quality productions helps us move toward our common goal of graduating successful, creative adults who are lifelong learners. If you are interested in contributing to these efforts, please visit https://umfoundation.givingfuel.com/theatreandfilm.
From the Department of Theatre & Film at the University of Mississippi, this is Stage & Screen.
Katherine Stewart
Hello hello, and welcome back to Stage & Screen. I'm your host Katherine Stewart. If you've been tuning in from the last few weeks. You have heard our special presentation of Listening in the Shadows, which is a series of radio dramas written and performed by our students as part of our fall 2020 season and if you haven't heard those you should definitely go back and check them out because they are so much fun.
Katherine Stewart
Moving forward we'll be doing a more traditional type of interview podcast featuring faculty, students, staff, alumni, and special guests to give you a look behind the scenes at everything we've got going on in the Department of Theatre & Film.
Katherine Stewart
Our first guest, on the show today, is Cody Stockstill, who is new to our faculty for the fall 2020 semester. Cody is an assistant professor of scenic design. But he's also done costume design, lighting design, and many other things throughout his career, so stick around for our conversation with him. I think you'll really enjoy getting to know him.
Katherine Stewart
Hello Cody, thank you for joining us today.
Cody Stockstill
Hi. Thank you for having me.
Katherine Stewart
We're excited to talk to you. You are brand new faculty member this semester, in this wild, strange new semester that we're having, so welcome. Just to start us off tell us a little bit about your background how you got into theater, stuff like that.
Cody Stockstill
Um well, I am originally from Gulfport, Mississippi, so I'm a native Mississippian and I, believe it or not I did not do theater until my freshman year in college.
Cody Stockstill
Yeah, I think the first play I ever saw was a really sketchy version of Beauty and the Beast. My senior year of high school at.
Cody Stockstill
Some casino it was the most random thing ever and I was really in the movies in really into sort of telling stories with broadcasting and things like that in high school and the closest thing I could get his theater. And I started doing theater. My my freshman year of college.
Cody Stockstill
And I ended up really liking, it and then one day my theater director to paint brush in my hand and I was like OK this is fun.
Cody Stockstill
And that's how I got into scenic design.
Katherine Stewart
What was it about that first experience with scenic design that you were so lit up by and how did you know right away that that was something you wanted to do?
Cody Stockstill
I don't really know it just kind.
Cody Stockstill
Of felt right.
Cody Stockstill
It's very meta way of talking but very sort of … one of my friends calls. It sort of the the warm fuzzy conversations, but it just I've always like building stuff even when I was a kid. I was like building stuff. You know like models and Legos and just making something out of nothing essentially and.
Cody Stockstill
Then I figured I was like wait. I can get paid for this and tell stories. I was like that's awesome. But it was just sort of that design of the?
Cody Stockstill
Of the environment and the design the visual design of the story. I was like OK. This is this is something that I can get into you know, and and in high school I did you know? I did all kinds of stuff and and sort of high school that wasn't theater, but it would eventually turn into theater. You know with as corny as it sounds you know, designing homecoming and prom.
Cody Stockstill
You know, I could do anything.
Cody Stockstill
At the balloon arch and that sort of you know that's that was sort of little did I know what inform later on. I'm not doing balloon arches anymore. I'm doing much bigger things. But it would later sort of inform you know just building and designing and telling stories sort of in a visual sense.
Katherine Stewart
So you ended up studying that as an undergrad.
Cody Stockstill
My freshman year I was theater and classical studies double major.
Katherine Stewart
Wow, that's an interesting combo.
Cody Stockstill
Yeah, I didn't know anything about Greek theater didn't know anything about sort of. You know Indian theater or anything like that. An ad class. My freshman year randomly an sort of fell in love with it and I was like Oh This Is It. This is it so like theater history. Older forms of Theatre ritualistic theater. I'm really into but my background as an undergrad is theater? I was a theater and religious studies double major with a minor in classics and vocal performance.
Katherine Stewart
So it sounds like those that that combination informed some of what you ended up gravitating towards.
Cody Stockstill
Yeah, absolutely, yeah, it's just.
Cody Stockstill
Rebel ritualistic aspect of Theater, and with you know for direct are that makes sense. But for designers. Some people are like really was like no, I like to design sort of spaces where sort of these virtuals can occur.
Katherine Stewart
How have those interests informed your style or your thinking as a designer?
Cody Stockstill
II think it's
Cody Stockstill
What classics does for me, especially if you look back sort of you know you talk about sort of the neo classical unities and making things, universal you know that's that's sort of the goal of Neoclassicism is verisimilitude, which is the appearance of some sort of.
Cody Stockstill
Yes.
Cody Stockstill
And I think.
Cody Stockstill
That goes back all the way to the Greeks into the classics and that you're trying to make it universal that that.
Cody Stockstill
Yes, even though we're talking about a specific location. A specific time. The themes that we're talking about in the show that we are producing are universal. They appeal to everyone and they provide commentary or thought or inspire thought to all audiences all genders.
Cody Stockstill
All all persons.
Cody Stockstill
Regardless of who they are where they are.
Cody Stockstill
Not sure what their background is and I think in terms of design that really doesn't inform me that were telling universal stories, but also that.
Cody Stockstill
It's relatable and so we need to design something that's relatable it might be different. But it's still relatable even if you join Shakespeare or Greek or something you know is set in the future still relateable.
Katherine Stewart
And then after you graduated did you go directly to grad school or did you work in theater for a while?
Cody Stockstill
I did, I went directly to grad school at USM in Hattiesburg and I originally went to grad school for an MFA in costume design and then they found out that I like scenic design a little bit and they gave me an opportunity to design scenic for our production and they worked it out. So I could actually do a double concentration.
Cody Stockstill
My MFA so I've gotta double concentration and costume design and scenic design.
Katherine Stewart
Is that unusual?
Cody Stockstill
I don't know many other people that have that.
Katherine Stewart
So have you been able you've been able to use both of those then and kind of go back and forth in your career after grad school.
Cody Stockstill
Yeah, yeah, I originally started teaching and doing costume design and they found out that I also do scenic design. So I started doing scenic design. In design and but for the last few years I've been primarily focused on scenic.
Katherine Stewart
And that's what you're doing at Ole Miss
Yeah, yeah.
Katherine Stewart
So did you go directly into teaching after grad school or did you do some intermediate things.
Cody Stockstill
I well right after I graduated from grad school you know grad school. The The The Gambit that is grad. School large running sort of race that you do in grad school to get to the finish line.
Cody Stockstill
I did some some summer stock work right after grad school and didn't really have any plans this going sort of chill out for a little bit and I got a random phone call right after I finished my my summer stock from one of my grad. School professors that that said. Hey Wanna teach and I was like sure, and in the course of 3 days. I became up.
Cody Stockstill
An instructor in Louisiana.
Katherine Stewart
Oh, in Louisiana, where was that?
Cody Stockstill
Hammond Louisiana, Southeastern Louisiana University.
Cody Stockstill
I was in Dallas actually with one of my really good friends and got a call from Grad School professor and she said. Hey do you wanna teach in the next day? I had a phone interview and then the next day? I had the onsite interview and then the next day, I got the job offer.
Katherine Stewart
Wow.
Katherine Stewart
And then how long were you there before you ended up back in Mississippi.
Cody Stockstill
I was at southeastern for 2 years and then in 2013, I transferred to Mississippi State.
Katherine Stewart
And you were there until coming here.
Cody Stockstill
Yeah, I was, I was there until August of this year actually.
Katherine Stewart
And you've done quite a lot of shows outside of your teaching roles as well. In that time. What are some of? What are some career highlights and favorite shows you've worked on and projects you've really enjoyed?
Cody Stockstill
I work really closely, with New Stage Theatre, which is Mississippi's only professional theater and that was actually my first professional design gig was at that theater when I was a junior in undergrad. I think and I've sort of just been designing more and more with them. And I've developed really close relationships with their artistic director and their staff and it's just a really positive experience I think, though.
Cody Stockstill
Honestly, one of the most exciting projects that I think I got to work on with something called Hell and High Water was the last show that was actually put into on stage. I was designing during Covid, but of course, with Covid. It got cancelled. Unfortunately, hopefully we get the revisit that piece.
Cody Stockstill
But Hell and High Water was really interesting 'cause. It was under a newish piece. It wasn't sort of in the the big public realm. A lot of theaters had done. It was very sort of abstract, but it was a localized story from a Chicago playwright.
Cody Stockstill
I think he was fired yeah.
Cody Stockstill
He was Chicago Playwrights and it was about the Greenville, Mississippi, floods and sort of the racial tension that came out of that in the early 1900s. It just really interesting 'cause. We gotta figure out how to flood a stage.
Katherine Stewart
How did you figure out how to flow stage?
It was a lot of fog.
Cody Stockstill
It was a lot of fog and you know all my all my colleagues and my friends make fun of me because you know, I never met a fog machine that didn't like in theater. I probably I get far too much. But yeah, is it was, it was a big challenge. and I love that challenge and I got to take some students down with me to paint and it was great.
Katherine Stewart
So what are some … you like fog, we know that. What are some other hallmarks of your design sensibility?
Cody Stockstill
Big.
Cody Stockstill
You know, I think.
Cody Stockstill
This is going to sound so cocky, but I'm.
Cody Stockstill
Comparing myself to Hans Zimmer in any way, shape or form, the composer. But you know, Christopher Nolan calls Hans Zimmer. You know a “minimalist maximalist” and I think that's what I like to call myself is a minimalist maximist. I like to do very large scenery, but also very atmospheric and environmental.
Cody Stockstill
On scenery, but large gestures and very simple scenery at at the same time, so it's simple but it's sort of large shapes in large atmospheres so I can create an environment that these that this show can in in these characters can exist in.
Katherine Stewart
Are there there are some shows in particular that you've worked on where you felt like you got to express that very well?
Cody Stockstill
Yeah, I would say recently I did, Beowulf. We created uh a lot of the response from the audience is that they didn't realize that they were inside the theater.
Cody Stockstill
Um because this the set was large it was, it was, I think the tallest pointed this out was like 28 feet was it was, it was just ridiculously large, but when you're dealing with the story that big you have to have a big environment for these big personality types to exist in an it was really affective and what we're trying to do with the story as a whole.
Katherine Stewart
And what about this semester, you were involved in an original work called Near/Far.
Katherine Stewart
It was developed in the department. What was your role in that and what was that like?
Cody Stockstill
I was.
Cody Stockstill
I was backward advisor to the scenic design. Students Wyatt Woods and an in the course of that. I was sort of trying to figure out and playing technical assistance on you know how to make this work. How do we do scenic in a virtual environment and with my background film in my back. Again, I'm a big purveyor of Technology.
Cody Stockstill
Using technology and theater production and emerging technologies, especially sort of any types of graphics that we can use in that and so it was, I was working with.
Cody Stockstill
The scenic design student to develop these digital backdrops, but still make sure that they're aligned sort of with the artistic integrity in the artistic intent of the show itself.
Katherine Stewart
Well, Near/Far it was wonderful. I mean, it was beautiful and everybody was so excited about it 'cause. It was something most everybody involved had never done a lot of a lot of what they were doing for that before.
Cody Stockstill
Yeah, I mean, I'm not gonna lie, it was, it was a little stressful. At some points. But The thing is, you know, my sort of motto and everything you know, I've got a Tim Gunn poster in my office that that says “make it work.” You know, and that's sort of my my my thing is like OK. We're going to figure out a way to make this work.
Katherine Stewart
So you have been making theater work in Mississippi primarily for most of your career is their what's what's special about theater in Mississippi and why is Theater important to Mississippi?
Cody Stockstill
I think the talent in the stories that exists in this state are sort of undiscovered?
Cody Stockstill
You know II think there's a ton of talent. You know, and and it's not just isolated to one area of Mississippi. There's different types of talent everywhere. You know the coast has a very big arts community, but North Mississippi, the Oxford area.
Cody Stockstill
Water Valley in places like that, you know, I'm discovering sort of that. It's a very different type of talent up here, but it's an equal.
Cody Stockstill
Type of talent to anywhere else in Mississippi, so I think the stories that exists in Mississippi, especially with sort of our our at sometimes.
Cody Stockstill
Complicated history, I think that's a nice way of saying, You know are very complicated. History that we have in this state. There exists a ton of stories that that you can. Tell me if you look at sort of our artistic sort of history.
Cody Stockstill
There are tons of artists that come from Mississippi and I think you know that's that’s I'm really happy to get to work with some of those younger.
Cody Stockstill
Um are artists in those up and coming artists.
Katherine Stewart
You talked about how there's 1 kind of talent kind of around the coast and a different kind of talent here in North Mississippi what? What are those different types of talent?
Cody Stockstill
Throughout the state you have really different types of people. Obviously, they're going to be influenced by their geographical location and the types of stories that these people like to tell you know the stories that.
Cody Stockstill
I find that people in northern Mississippi are interested in or or or.
Cody Stockstill
Steeped in community and steeped in history.
Cody Stockstill
And steeped in short of the myth of the location and whereas on the coast. They are very interested in sort of.
Cody Stockstill
Brought the broader universal sense.
Cody Stockstill
And I'm not saying that one right and one wrong or one is better than the other. It's just really interesting that sort of what each location is is interested in.
Katherine Stewart
And have you seen that in the types of productions that you've seen done in different places or or other types of Art. You've seen coming out of these 2 places.
Cody Stockstill
Yeah, it's it's it's really interesting because.
Cody Stockstill
Especially working with a lot of high school students with high school drama festival. I've I've seen this shows that some of the North and essentially the North half. Everything sort of North of Jackson. They do a very specific type of show and this shows that the that the southern half you know things South of Jackson.
Cody Stockstill
Do the high schools do other types of shows.
Cody Stockstill
And it's one of those things where it's it's again. They do a lot more historical pieces in the northern half an it's sort of commentary on individual sort of historical events and how it has lasting effects on what's going on nowadays and this and the southern half likes to do shows that are a little bit more universal and the method of storytelling.
Cody Stockstill
You know how we tell the story.
Cody Stockstill
And then the northern half is very much you know what's the commentary that we're providing on a historical event.
Cody Stockstill
It's just it's
Cody Stockstill
Just really interesting sort of that sort of that dichotomy between northern and Southern.
Katherine Stewart
Why do you think that is?
Cody Stockstill
I don't know.
Cody Stockstill
II wish I had a very intelligent-sounding answer for that. But I have no idea I mean, it might be. You know it may be.
Cody Stockstill
Might be what the students are interested in it, you know.
Cody Stockstill
It was just like you know the difference between theater Mississippian Theater in New York Theater, Mississippi theater and sort of Great Britain or Scotland.
Cody Stockstill
I think it's really shaped by sort of their cultural history. You know, we've got sort of the thing you know, we've got cosseys and there are different breed. You know, I'm from the coast were different breed down there and you have people from northern Mississippi, which are a different.
Cody Stockstill
The Mississippi and it's just kind of really interesting.
Katherine Stewart
So Mississippi is an inspiring place for you, it sounds like.
Cody Stockstill
Yeah, yeah, and I've and I've got a lot of opportunities or I've had a lot of opportunities to work with some really interesting individuals that that the that taught me basically how to do, do what I do and it's not just sort of theater artists, which is also traditional artists as well. You know in undergrad. I got the I spent an entire year working on an original puppet show.
Cody Stockstill
And it told the Jewish story of the column with Peter Zapletal and Peter Zapletal, if you don't know him is a Czech puppeteer an original writer to you know, he came up with this show.
Cody Stockstill
But is it Across the Lines? Between the Lines.
Cody Stockstill
And working with that I worked with an award winning artist to to develop a lot of different animated backgrounds for this live puppet show.
Cody Stockstill
And that that's essentially on honestly where I learned the most on is that one experiences working with.
Cody Stockstill
This studio artist drawing and I would have my computer and my scanner and a makeup room in my undergrad. She would be right. Beside me an she would be doing. These sketches for these background plates. I would then scan them into my computer and digitally color them for for her and we would walk through all these animations or all these drawings and I would animate them on the computer for her.
Cody Stockstill
Wow.
Katherine Stewart
And little did you know all these years later, you would be able to use that that skill in your first production at the University of Mississippi.
Cody Stockstill
Yeah.
Katherine Stewart
You never know where it's gonna come from do you?
Cody Stockstill
Really full circle full circle.
Katherine Stewart
That’s great.
Katherine Stewart
Well, Cody. Thank you so much for visiting with me OK. I really appreciate you having me
Katherine Stewart
Yeah, absolutely. Is there anything anything you'd like to add?
Cody Stockstill
I would just say you know if if you haven't checked out Near/Far if you haven't checked Into the Shadows. Please, please. Please go online and check those out there available on streaming and be on the lookout for our productions next semester.
Katherine Stewart
Absolutely great, thanks for the plug.
Katherine Stewart
Folks you heard it from Cody: check out our productions from this season and stay alert for ones coming up next semester. If you didn't catch it before, Listening in the Shadows is available here on the podcast and Near/Far, which we heard a little bit about in this episode, can be viewed on our Facebook page and YouTube channel. Do check those out ; we’ll drop the links in the show notes.
Katherine Stewart
Until next time this is Stage & Screen.