Adam Koch

To hear him describe it, Adam Koch’s West 80th Street apartment is “hipster-designer-meets-old-grandpa-library…with a few Tom of Finland touches here and there.” Right now the residence also is covered in paint chips, fabric swatches, and historical research concerning Argentina’s Infamous Decade, as Koch prepares the finishing touches on the production design of BPX and the Black Party. “It looks like an Argentine dance hall exploded in here.”

His Start in Production Design
Realizing that he didn’t have a knack for the school stage, Koch got his start in production design early; In 2000 the Dayton, Ohio, native was tapped to design The Little Prince for the Human Race Theatre Company, and The Sound of Music for the Springfield Arts Festival in 2001. As for the four-year gap in his resume that follows? Attending Carnegie Mellon as an undergraduate.

“The classic apprentice-based approach to learning is lost in modern society, but design is one of the fields that you can only learn by doing and watching,” he says. And although he means no disrespect to his alma mater, “Everything I learned, I learned from assisting the masters of Broadway design.”

Those internships took place between semesters, and after graduating from Carnegie Mellon, Koch says, he felt confident enough to go out on his own. He has worked on dozens of projects since then, employing as many as three people at a time. And he says he often gets his best ideas while shaving.

Koch’s Kiss of the Spiderwoman sets for Arlington, Virginia’s Signature Theatre in 2008 led The Saint at Large to the designer. Although most of his experience is based in theater and opera, Koch says he was well suited to the BPX and Black Party production-design assignments, thanks to the overlaps between this year’s event theme and Spiderwoman.

Koch also thrills to the new medium. “Sometimes, in film and television and theater you’re restrained by the needs of what has to happen. With the Black Party there is no dialogue, no scene changes -- someone just has to walk in and be instantly taken to that place. It’s a little overwhelming, but it’s also freeing.”

A Sneak Peek at BPX and the Black Party
Koch was astounded by scenarist Vance Garrett’s 13-page treatment of the Black Party. It details moments throughout the 18-hour event, which underscores the political and artistic movements of the Infamous Decade and the Weimar Republic with uniforms, experimental performance, and bondage play.  

“You feel like it’s really connecting the most ethereal ideas to the shredded paper on the floor, rose petals on the stairs, the bruises on the performers,” Koch says of Garrett’s meticulous document. “It gets very specific, though not all of that will be specifically translated to the evening. It evokes a mood.”

The milieu of BPX and the Black Party are “one and the same,” Koch says, observing that shoppers and oglers at the Black Party Expo should feel as if the party is already up and running.

“The infamous Roseland Ballroom was made for no other theme than this,” he adds, noting that the building’s nooks and crannies are perfect for Black Party revelry. The basement will be transformed into a maze of differently flavored rooms, and the hallways and alcoves snaking through the balcony floor offer “plenty of places to hide. It’s a playground.”