Got a call from the San Francisco Opera about doing sets for Aida. Verdi's opera set in ancient Egypt. They wanted my alphabet — not fake hieroglyphs, but my actual script, the one I've been building my whole life. Said yes before I even thought about it.
Built these massive panels, black and gold and white, covering the whole stage. The symbols looked like they could've been carved into a temple wall a thousand years ago, but they were right there in a modern opera house. The light hit them different depending on where you sat. Sometimes the letters disappeared into shadow, sometimes they jumped out at you.
The Washington National Opera took the same production. Two cities, same language. People would come up after the show and say they'd never seen Aida like that. They'd feel something from the writing on the walls even before the music started. That's the thing — my alphabet doesn't need translation. You feel it or you don't. And in that room, with Verdi's music filling the space, people felt it.
