“The French are given a wicked drubbing in this production. Their losses on the fields of Agincourt may be grievous but that’s nothing like the fun had at their expense with everything from their supercilious manner to their movement to the audacious costumes, extraordinary work by costumer Anya Klepikov. It’s easy to identify them because they all travel in 100 shades of blue, from robin’s egg to periwinkle blue and are great fun to have around. The Dauphin comes on like a surfer dude with Stephen Michael Spencer giving him a gnarly aspect and flinging his sky-blue cape over his shoulder like a trusty beach towel. The Constable of Carl Howell is looking fiercely chic in a Chanel inspired Eisenhower jacket and cop sunglasses. Best of all is the regiment on horseback out in the fields. They enter from outside the tent with blue football shoulder pads and feathers poking out of their blue bicycle helmets while galloping, which is accomplished by pushing their feet down on a long elastic bridle that they grip. A triumphant cavalry…at least in the audience’s hearts.”

“The contemporary production is marked by many other fine turns. Swaggering in a red-and-white motorcycle jacket, she [Emily Ota as Henry V] presents a commanding figure...”

“Costumes by Anya Klepikov were a quirky assortment of styles full of rich color and textures. I particularly loved the netted dress turned swimsuit worn by Montague, and the manifestation of Dionysus in his immortal form. Gathesa was clad in a huge black puffer jacket and bedazzled head-piece, like some many horned incarnation of Donda-era Kanye West… I am glad that artistic team held strong and was finally able to realize this production. I am often against seeing older pieces as they can often feel played out. This production took all the right measures to make the work feel new, relevant, and interesting. There was clearly a deep interrogation into the heart of the material, taken with care and passion. What resulted is a gloriously chaotic, intense, and profoundly symbolic experience that I won’t soon forget.”

“Dionysos is a charismatic, seductive party boy, played with a knowing wink by Kambi Gathesha, outfitted in a Coachella-esque getup: kilt, boots, colorful top, and long locks. He speaks frequently to the audience, and his euphonious voice is amplified by a microphone he carries (replacing Dionysos’ thyrsus). His religious rites move from the hedonistic to cultish and nightmarish as the play progresses…Pentheus — a nuanced Christopher Sears — is a prep school bully, but he is orderly and sound, even if hypocritical and unforgiving. (It’s hard not to see shades of a young Brett Kavanaugh.) His misogyny is palpable, and his own repressed same-sex desires emerge when he is goaded by Dionysos to don a dress and wig, fully coming into his own and experiencing joy if only for a few moments before his horrific end… Anya Klepikov’s costumes would all fit in at music festivals…for a unique, immersive Bacchanalian experience, this production cannot be beat… This is a tragedy without heroes, but it is a heroic production — daring, spirited, and utterly fearless.”

“For Seared, set designer Anya Klepikov and props designer Lauren Corcuera have created a remarkable facsimile of a working restaurant kitchen. Every nook and cranny of the space is filled — from floor to imaginary ceiling — with all the accoutrements any foodie would expect to find in a cramped commercial kitchen. With the help of Chef Consultant Neil Maver, Wagner and Pearson enact legitimate-looking prep and cooking chores. Even the stove top works. If the show had been staged inside of a theater, I suspect the GSC would have made good use of the smells of cooking and the sizzle of a searing piece of fish or meat.”

“The entire play is set within Harry’s kitchen, and scenic designer Anya Klepikov captures the feel of a boutique eatery with her cluttered set.”

“This foodie/theater critic just ate it up. ‘SEARED’ is the Gloucester Stage’s third production outdoors at the Windhover Performing Arts Center, a collection of rustic cabins and a stage set under a canopy of trees… Rebeck pits these characters and their competing interests against one another on a single set, a real working kitchen that brims with concentrated energy, culinary and verbal… I longed to smell whatever was sizzling in the pan and wished there had been a mirror tilted overhead so I could see the finished dish… the tension steadily heats up to a climax that left ME seared and on the verge of a heart attack.”

“The set, created by scenic designer Anya Klepikov, is a perfectly cold and fragile world… Hundreds of shards of broken glass shine through the clear acrylic floor, while 53 blown-glass creatures float like a soft cloud above the stage. The suspended menagerie is delicate and vulnerable, and yet has a constant and powerful presence throughout the play. The frail set makes the audience more aware of Laura’s softness, and makes viewers a part of the uneasiness on stage.”

“Anya Klepikov’s costume design was a nice blend of period and timeless, as well. Martha’s cocktail affair was clearly midcentury, while her evening wear (which she wears for most of the play) was a showstopper that could function believably in either era.”

“This is a ladylike drama, in keeping with its subject’s public persona, and Anya Klepikov’s scenic design matches. We are in the tasteful living room of the Kennedy matriarch’s house in Hyannis Port, Mass., in the summer of 1969, a week after her only surviving son, Ted, has been implicated in a woman’s drowning on nearby Chappaquiddick Island.”

“The design team is without flaw. Anya Klepikov and Lianne Arnold’s projections are memorable and tastefully restrained. Caitlin Smith Rapoport’s lighting design is organic and soothing. The evolving soundtrack through the decades is perfectly sparse, while the sound-scape of crashing waves and sweeping news helicopters is dead on, crafted tactfully by sound designer Jane Shaw. Costume designer Jane Greenwood has dressed Kathleen Chalfant impeccably—stylish and reserved, her ivory white pantsuit is elegant and comfortable, capturing Lady Kennedy’s vibe spot on.”

“A dirty high-water mark left by Hurricane Sandy smudges the white vinyl background of the expansive setting designed by Anya Klepikov, which otherwise purposefully looks barren. A portion of water-stained wall that is later stripped to its studs aptly suggests the wrecked house. A few pieces of grubby patio furniture indicate what little the Murphys have salvaged from a lifetime’s belongings. ”

“Anya Klepikov’s set design is barren and vast, giving the actors a play space as damaged as their lives have become. ”

“A Molière-Born Cad for the Ages-
What becomes a legendary scoundrel most? In Jess Burkle’s larkish… adaptation of Molière’s “Don Juan,” directed by Hal Brooks at the Pearl Theatre Company, the title character has cascading blond locks, legging-tight metallic pants and a codpiece that could put an eye out. With a fringed biker jacket, wings sprouting from the shoulder blades, the look (by Anya Klepikov) suggests that Don Juan follows his own rules in fashion as well as love.”

“Brilliantly costumed by Anya Klepikov … – he is deliciously irresistible.”

“Cleverly dressed by Anya Klepikov in a style best described as Louis IV meets Journey — with a puffy period blouse matched with body-hugging spandex trousers and a startlingly evident codpiece, … — he immediately begins eyeing every comely lady in the audience... Klepikov’s costumes are both elaborately detailed and rigged for some remarkable quick changes. ”

“Anya Klepikov’s costumes add terrific texture to this production. Klepikov adds pizzazz to the period costumes with inventive touches that allows each character to have one foot in the past and the other in the present-day. From the aforementioned flashy outfit for Don Juan to the nun’s wimple for Elvire, she has her stitches in place.”

“Costumes by Anya Klepikov suggest the 17th century. Don Juan’s provocatively skin-tight pants, silver leather jacket, and silver wings are notable exceptions, but Adams, sporting long, wavy, golden-red locks, wears it all so well we forgive the anachronism.”

“Anya Klepikov’s costuming for the statue was particularly impressive.”

“And I really do think that set designer Anya Klepikov may be some kind of genius. You can spend a king’s ransom on sets for an opera like this and end up with something ugly and stupid..., but Ms. Klepikov’s scena was all gossamer, shadow, silhouette — a visual allegory, perhaps, of the veritable insubstantiality of the worldly vanities that undo Tom Rakewell.”

“Danis {artistic director of Florida Grand opera} has been considerably helped by the production itself, which is brilliant. Stage director Kevin Newbury and the young American set designer Anya Klepikov, making her debut here with FGO, have fashioned an ingenious, evocative set in which two mid-­19th­ century ­style portraits of the Mannons stare at the audience from two oversized frames. The portraits change along with the action, and then turn into showcases in which the ghosts of the opera’s dead can be seen walking into the infinite or reaching their arms out and pleading with the viewer, effects beautifully realized by projection designer Wendall Harrington.

The other major set element is two large scrims with vertical panels that rotate to show an interior or to function as giant blinds; their effect is especially keenly felt in the final moments, when Lavinia is fighting to move on from the family curse... Klepikov’s set also is spare, with a desk standing in for a ship’s cabin and action down below taking place off to the side rather than in a different enclosed space. But it all works, and while an entire set and stage design so steeped in metaphor threatens to be heavy­handed, it does not come off that way here because of the taste and restraint with which they are used, and as sensitively lit as they are by Robert Wierzel. It is rare to find a production design that plays so important a part in the proceedings, but this design is nothing less than the Greek chorus of the drama, mute, but in its colors, images, starkness and delicate application, surpassingly eloquent.”

“Designer Anya Klepikov’s schematic set cleverly put a doll­size version of the Mannon house at its center. It was flanked by a pair of giant, movable frames showing Wendall K. Harrington’s projections: formal portraits of Ezra and Christine, various tree­scapes, the portico’s classical pillars, and, course, the ghosts—more with each passing hour—that inhabit the cursed house. The design made for efficient set changes and some interesting double duty, like the bed that split in two to become Ezra’s coffin and the deck of Adam’s ship. Robert M. Wierzel did the lurid lighting. It was good to see FGO make a move toward contemporary repertoire and production style.”

“This authentic American Gothic of Greek roots calls for a production that brings together its traditional and modern aspects, both visual and musical… Kevin Newbury’s stage direction, aided by Anya Klepikov’s sets, Robert Wierzel’s lighting, Wendall Harrington’s spectacular projections … accomplishes the goal of combining the two styles while remaining faithful to the essence of the play. The visuals are the crux of the production’s success, the link between the orchestra pit and the stage… The FGO’s is an exemplary neoclassical production of a neoclassical opera, a staging that treats burning issues with reserved coolness and delivers a first-class version that holds its own vis-à-vis its illustrious predecessors. Like the ghosts of the house of Mannon, this Mourning Becomes Electra lingers, drifting about in the audience’s unconscious until docking at a harbor that is opera and, also, great theater.”

“...These sets were a model of imagination in service of drama.”

“The sets by Anya Klepikov were absolutely beautiful. Using a combination of both built scenery and projections, they were fascinating to watch and wonderful to view.”

“Newbury makes the most of an ingeniously minimalist but evocative set design by Anya Klepikov, the copious use of projections by Wendall K. Harrington and deft lighting by Robert M. Wierzel. ”

“The design team brought elements of the ancient theater onto the contemporary stage, melding the old and new. Greek theatre would employ periaktoi, triangular wooden devices with different scenes painted on each side that could be easily rotated to depict different scenes. A pair of 21st century periaktoi stood three stories tall on both sides of our stage. These huge triangular shafts had internal projectors which allowed for changing scenes and images to be instantly displayed on their transparent screens.”

“Florida Grand Opera Takes Risk, Reaps Rewards:
Levy’s contemporary score is accentuated by a minimalistic set design by Anya Klepikov that features an 8-foot-tall dollhouse modeled after the manse that serves as a symbolic setting for the characters’ movements throughout and is flanked by two large screens that alternately project the scenery around the manor and the stern family portraits that hang throughout the home.”

“Donahue has set the action of this production in modern day Vermont, playing on the fact that many city dwellers keep country houses in Vermont, much like Serebryakov in Uncle Vanya comes from the city to his country estate. The clash of city and rural cultures accounts for much of the play’s soul­searching and tensions. The costumes, by Anya Klepikov, were convincingly Vermont vernacular …Chekhov strove to make his works “just as complicated and just as simple as ... in real life.” He wrote, “People are sitting at a table having dinner, that’s all, but at the same time their happiness is being created, or their lives are being torn apart.” This production of Uncle Vanya shares Chekhov’s intentions and brings his work to life much as he must have envisioned.”

“Director Mike Donahue sought an approximate sense of contemporary Vermont for his setting, with costumes by Anya Klepikov that capture the characters in styles we can recognize from our daily lives… We aren’t in Russia or Weston, Vt.; at the beginning of the 20th century or well into the 21st; watching a play or watching real people. We are having an experience that combines all those points of reference and ultimately opens us to see ourselves… Chekhov’s vantage point is both distant and tender — he asks the audience to take an unflinching look at deeply disappointed characters, but also to recognize how they didn’t really stand a chance. Life is that difficult. Joy is that fleeting. Chekhov’s genius is allowing those hopeful moments to stand equal with the sorrows. Weston’s magical, audacious production unlocks that hope.”

“The set, at first stunningly and indescribably white, is the brainchild of scenic and costume designer Anya Klepikov and transforms in a way that is worthy to be called a separate piece of art in itself. As the play goes on, the set becomes strewn with the detritus of the mess that Nora has purposely or unwittingly, depending on your perspective, wrought on the family . This “painting” is so dramatic it’s almost shocking and is accomplished in layers of movement. What was a sparkling photo-realistic canvas in gingerbread and lace becomes an abstract interpretation - kind of Wyeth-turned-Pollock - as the action progresses. The painting that appears on the floor gives the term “performance art” new meaning. It’s a marvelous and ingenious process that takes place apart from the theatrics but at the same is a mirror image of it. This art exhibit continues to evolve. One moment our vision into this doll house is unobscured and the next, we’re staring through chain-link diamonds. The symbolism in a theatrical sense as Nora’s cage might seem a little heavy-handed, but when seen as contemporary art, it’s a logical progression of the chronological stages this classic has weathered and the enduring impression it has on audiences. Just leave it to Lane & Co. to portray A Doll House in a way you’ve never before seen or even envisioned.”

“We start off in a pristine white set, designed by Anya Klepikov, with floor, doors, furniture, and even the Christmas tree all the selfsame ivory hue. There’s coldness to this Nordic purity that chimes well with the perfection of Nora Helmer’s life: beautiful children, beautiful home, and an industrious husband who has just earned a promotion. It is a dollhouse in its unsullied simplicity, so when Nora’s past begins to undermine the frosty idyll, the house shows the spoilage first. When Nils Krogstad arrives, Nora’s merciless creditor, he tracks mud all over that perfectly white floor. The floor gets muddier as things unravel further. A segment of chain-link fence appears at one side of the thrust stage, then another, then another — until three of the four walls of the Hellmer home are completely fenced-in when Nora makes her famed exit. The dollhouse has become a birdcage, largely because of Krista Hoeppner’s sprightly portrayal of Torvald Helmer’s little skylark… All in all, a boldly executed, shrewdly judged invigoration of a drama that still touches the core issues of modern life — our ambitions, our identities, and our sexuality.”

“Every so often, a production comes along that is so well done, so striking, so amazing that you just feel privileged to have seen it—Fort Worth Opera’s “Hydrogen Jukebox” is one of those shows. One of the most wonderful pieces of theater I’ve seen in ages!”

“There was certainly plenty of dramatic interest in director Lawrence Edelson’s deft, ingeniously minimal production, which began with a railroad track running across the floor between sets of bleachers and subsequently used the track’s components to represent everything from an airplane in flight to a car in motion to a bed. Meanwhile, on the walls above the bleachers, evocative video footage, some historic, some involving the live performers, enhanced and deepened the mood. Anya Klepikov was credited with the set and costume designs.”

“Fort Worth Opera presented what is surely this year’s most significant area operatic event—and possibly the most significant theatrical event as well—with the opening performance of a new production of Philip Glass’s Hydrogen Jukebox. It was up to director Lawrence Edelson and production designer Anya Klepikov to produce a sense of trajectory—not necessarily plot —out of Ginsberg’s brilliant poetic ramblings and Glass’s relentless score. Klepikov arranged the room as a sort of miniature basketball arena, with two sets of bleachers (each seating approximately fifty onlookers) facing each other across a space dominated by ladders and a railroad track. On either wall, projected still photos and moving pictures (produced by C. Andrew Bauer) constantly explored themes of violence (with actual film of executions by firing squads and scattered corpses), as well as other profound themes related to the text. If this sounds, in description, a little heavy-handed, the actual effect was, on the contrary, constantly thought-provoking... Although premiered in 1990, and based on poetry written from as far back as the immediate post-World War II era, the truths of Hydrogen Jukebox, with its refusal to accept or, ultimately, to reject that vast spiritual dream world we call “America,” are, if anything, more frightening and compelling than ever.”

“…the intimacy of this production, with the performers literally two feet from us at times, was thrilling.”

“Down the middle of the intimate Sanders Theatre, with the audience tiered on each side, designer Anya Klepikov stretches a stylized train track. Segments are removed and spun around as part of the choreography; turned-up endings become ladders and roll-around vehicles… Picking up themes from the libretto, the singers are variously costumed as soldiers in fatigues and gas masks, flight attendants, nuclear scientists and suited bureaucrats. At the end, in a hymn to death, they strip to boxers and slips, lie down and one by one fall silent.”

“The set, designed by Anya Klepikov (who also designed the costumes), sits on the far wall opposite the band and extends across the room; it was minimal but extremely effective. This production is more than a “don’t miss.” It is a performance of high caliber and emotion that can remind us of the past, task us with the present, and potentially give us hope for the future.”

“Walking into the Sanders Theatre, it doesnʼt matter how many times youʼve heard about the intimacy of the performance in reviews, if you havenʼt experienced it.., you are not going to be prepared. You are immersed into the performance even before it begins as half of the audience has to walk across the opening set to get to their seats... Hydrogen Jukebox has been called a must-see production. It was a truly multi-sensory event. The video projections (C. Andrew Bauer) not only helped to guide the songs, but added an element that revealed the soundtrack of much of Glassʼ music… Not only was the space of the theater exploited to bring out the stories, the use of the ladders as cars, airplanes and more was well- performed and ingenious… The Fort Worth Opera Companyʼs performance of Hydrogen Jukebox once again proved that opera is alive and relevant to contemporary audiences.”

“Everyone on stage appears to be having great fun, and, thanks to that, so did Saturday’s audience…Scene changes are wittily handled by choristers and dancers wearing orange construction vests and yellow hardhats... Dickie’s final season at COT is off to a strong start.”

“Anya Klepikov’s sets and costumes light up the sky, literally…”

“Anya Klepikov’s effective unit set offers a pair of three-story scaffolding towers symbolically painting the wedding-cake architecture of the era enhanced by her roll-on sets and colorful period costumes.”

“…the show’s freshness and anti-authoritarian spirit — under director Mike Donahue, set and costume designer Anya Klepikov, lighting designer Julian Pike, choreographer Eric Sean Fogel and music director Alexander Platt — reflects the essence of the company’s crisp modern profile in the Windy City.”

“There is a lot to love about Moscow, Cheryomushki! I especially enjoyed the effervescent and sometimes fluorescent costumes. Anya Klepikov dresses the cast in vibrant 50’s vintage looks. For work uniformity, a clever Klepikov puts bright yellow construction vests with orange stripes over the playtime wear. The look is amusing and sets the tone for work over recreation.”

“Anya Klepikov (Set and Costume Designer) renders the post­Stalin construction site in bright primary colors reflecting the emotional spectrum of the multiple love stories and the half­sincere, half­tongue­in­cheek political optimism of Moscow post­Stalin. Window frames and silk banners transform and disguise the floor­to­ceiling scaffolding, briskly shifting the scene from Cheryomushki itself to museums to the landscape in the review mirror of a commandeered limousine. Klepikov’s costumes are a pleasing riot of vintage color and construction orange against this backdrop.”

“Великолепные солисты, прекрасный оркестр (дирижер – Александр Платт), блестящие декорации, стильные костюмы (художник по костюмам и декорациям Анна Клепикова), яркие танцевальные номера (хореограф – Эрик Шин Фогель) – все на высшем уровне, все сделано очень профессионально и, что самое важное, во всем чувствуется любовь и уважение к Дмитрию Шостаковичу. Прекрасно понимая пустоту и фальшь советской жизни и советского оптимизма, в музыке “Москвы...” Шостакович применил свое главное оружие – СМЕХ! Музыка композитора насквозь иронична. В ней то и дело слышатся цитаты и пародии на классические произведения русских композиторов и популярные советские мелодии. Майк Донахью и другие создатели спектакля сохраняют заложенные в партитуре иронию и сатиру.”

“The set by Anya Klepikov shows six cubicals of scaffolding for future apartments, but works well symbolically, as do her very colorful costumes. The set allows enough room for the singers and also the superb dancers, who add not only a great deal to move the story, but also the mood and atmosphere.”

“Visually, the world of COT’s Moscow, Cheryomushki ­­ created by stage director Mike Donahue, set and costume designer Anya Klepikov, and lighting designer Julian Pike ­­ is as brightly colored as a child’s playroom. The setting is a construction site, and the chorus bustles about in neon yellow hard hats, orange safety vests, and work boots. Twin scaffolding towers resemble an Erector Set glazed in primary colors. A ridiculously perky pink­and­yellow Porta Potty gets wheeled in and out.

Sporting bold stripes, tight Capri pants, demure shirtwaist dresses and crinoline skirts, the ladies of the show look like models from an issue of Seventeen magazine circa 1958.”

“The sets and staging, though often minimal, are imaginative and sometimes conveniently reflective of the very banality being satirized.”