Written by Jenny Lyn Bader

Produced by Luna Stage

Directed by Ari Laura Kreith

Costumes by Deborah Caney

Lighting by Cameron Filepas

Sound by Megan Culley

59E59

“Director Ari Laura Kreith’s physical staging artfully relies on swiftness and realism, as the actors are perpetually moved around the set for visual variance. Scenic designer Lauren Helpern’s airy off-white jail cell is set with a table and chairs; high rectangular windows with shadowy prison bars queasily register the gravity of Arendt’s situation.”

-- theaterscene.org

“Lauren Helpern set strikes just the right chord, its barren simplicity a metaphor for this time in Germany’s history.  A tiny cell with brick walls, two chairs and a clawfoot antique table – a remnant of a more human, rococo world Germany is abandoning – and windows that remain tantalizingly out of reach above.  In its near silent, twilit isolation, Hannah’s cell becomes an unlikely oasis of free thought, away from the unknown change and untold terrors outside.”

-- thefrontrowcenter.com

Written by Leslie Epstein

Produced by Parkman Productions

Directed by Alexandra Aron

Costumes by Oana Botez

Lighting by Zach Blane

Sound by Jane Shaw

Props by Sarah Pencheff-Martin

Here Arts Center

“The new production, directed by Alexandra Aron and designed by a crackerjack team (especially set designer Lauren Helpern), has transformed the theater into the Astoria Café, a Jewish-owned nightclub in 1939…”

-- newyorktheater.me

“The evocative set by Lauren Helpern puts the audience in the middle of the café, the actors milling about, their emotions and frustrations up close and personal.”

-- TheaterScene.net

“King of the Jews’ engrossing immersive narrative device is that the show takes place in Lodz, Poland’s, bustling Jewish-owned Astoria Café. New York City’s HERE Arts Center’s mainstage auditorium has been configured into an expansive playing area set with cabaret-style tables and chairs where the audience sits, experiencing the play in often close contact with the cast. There is a raised stage for musicians and performers, a busy bar and an entrance door with adjacent front windows. Scenic designer Lauren Helpern’s voluminous and finely detailed environmental landscape perfectly realize this pointed presentational concept.”

-- theaterscene.org

Close up photos by Russ Rowland

Written by Neil Simon

Produced by Hartford Stage

Co-Directed by Marsha Mason & Rachel Alderman

Costumes by An-Lin Dauber

Lighting by Aja M. Jackson

Sound by Broken Chord

"Lauren Helpern’s set design is clever. Curving around the back of the raised playing space is a wall covered in green period wallpaper; set in the wall are five green doors, side by side. These give the initial impression of a door-slamming farce, but we quickly understand that they are here to convey a sense of how small and cramped the apartment is. What we see is the one room that serves as a living room (and Jay and Arty’s bedroom, curtesy of a pull-out sofa) and a dining room. We can only imagine the small size of the bedrooms and bathroom behind the doors.”

-- Connecticut Critic’s Circle

“Lauren Helpern’s set design is the best thing about this show. It’s bright and glowing and open and frisky.”

-- Hartford Courant

“It felt as though we were looking in to the Kurnitz family's home and risked being caught, thereby ruining theater magic, which was marvelously produced by Lauren Helpern's scenic design (Broadway: Voices in the Dark, Off-Broadway: Skintight & Bad Jews, 4000 Miles & Disgraced), Aja M. Jackson's lighting design (Off-Broadway: A Commercial Jingle for Regina Comet, Regional: Behold, A Negress; Hear Word), and costume design by An-lin Dauber (Hartford Stage: It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, New York: Paul Swan is Dead and Gone).”

-- Broadway World

Written by George Eastman

Produced by Dennis Grimaldi

Directed by Karen Carpenter

Costumes by David C. Woolard

Lighting by Jeff Davis

Sound by John Gromada

City Center Stage II

"If only sets could talk. Lauren Helpern's stage design for Harry Townsend's Last Stand, the two-hander by George Eastman at New York City Center Stage II, is a marvel of specificity. At first glance, it's just an old man's downstairs kitchen and living room, yes, but this is a home that emanates decades of history. If we could take out each board game beneath the window-seat, if we could peruse each worn book on the shelf, if we could sort through the clutter on the counters, if we could smell Vermont in the leaves seen just outside the windows, perhaps we could really get to know Harry Townsend, the sole resident, piecing together a life prop by prop.”

-- Curtain Up

“Lauren Helpern's set is an overstuffed human habitat brimming with evidence of a fruitful life, with books and board games bulging out of every available storage space. "His" and "her" armchairs sit side by side in front of an ancient television set, offering evidence of the continuing spiritual presence of the family matriarch. Lighting designer Jeff Davis endows this space with a warm glow, and a final sound cue from John Gromada emphasizes the surrounding natural beauty. It seems like a lovely place to live, and anyone would be reluctant to say goodbye.”

-- Theatermania

“The Vermont chalet features outstanding scenic design work from Lauren Helpern, showing us the parts of the life Harry and his wife enjoyed for decades in that home, from board games and a well-placed fireplace, to ice skates and snow shows tucked away in a corner near the front door. Who would want to leave such a comfortable place?”

-- Intermission Talk

Written by Joshua Harmon

Directed by Daniel Aukin

Lighting by Pat Collins

ROUNDABOUT THEATER COMPANY

Costumes by Jess Goldstein

Sound by Eric Shimelonis

Props by Faye Armon-Troncoso

“That living room, perfectly rendered by the set designer Lauren Helpern, is a gray monument to punitive good taste.”

-- NYT Jesse Green

“Designer Lauren Helpern’s stylish, bilevel set draws the requisite half-liter of drool from us urban peasants in our dingy studios.” 

-- Village Voice

“On a side note, I wonder if set designer Lauren Helpern can design my next home!”

-- New York City Theatre

 “Lauren Helpern's gleaming modernistic set is a pleasure to behold”

-- Hollywood reporter

 “Lauren Helpern’s oh-wouldn’t-you-like-to-live-there set”

-- New York Stage Review

“The split level set by Lauren Helpern is elegantly designed.  It illustrates the heightened sense of style on which the main character built his empire.  It also enhances the theme of the power in the attraction to beauty.” 

-- More than the Play

GEFFEN PLAYHOUSE

Robby Award Nomination

Costumes by China Lee

Sound by Vincent Olivieri

Props by Rich Gilles

“Elliot lives in an amazing four-story Architectural Digest house (amazing scenic design by Lauren Helpern) with a veritable stairway to heaven and perhaps beyond.”

-- Rob Stevens, Haines His Way

“We find Jodi newly arrived at her wealthy designer father’s enviable Manhattan townhouse (seriously, I wanted to move in to Lauren Helpern’s gorgeous set)…”

-- South Pasadenean

Written by Will Powers

Produced by La Jolla Playhouse

Directed by Jaime Castaneda

Costumes by Emilio Sosa

Lighting by Tyler Micoleau

Sound by Mikhail Fiksel

"Lauren Helpern’s glass-floored stage suggests the frail barrier the characters tread between life and death."

-- The San Diego Union-Tribune

“The staging was inventive and complimented the juxtaposed times of Shakespeare’s Richard III and the not so thinly veiled Trump Administration. Steel, wood, glass, inventive lighting, and the audience situated on all four sides of the stage, served the production well. Hat’s off to Lauren Helpern and Tyler Micoleau, scenic and lighting designers.”

-- SD Theatre Reviews

Written by Adam Bock

Produced by South Coast Repertory

Directed by Jaime Castaneda

Costumes by Denitsa Bliznakova

Lighting by Josh Epstein

Sound by Cricket S. Myers

Projections by Yee Eun Nam

"A modern play with contemporary accouterments, this world premiere production is impressive in its minimalist but highly innovative approach, allowing the awesome cast to be the deserved main attractions of the play. Lauren Helpern's encroaching white wall set design that frame the stage serves as a useful blank canvas for Yee Fun Nam's gorgeous, painting-like projections (the back wall occasionally opens up to reveal a clever annex to the set, too).”

-- Broadway World Los Angeles

“The spare physical production needs to accommodate both Manitoba in winter and a cruise ship plying the waters of the Caribbean. Lauren Helpern's scenic design makes white walls, a blue backdrop, and falling stuff (of both the winter and party varieties) work, with cast members rolling on set pieces.”

-- Talkin’ Broadway Regional

Written by August Wilson

Produced by Ford’s Theater

Directed by Timothy Douglas

Costumes by Helen Huang

Lighting by Andrew R. Cissna

Sound by Nick Hernandez

“Lauren Helpern has created a poetic scenic design that melds the imaginative—a graceful, curving tree—with a photographic backdrop of the neighborhood.”

-- Talkin’ Broadway Regional

“The Ford’s Theatre production is graced with marvelous production design. Lauren Helpern’s set is a fine mix of brick rowhouse naturalism upfront and graphic art in the form of a blown-up photograph of the Hill District setting as a backdrop.”

-- DC Theatre Scene

"Lauren Helpern's scenic design combines the real and surreal, with 2-story brick rowhouse and a vivid sepia-tone image of a half-built street from the Hill District across the upstage wall. The tree-where Troy hangs a ragged old practice ball for batting practice-rises naturally but transitions by its peak to the surreal members of an other-worldly body, fingers articulated towards the sky.”

-- Broadway World Washington DC

Written and Directed by Morgan Gould

Produced by Actors Theatre of Louisville/Humana Festival

Costumes by Lex Liang

Lighting by Wen-Ling Liao

Sound by Rody Ortega

"The set design by Lauren Helpern, with its 1970s “harvest gold” kitchen counters and appliances, brings us into a home that hasn’t changed much since Nicole was a child.”

-- WFPL

“In “Nicole Clark Is Having a Baby,” by Morgan Gould, the set struck me even before the play began. It’s a small living room, dining room and kitchen, all as outdated as the 30-year-old coffee pot Nicole (Nicole Spiezio) struggles with in the opening scene…like stepping into your own mother’s or grandmother’s home. And that sets the tone for the show.”

-- Leo Weekly

Written by Rachel Bonds

Produced by La Jolla Playhouse

Directed by Jaime Castaneda

Costumes by David Reynoso

Lighting by Lap Chi Chu

"Actually, forget waking — all Angie seems to want to do is sleep, or at least hide out. She spends whole days shut away in the half-dreary, half-cheery suburban house (designed to spectacular effect by Lauren Helpern) that dominates the stage in this La Jolla Playhouse world premiere."

-- San Diego Tribune

Written by Rachel Bonds

Directed by Mike Donahue

Lighting by Scott Zielinski

South Coast Rep

Produced by South Coast Rep

Costumes by Rachel Myers

"The idea of confining a small set of characters into a single hotel room set---here beautifully designed by Lauren Helpern and lit thoughtfully by Scott Zielinski---is certainly not a unique new device seen only in this play. But in this case, the setting doesn't feel simply as a means to an end (though it certainly aids the ease in which characters reveal themselves). As small as the room may be, characters still find a way to create their own areas and niches to have their important, revelatory heart-to-heart talks."

-- BroadwayWorld.com LA

"The scenic design of Lauren Helpern boasts a “kitchen sink” realism with a set that looks like any one of dozens of rooms I have stayed in. And the move from inside the room to outside is a cool example of technical expertise."

-- Paul Myrvold's Theatre Notes

Studio Theatre

Produced by Studio Theatre

Costumes by Kathleen Geldard

"Lauren Helpern, who designed the set for the South Coast Rep premiere, here supplies a New Mexico hotel room so exacting you can peek into the bathroom of neatly folded towels and watch the bedside alarm clock tick past midnight. In the ultra-cozy Milton Theatre, the actors act as if in a long movie close-up."

-- Washington Post

"We begin, and spend most of our time, in a hotel room in Santa Fe, NM. Lauren Helpern’s scenic design convincingly captures the familiar, sometimes comforting and sometimes soul-crushing, sameness of a generic hotel room while still injecting some bright Southwestern pops of color."

-- DC Theatre Scene

"Linda (Ora Jones) and Rudy (Peter Van Wagner) are settling in to their hotel room in Santa Fe, New Mexico with all of its southwestern flair (captured perfectly by set designer Lauren Helpern)."

--Broadway World DC

Written by Mike Lew

Produced by La Jolla Playhouse

Directed by Jaime Castaneda

Costumes by David Reynoso

Lighting by Anthony Jannuzzi

Sound by Mikhael Fiksel

Potiker Theatre

"The design is expert ... with a slick, sleek set (Lauren Helpern), as well as lighting (Anthoni Januzzi) and sound (Mikhael Fiksel) that are as sharp as some of the comic lines."

-- Times of San Diego

"The sets, designed by Lauren Helpern, are versatile and elegant, featuring immaculate decor of a clean and impersonal home that can double as a therapist's office or international air terminal."

-- Fine Magazine

LUCILLE LORTEL AWARD, HEWES AWARD NOMINATION

Written by Amy Herzog

Produced by Lincoln Center Theater

Directed by Daniel Aukin

Costumes by Kaye Voyce

Lighting by Japhy Weidman

Sound by Ryan Rumery

Props by Faye Armon-Troncoso

Mitzi Newhouse Theater and The Duke (LCT3)

"Every aspect of the director Daniel Aukin's production for Lincoln Center Theater's LCT3 program enhances the delicacy and honesty of Ms. Herzog's writing.  The set, by Lauren Helpern, reflects Vera's bohemian past as a classic mid-century liberal in subtle ways, from the ethnic art to the drab filing cabinets used as end tables, a particularly telling touch."

-- New York Times

"Set designer Lauren Helpern has conjured a generic little-old-lady's rent-controlled apartment in the Village and added just the right touches (Mexican pottery, wooden masks, and lot and lots of books) to personalize it as the home of a real person."

-- Variety

"Lauren Helpern's set looks like an actual New York apartment (as opposed to those fantasy apartments you see on television or in the movies.)"

-- Wall Street Journal

Written by Joshua Harmon

Produced by the Roundabout Theater Company

Directed by Daniel Aukin

Costumes by Dane Laffrey

Lighting by Mark Barton

Laura Pels Theater

"On Lauren Helpern's spic-and-span UWS apartment set, which Mark Barton has aggressively lit, they go after each other like cougars settling years-old scores, but never dwelling on their shared past."

-- Talkin Broadway

"Even the mattresses that take up just about every inch of Lauren Helpern's impeccably true to New York's luxury priced teensy apartments, are subject to controversy."

-- Curtain Up

"Director Daniel Aukin uses Lauren Helpern's elegantly confined space to its best advantage.  The battling four must crawl over sofa beds and inflatable mattresses, constantly butting up against each other literally and figuratively."

Theaterlife.com

Written by Halley Feiffer

Directed by Trip Cullman

Lighting by Matt Richards

Sound by Darron L. West

Geffen Playhouse

Produced by Geffen Playhouse

Costumes by David Kay Mickelsen

"The wisecracks continue, but the sorrow, anger and regret fueling them rise to the surface. Genuine emotion sneaks into the antiseptically cheery pink hospital room smartly designed by Lauren Helpern."

-- LA Times

MCC at the Lucille Lortel Theatre

Produced by MCC

Costumes by Kay Voyce

"The set designer Lauren Helpern has provided an unsparingly exact facsimile of hospital decor, starting with its watery Pepto-Bismol walls."

-- New York Times

"Of course Karla and Don loathe each other, at first through the privacy curtains (the painfully accurate set is by Lauren Helpern) and then on sight."

-- The Guardian

"Lauren Helpern's slice-of-life set captures the dusty yet still antiseptic nature of hospital rooms, with faded pink walls and a decent view of the city skyline."

-- Theatermania.com

Photos of MCC production by Matthew Murphy

BROADWAY WORLD SALT LAKE CITY REGIONAL AWARD NOMINATION

Written by Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon

Produced by Pioneer Theatre Company

Directed by Julie Kramer

Lights by Michael Gilliam

Costumes by Susan Branch Towne

Sound by Allan Branson

“Lauren Helpern and Susan Branch Towne recreate the atmosphere of early 19th century England with their beautiful and rich scenic and costume designs, respectively.”

— Utah Arts Review

“The scene has only one set, but its detail and elegance are obvious. From the moment audience members first entered the theater, soft whispers of “look at that” filled the air. A cream drawing room complete with icy winters warding off a snowy garden filled the stage. A wooden piano and apparently “alarming” tree fill the space behind a simple parlor set. Off to one side are a cozy library with the whole world on its shelves and a few surprises in store. The effect was spacious, inviting and bright — just in time for Christmas.”

— The Daily Utah Chronicle

“The scenic design by Lauren Helpern (Off-Broadway's SKINTIGHT) is majestic but warm, the lighting design by Michel Gilliam (Broadway's BONNIE AND CLYDE) is nuanced, and the period costume design by Susan Branch Towne is equally as skilled.”

— Broadway World Salt Lake City

Written by David Javerbaum

Produced by Arizona Theatre Company

Directed by Marsha Mason

Costumes by Kish Finnegan

Lighting by David Lee Cuthbert

"Creative elements are sublime with Lauren Helpern's scenic design evoking a heavenly talk show set complete with a large couch that looks like a comfy white cloud and a curved stairway to heaven..."

-- Talkin Broadway

"An Act of God - there's a bit of wordplay going on here - is as cheerful as the vision of heaven that set designer Lauren Helpern has created."

-- Tucson Weekly

Written by Robert Harling

Produced by Bucks County Playhouse

Directed by Marsha Mason

Co-Directed by Gabriel Vega Weissman

Costumes by Nikki Moody

Lighting by Gina Scherr

"Lauren Helpern's tan-and-purple set design provides a nice framework for the actors, and Mason's technique of having the actors stare into the audience - as if they were peering into a beauty shop mirror - helps the actors create a connection with the audience.  You'll feel as if you know these six indomitable ladies, and you'll wish you could spend more time with them."

-- DC Metro Theater Arts

"Marsha Mason's smooth direction navigates the episodic nature of the script, which spans several years depicting a marriage, a pregnancy, a death, these events grounded by the familiar, reassuring appeal of Lauren Helpern's beauty salon set."

The Philadelphia Inquirer

Written by Neil Simon

Directed by Marsha Mason

Costume Design by Kesh Finnegan

Lighting Design by David Lee Cuthbert

"Lauren Helpern's beautiful scenic design presents two distinct and detailed apartment settings for George and Jennie that complement each other and seamlessly occupy the large Herberger Theater stage."

-- Talkin' Broadway

"...it's framed by Lauren Helpern's jaw-dropping meticulous set that juxtaposes two distinctively different apartments from economically opposite sides of Manhattan."

-- Broadwayworld.com Arizona

PRAIRIE DU CHIEN & THE SHAWL

Written by David Mamet

Produced by Atlantic Theater Company

Directed by Scott Zigler

Costumes by Linda Cho

Lighting by Jeff Croiter

Atlantic Stage 2

"...a canny double-purpose set by Lauren Helpern..."

-- New York Times

"Lauren Helpern provides a versatile set that makes you cough as you imagine cakes of dust..."

-- Theatermania

"'Prairie du Chien,' the opener, is set in the deceptively mundane parlor car of a train speeding through the Midwest in 1910 (the set, choked with gloomy elegance, is by Lauren Helpern; the costumes are by Linda Cho, and the cannily understated lights by Jeff Croiter."

-- Talkin Broadway

OBIE AWARD

Written by Tracy Letts

Produced by Scott Morfee, Amy Danis & Mark Johannes, and Planetearth Partners

Directed by Dexter Bullard

Costumes by Kim Gill

Lighting by Tyler Micoleau

Sound by Brian Ronan

Props by Faye Armon-Troncoso

Barrow Street Theatre

"The play's often violent action, punctuated by long and unnerving stretches of quiet, takes place in a photo-realistically generic motel room outside of Oklahoma City.  (Lauren Helpern is the dead-on set designer.)"

-- New York Times

"Oddness may darken into bloodcurdling maniacal menace in act two, but there's also the giggle inducing battle of the bugs with an armory of bug sprays, old fashioned fly traps and a child's microscope and chemistry set (all vividly evoked as Lauren Helpern's set evolves from shabby haven to horrific hell on earth)."

-- Curtain Up

Written by Samuel D. Hunter

Produced by Playwrights Horizons

Directed by Davis McCallum

Costumes by Jessica Pabst

Lighting by Eric Southern

Sound by Matt Tierney

"Designed by Lauren Helpern (the single, appropriately plastic-looking set), Eric Southern (the lighting) and Jessica Pabst (the mall-issue costumes), 'Pocatello' is very much of a conceptual whole, starting with the forlornly festive 'Famiglia Week' sign hung from the restaurant's rafters."

-- New York Times

"The family-dining franchise is never named, but as designed with pinpoint-accurate, bland hominess by Lauren Helpern, the faux-Tuscan decor will suggest Olive Garden even to people who've never been closer to one than the tv commercials."

-- Hollywood Reporter

"A great benefit to the show is the expansive and visually realistic set design of Lauren Helpern.  It looks like a specific recreation of an Olive Garden style restaurant.  Bright and cheery, with two levels of tables, chairs, and booths, wine bottles on display, travelogue photographs of Italy on the walls, lots of breadsticks, iceberg lettuce salads, and 'mozzarella things,' all add to the precise actuality."

-- Theatrescene.net

Written by Ike Holter

Produced by Scott Morfee, Tom Wirtshafter, Jean Doumanian, Patrick Daly

Directed by Eric Hoff

Costumes by David Hyman

Lighting by Keith Parham

Sound By Daniel Kluger & Brandon Wolcott

Barrow Street Theatre

"Lauren Helpern's Christopher Park set establishes the close-knit, occasionally claustrophobic, sense of the village in June."

Talkin Broadway

"...the energy from the cast and the production design are enthralling, and the play certainly draws you in.  It rests on its emotional connection to the audience, which it does a fine job establishing.  Lauren Helpern's set design has the audience in the round (in a symbolic triangle, actually) and the action swirls around in and out of the playing space. "

Theatre is Easy

HEWES AWARD NOMINATION

Written by Marielle Heller

Produced by Aaron Mooney in association with New Georges and The Essentials

Directed by Sarah Cameron Sunde and Rachel Eckerling

Costumes by Emily DeAngelis

Lights by Laura Mroczkowski

Projections by C. Andrew Bauer

3LD Arts and Technology Center

"...aided by sterling technical contributions:  Lauren Helpern's sets and Emily DeAngelis's costumes artfully conjure the period, while C. Andrew Bauer's video designs cleverly incorporate Ms. Gloeckner's drawings."

-- New York Times

"The setting for Minnie's bildungsroman, as designed by Lauren Helpern (set), C. Andrew Bauer (video), and Laura Mroczkowski (lights), is a 360-degree sensorium.  Audiences encircle Minnie's bed, which serves alternately as her refuge and her prison.  The theater is brightly lit, light brown with bright stars on the walls and neon-green pillows on the chairs.  The overall effect is of the strong, blunt colors of a manga cartoon, the paradigmatic aesthetic of teenage girls learning to discern shades of grey."

-- Backstage

"'The Diary of a Teenage Girl' (adapted from Phoebe Gloeckner's graphic novel by Marielle Heller, who also plays the lead) uncannily brings you back to that place - the piece's consciousness and viewpoint, not to mention the physical environment crafted by set design Lauren Helpern and video designer C. Andrew Bauer, take you completely inside the mind of its teenage heroine - but at the same time both Heller and directors Sarah Cameron Sunde and Rachel Eckerling create enough distance from her experience to allow us to understand what's happening to Minnie in ways that she cannot quite yet."

NYtheatre

"The set for the production is a 70s style 'conversation pit' with Minnie's bedroom in the middle.  The design is Sensurround in the best possible sense, with a totally immersive video and audio environment where characters and scenes take place all around and in the audience.  The production level is really great - it makes you feel the dazed and confused slightly out of control boundary dissolving sensibility that was the 70s."

-- Culturebot

Written by Deb Margolin

Produced by Theater J

Directed by Alexandra Aron

Costumes by Debra Kim Sivigny

Lights by Dan Covey

Projections by Klyph Stanford

Sound by Elisheba Ittoop

"...Alexandra Aron's confident 90-minute production is powered by Foucheux's restless turn as Madoff, who's often stuck in a little jail cell (complete with steel toilet) cleverly sunken into Lauren Helpern's impressive book-lined design."

-- The Washington Post

"Scenic Designer Lauren Helpern's set is very clever.  Lined with floor to ceiling shelves containing only books, representing the presence of learning, the poet's study is inviting, eloquent in its symbolism of knowledge.  For the scenes where Madoff is in jail, iron bars are superimposed over the books.  The visual dichotomy is the most striking element in IMAGINING MADOFF."

-- Curtain Up

Written by Ayad Akhtar

Produced by LCT3

Directed by Kimberly Senior

Costumes by Dane Laffrey

Lights by Tyler Micoleau

Sound by Jill BC Du Boff

Props by Faye Armon-Troncoso

Claire Tow Theatre

"The principal characters are a married couple living the Manhattan high life:  Amir Kapoor (the spiky, excellent Aasif Mandvi of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart"), a corporate lawyer at a major firm specializing in mergers and acquisitions, and Emily (Heidi Armbruster), an artist whose profile is on the rise.  They share an Upper East Side apartment lusciously upholstered in furnishings from the latest high-end design catalogs.  (The set, by Lauren Helpern, offers its own witty commentary on the characters' identities.)"

-- New York Times

"The plays pivotal scene is a dinner party at Amir and Emily's Upper East Side apartment (beautifully rendered by scenic designer Lauren Helpern)..."

-- Theatremania

Written by Laura Marks

Produced by Women's Project Theater

Directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch

Costumes by Sarah J. Holden

Lighting by Mark Barton

Sound by Leon Rothenberg

City Center Stage II

"Kudos go to scenic designer Lauren Helpern, whose two locations, the grimy kitchen of the abandoned home, and the showroom of the Saturn dealership, underscore the building aura of desperation as Crystal tries to right her sinking ship."

-- NBC

Written by Alan Sillitoe and adapted for the stage by Roy Williams

Produced by Atlantic Theater Company

Directed by Leah C. Gardiner

Costumes by Bobby Frederick Tilley

Lighting by Michael Chybowski

Sound by Bart Fasbender

Projections by Pauline Lu and Paul Pierkarz

Atlantic Stage II

"The set (by Lauren Helpern) and lights (Michael Chybowski) cannily keep us within Colin's field of vision at all times while also allowing for nearly instantaneous transitions that keep the dramatic heart rate way up from beginning to end."

-- Talkin Broadway

Written by Idris Goodwin

Produced by Cleveland Playhouse

Directed by Jaime Castaneda

Costumes by Jessica Ford

Lighting by Brian Sidney Bembridge

Sound by Mikhail Fiksel

Outcalt Theatre

The CPH production is extremely well-conceived and staged by Jaime Castaneda.  Lauren Helpern's scenic design, even envisioning a believable water tower, Brian Sidney Bembridge's lighting designs, Mikhail Fiksel's sound designs, and Shammy Dee's musical concepts, taking us back to the sounds of the 80s, all work to enhance the 90-minute intermissionless production."

-- Cool Cleveland

"Scenic Designer Lauren Helpern created a very cool space."

-- tpography.com

"The set by Lauren Helpern is a cleverly realistic gym, complete with basketball hoops and an electronic scoreboard."

-- Cleveland.com

"As you enter the theater you are struck by the amount of detail that went into the set. It is a high school gym complete with basketball hoops (one backboard is drawn back in that all too familiar position). There is a stage with a table loaded with the usual twin turntables. Above the stage is an area that represents the top of the town’s water tower where the rappers go for inspiration."

-- AXS.com

Written by Molly Metzler

Produced by Chautauqua Theatre Company

Directed by Vivienne Benesch

Costumes by Tracy Christensen

Lighting by Scott Bolman

Sound by Steven Cahill

"Scenic designer Lauren Helpern, costume designer Tracy Christensen, and lighting designer Scott Bolman created an office which was full of brightness and personality yet was never cliche."

-- The Post-Journal

"Design work by Lauren Helpern (scenery), Tracy Christensen (costumes), Scott Bolman (lighting), and Steven Cahill (sound) is appropriate, effective, and as necessary whimsically comical and entertaining."

-- The Chautauquan Daily

Written by Carly Mensch

Directed by Jason Eagan

Produced by Ars Nova

Costumes by Jenni Mannis

Lighting by Traci Klainer

Sound by Ryan Rumery

From Lauren Helpern's clever re-creation of a Tenement Museum apartment (Helpern is quickly becoming a bright light on the Off-Off- and Off-Broadway design scene) to Eagan's sympathetic and precise direction, everything about "Now Circa Then" clicks.

-- Backstage

"From their perches in a perfectly preserved facsimile of a 19th-century tenement apartment — the atmospheric set is by Lauren Helpern — they dispense nuggets of information about the immigrant experience." 

-- New York Times

"Between the Victrola, the hand-held wooden agitator (laundry churner), and a slew of other period set and costume pieces (provided by Lauren Helpern and Jenny Mannis), the play is not only authentic, but intriguing through its last second."

-- Theatermania

""Now Circa Then," Mensch’s sweet-spirited two-hander, stars Stephen Plunkett and Maureen Sebastian as historical reenactors at a venue a lot like the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, realized by designer Lauren Helpern in a great-looking period set that allows the actors plenty of space to play in."

-- Variety

Written by Glen Berger

Directed by Randy White

Produced by Scott Morfee, Dana Matthow and Tom Wirtshafter

Costumes by Miranda Hoffman

Lights by Tyler Micoleau

Sound by Paul Adams

Projections by Elaine J. McCarthy

Soho Playhouse

"Lauren Helpern's set—pieces, really—are often very amusing."

-- Backstage

"Lauren Helpern's set design utilizes the configuration of the theatre's stage while making it feel bare and unsightly, very much like the Librarian's world and life."

-- Curtain Up

Written by Jessica Dickey

Produced by Rattlestick Theater Company

Directed by Sarah Cameron Sunde

Lighting by Nicole Pierce

Sound by Jill BC DuBoff

"...any trepidation is dispelled almost as soon as the lights come up on Ms. Dickey, wearing traditional Amish dress nicely complemented by Lauren Helpern's sparse set."

-- New York Times

"The physical production - spare and simple - is exquisite..."

-- Inside Theater Now

"There are no video projections.  No props.  No theatrical tricks.  Only good writing.  Good acting.  Only the most simple of sets – a beautiful design by Lauren Helpern and terrific lighting by Nicole Pearce."

-- OscarMoore.com

Written by John Pielmeier

Produced by Ben Sprecher

Directed by Christopher Ashley

Co-Set Design with David Gallo

ostumes by David C. Woolard

Lighting by Donald Holder

Sound by T. Richard Fitzgerald

Longacre Theatre

"A spectacular set design..."

-- CurtainUp

Written by Donald Margulies

Produced by Primary Stages

Directed by Evan Cabnet

Costumes by Jenny Mannis

Lighting by Keith Parham

Sound by Josh Schmidt

Props by Faye Armon-Troncoso

59E59

"The funniest thing about Donald Margulies' The Model Apartment - now being revived by Primary Stages nearly 20 years after its Off Broadway debut (also, incidentally, by Primary Stages) - is the set.  From the popcorn ceiling to the indoor-outdoor carpeting, Lauren Helpern's design is the pinnacle of Florida-condo-retiree chic.  Wicker furniture?  A gilded starfish tchotchke?  As Max (Joel Blum) says upon entering: "I'm telling you:  these furnishings:  tops.""

-- Entertainment Weekly

"The nagging urge didn't begin the minute Max (Mark Blum) and Lola (Kathryn Grody) come through the door of the Florida model apartment (Lauren Helpern's perfectly right set) they've temporarily been offered sometimes in the '80s while finishing touches are put on the new home they've bought."

-- Huffington Post

"We're aware from their late-night entrance into the model apartment of the title, a tasteful, soulless Florida condo (splendidly designed by Lauren Helpern), that something about them is a little bit off, we just can't put our finger on it."

-- NYtheatreguide

"Evan Cabnet's staging, on a superb realistic set by Lauren Helpern, is gripping from start to finish."

-- Bloomberg

Written by Elizabeth Meriwether

Produced by stageFARM

Directed by Evan Cabnet

Costumes by Jessica Wegener Shay

Lighting by Ben Stanton

Sound by Zane Birdwell

Props by Faye Armon-Troncoso

Cherry Lane Theatre

"Cheap vodka is in fact the beverage of choice for Jasper (John Larroquette), the primary occupant of that squalid apartment, which would need serious attention from a home makeover show to qualify as a respectable squat.  (Kudos to the set designer Lauren Helpern; I went home and started mopping.)"

-- New York Times

"The action unfolds in the filthy apartment (keenly designed by Lauren Halpern) belonging to Jasper (John Larroquette), an aging and bitter alcoholic with anger issues."

-- Theatremania

Written by Glen Berger

Produced by Portland Center Stage

Directed by Randy White

Costumes by Junghyun Georgia Lee

Lights by Tyler Micoleau

Sound by Jen Raynak

Winningstad Theatre