KIM A. TOLMAN DESIGN

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2012 SHELLIE AWARD for Best Scenic Design for a Play

2011 BAY AREA CRITICS AWARD Nomination for Best Scenic Design

Eugene Brancoveanu brings a new virility and athletic masculinity to the world's most famous vampire as he works his evil magic on
Kim A. Tolman's unit set (in which the barren trees of Transylvania glow red like the arteries of an animal's circulatory system).
By George Heymont
- HUFFINGTON POST/HAIKU REVIEWS

Kim A. Tolman's set is a knockout, a shadowy Expressionistic jumble of tall gray buildings jutting diagonally like tombs strewn willy-nilly by an earthquake. Red twiggy trees rise on the sidelines, their bare branches looking like arteries.
By Sam Hurwitt
- THE IDIOLECT

"Dracula" unfolds on a wonderfully creepy set by Kim A.Tolman.
By Pat Craig
- CONTRA COSTA TIMES

Butler is aided and abetted by production staff that are the best in the Bay area. The amazing multi-area nonsensical creepy, intimidating set is perfect for a horror story. Scenic designer Kim A Tolman, I'm sure after consultation with Butler, has enough entrance and exit points that would be fit for two or three French farces, and they are all used.
By Kedar K. Adour
- FOR ALL EVENTS

The set (Kim A. Tolman) and sound (Cliff Caruthers) ultimately power the production. With four tombstone-like, off-kilter walls, the set is bathed in blues and greens. Red trees in the foreground, and darker ones in the back cast shadows and enrapture us with an almost fun-house aesthetic. With a uni-stage design, the action is fluid with no time-consuming set changes required. ... Dracula delivers in just about every way we'd expect; it's seductively crafted, beautiful to watch, and the performances are energetic, never too serious.
Think of it as Tim Burton style entertainment for the stage.
By Clinton Stark
- STARK INSIDER 

Center Rep has put together an extraordinary show, complete with artful set elements, top-notch acting and costuming, and all the surprise, tenderness and passion a great drama can offer...The first scene opens on an intriguing set, designed by award-winning scenic designer
Kim A. Tolman. Asymmetrical walls appear leaning to one side, some even tilted slightly backward, all converging on a sloping walkway leading up to a castle door and a comparatively small platform beneath a pair of oversized windows. Between the skewed perspective of the walls and the subtle shadings of their color, the mood is distinctly eerie.
By Elizabeth Warnimont
- BENICIA HERALD

Kim A. Tolman designed a wonderful creepy set that looked like a German Expressionist film of the 1920s.
By Richard Connema
- TALKIN' BROADWAY

Kim A. Tolman's sinister set features a steeply raked portion of the stage and walls at dramatically sharp angles reminiscent of gravestones with a variety of hidden doors. Barren trees become veins of blood when bathed in designer Kurt Lanisman's red light while his dark, shadowy lighting allows surprise entrances. Cliff Caruthers' ominous sound effects and the recurring fog complete the Transylvanian eeriness.
By Sally Hogarty
- OAKLAND TRIBUNE

…adjectives are hard to find that adequately describe this outstanding production, outstanding in every single aspect! …The dramatic set designed by Kim A. Tolman adds measurably to the sinister setting of this drama as does the lighting by Kurt Landisman.
By Charles Jarrett
- ROSSMOOR NEWS

...Up in Walnut Creek, Center Rep has been titillating audiences with a most impressive production of Dracula. …The physical production (which features a puzzle-like unit set designed by Kim A. Tolman, lighting by Kurt Landisman, and costumes by Victoria Livingston-Hall) is fascinating. The trees of Transylvania never looked as good as Tolman's interpretation (which resembled the arterial branches of the circulatory system as they glowed with a blood-red tinge).
By George Heymont
- MY CULTURAL LANDSCAPE

Vampire DNA - Eugen Brancoveanu, a descendant of the real Dracul clan, stars in Walnut Creek Center Rep's new production of Dracula
Vampires are red-hot in pop culture, but Walnut Creek's Center Repertory Company's new production of Dracula has the real deal playing the titular count: Star Eugen Brancoveanu is an actual descendant of Dracula. Here's the scoop: "My family, in late medieval times, intermingled with the Dracul clan," says Brancoveanu. "Vlad the Impaler, the romanticized figure from Bram Stoker's novel, married within my family while fighting the Ottoman Empire."As a graduate of the University of Transylvania (no joke), Brancoveanu is thrilled to sink his teeth into his first vampire role. "I was so thrilled when this came my way," he says.
By Peter Crooks
- DIABLO MAGAZINE