Eric Swartz is redesigning the borders between language and livelihood.

The UCLA graduate student showcased his second-year master of fine arts directing project on Phillip Howze’s “Frontieres sans Frontieres” from May 22 to May 24 at Macgowan Hall. Swartz said he selected the play – which follows the lives of three stateless, orphaned teenagers in a landfill – because of its thought-provoking examination of cultural imperialism and erasure. The project was shown in the round, an arrangement which encourages a greater sense of audience interactivity as they experience the production from all four sides.

“One thing I’m interested in exploring is the complicity of the audience and how we, as average citizens, are actually implicated in the things that happen all across the world,” Swartz said.

The project focused largely on collaborating with a team of designers to create an atmospheric and theatrical landscape, Swartz said. “Frontieres sans Frontieres” combines absurdist themes with a commedia dell’arte aesthetic – a form of Italian theatre popular in 16th-to-18th-century Europe – which Swartz said challenged him to consider creative design choices. For instance, he said the protagonists’ reliance on waste reminded him of the theater industry’s own waste habits in the production process. He said he encouraged designers to buy used and upcycled materials when conceptualizing their work for the project, further bridging the gap between the play’s production and themes.

Swartz, who grew up speaking English and Spanish, said he was drawn to the multilingualism of the play’s broken “Engaleash” dialect. Alongside his interest in language, Swartz said he has previous theater experience as an actor, writer, producer, designer and – ultimately – director, which has allowed him to mesh multiple perspectives into his work. He added that theater has always been a human-focused art form to him and that he strived to prioritize the well-being of those on set while working on the project.

“The vibes in the room have been really immaculate,” Swartz said. “That’s been really rewarding too – to be part of a process that has been, I hope, created with the spirit of joy and compassion and excitement.”

Lei Xia, a graduate student scenic designer for “Frontieres sans Frontieres,” said she worked with Swartz to evoke feelings of both familiarity and foreignness in the project’s scenic elements. Xia said she collaborated with the design team to intersperse large plastic curtains throughout the audience seating to mimic the landfill setting of the play. She said the design choices heightened the atmosphere of the play’s world, which she hoped would enable the audience to see their own reality in a different light after they watched the show.

Lighting design graduate student Cristo Montanez said he worked to enhance the color and texture of the set, emphasizing its landfill atmosphere. He added that he had never lit anything plastic with stage lighting before, which resulted in a trial-and-error process to determine which method of lighting was the most effective for the curtain set pieces.

At first, Xia said she feared such ambitious set pieces would be cut from the project due to budget problems. However, she said working on the curtains became her favorite part of the project, and she was grateful the team saw the idea through.

Since selecting the project a year ago, Swartz said he received academic guidance from his faculty advisor and head of directing, Marike Splint. He added that the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television sourced many of the props and costumes for the project in addition to assisting with set design. Abiding by many deadlines throughout the project’s making, Swartz said he often felt overwhelmed by his team’s timeline, but the project encouraged him to become more comfortable with the anxiety that often accompanies his art-making.

Directing “Frontieres sans Frontieres” also drove Swartz to question his lifestyle choices outside of theater, he said. While living in Hollywood, he said he often sees unhoused people in the streets who have the same desire for security and safety as the protagonists of his project. Although the play takes place in a foreign country, Swartz said he hoped his audiences left the theater with a newfound perspective on the bonds between themselves and others.

“I don’t know who is picking through my recycling to make their life, but I know that people do, and that’s not normally something I would think about,” Swartz said. “I hope it’s not normally something people would normally consider for themselves, but perhaps this play can plant the seed of those questions.”