J Márquez Consultants Inc. provides theatre design and consulting services to theatre and performing arts projects of all sizes.

Josephine Márquez

Ms. Márquez was born in Puerto Rico and began her career as a professional lighting designer for Ballet, Opera and Theatre at age 19. She started as a theatre person, working backstage in production, then as a lighting designer, technical director, stage hand, director and producer. She came to the United States to pursue her Masters in Fine Arts in Theatre Design and Technology from Florida State University. With more than 30 years of experience as a Theatre Consultant and Owner’s Representative, she has worked on hundreds of projects all over the world in Europe, Asia, Japan, Canada, South and Central America, and México.

In 1991 Ms. Márquez was awarded the Gold Medal at the Prague Quadrennial Theatre Design Exhibit and Competition and was named to the Outstanding Young Women of America. She has given seminars at the Seville Opera in Spain as well as in México City and Japan. She belongs to the National Association of Broadcast Engineers & Technicians, the Society of Television Lighting Directors, and the International Alliance of Theatrical Employees. She was the second woman to belong to the American Society of Theatre Consultants.

J. Márquez Consultants Inc. is certified as a Minority & Woman-owned Business Enterprise (M/WBE).

Philosophy

“Theatre should serve a purpose, primarily that you can present theatrical productions for an audience. But what makes any theatre great is when the audience enjoys every step of their journey—from the moment they arrive outside and see a magnificent piece of architecture to how they progress into the theatre...from how they reach their seats to that “wow” moment when the curtain goes up…and from how they watch and enjoy the show to how they finally exit the theatre. It should all work like an effortless machine, every piece of the experience practical, beautiful and enjoyable for the audience.

To achieve this goal, you have to know how a theatre works. You have to look at a theatre and design it literally from the inside out. You start with the design of the stagehouse, the seating layouts, the core of the theatre with all its backstage areas and dressing rooms. From there it grows into the envelope (all the lobbies, corridors and stairs), and lastly, once all these elements are in place, you add a beautiful façade.

I like being a part of the entire process, from pre-schematic, when it’s just an idea, the beginning of a budget, to when it goes on paper, takes shape, and then becomes reality. The construction begins, and the idea starts to come literally out of the ground, dirty and unfinished, progressing day by day until, like a polished jewel, it’s a brand new building ready for opening day. So many people collaborate for so long to make it all happen, it’s like watching a production—one that might last for 100 days or more—culminating in a beautiful, working theatre that we all hope will last for 100 years and beyond.”

—Josephine Márquez