Join us for a DOUBLE Masterclass with Chris Senkbeil & Karin Asselstine. For ages 12-19.
Class 1: Making your Space Immersive (11am-1:30pm) – This class focuses on set design will include defining the strengths of your space, important partnerships, health/safety and the risks, developing a design, construction planning, and Interpreting the script.
Class 2: Making Objects Come to Life (2:00pm-4:30pm) – The basics of prop design for live theatre focused on surviving the whole run, props and your director’s input, prop table and tracking, consumables and health of your performers, and participation in building a show prop. Wear your grubbies, as we’re going to get messy in the last part of class.
Chris Senkbeil is the premier set-designer/builder in the Magic Valley offering theater production set design and build, artistic director consultation, and on-site set remedy for shows throughout the valley.
Chris received a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from the University of Idaho in 1992 and subsequently spent the next 20 years in the United States Air Force. He began his theater journey in 2008 and has acquired a passion for excellence in theater. He has performed with over ten different theater companies in three countries, in such roles as Georg Van Trapp in the Sound of Music (Aviano Community Theater, Aviano, Italy), Otto in The Diary of Anne Frank (Army Community Theater, Kaiserslautern, Germany) and Ebeneezer Scrooge in a Christmas Carol (Magic Valley Repertory Theater, Twin Falls).
Chris found his passion with set design and has designed and built sets for over ten years highlighting a few of his set design and builds are Hansel and Gretel with Ramstein Players, How I Became a Pirate and School House Rock: Live, with KMC Onstage, A Christmas Story, A Christmas Carol, Treasure Island, and Cinderella with MVRT, and most recently The Hello Girls with Twin Falls Theatre Collective. His most challenging set was designed and built for The Play That Goes Wrong, where the set itself was the antagonist.
In 2015 Chris won an IMCOM “European Tournament of Plays,” Best Set Design for his immersive design for Hansel and Grettel, Ramstein Air Base, Germany. Recently, he won the Magic Valley Curtain Call Award for Best Set Design for his work on The Hello Girls.
When he is not on the stage, he can be found playing golf at Jerome Country Club, fishing on one of Idaho’s great rivers, or hunting.
Karín is currently based in Twin Falls, Idaho and has been engaged for live theatre productions as an educator, solo performer, composer, music director, director, stage manager, costumer, and many other areas in various productions in Opera, Musical Theatre, Theatre, and Chamber performances. She holds a Masters of Voice Performance and Literature from The University of Western Ontario in London Canada, and has performed as a soloist and collaborator extensively across North America and Europe. In Props design and Production, she has crafted for dozens of straight plays and musicals in Canada, Europe, and the continental U.S.
In 2016 she won awards for Set Properties and Design, at the “European Tournament of Plays”, and then a decade later in 2026 locally. Some of her notable props she’s made for Magic Valley shows include: Brunhilda’s spear for Addams Family, Cinderella Pumpkin patch, Monty Python Hold Grail(s), Prince Eric’s bust for Little Mermaid, Tree for Tuck Everlasting, Treasure Island sand pit and barrels, portrait painting for 12 Angry Men, and all of the props for The Play that Goes Wrong and The Hello Girls.
When she’s not creating crafts for the stage, she can be found playing her guitar, badly, forcing her husband to go hiking in the dessert, golfing, hunting, and she loves painting “Joy rocks” to share with the community.
