About us

Chris Hawkes is an entertainment design and construction professional with a 20-year track record in specialty fabrication, focusing on technical direction/design and project management. Projects include permanent installations for theme parks and museums, as well as live theatre, corporate events, trade shows, and television.  He has expertise in coordinating design teams, clients, vendors, and fabrication personnel, as well as layout and integration of interactive technologies, development of construction methods and prototypes, project estimating and budget analysis, construction planning and scheduling, and supervision of shop fabrication and onsite installation.

Chris has most recently worked with Thinkwell Design and Production in Burbank, CA as Attraction Manager of the signature dark ride in the Warner Bros. Theme Park, in development in Abu Dhabi, UAE.  Prior to this project, he was a Technical Director working with Thinkwell on two large-scale mixed use development properties, also in the UAE.

Teamed with partner and designer Laura Fine Hawkes, Chris has worked on multiple museum exhibits and theatrical projects, including the Air Force One Discovery Center at The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, CA.

In project management, Chris has been affiliated with multiple Southern California design firms and scenic fabrication shops.  Notable projects include Universal Studios Citywalk 3-D Billboard and Beetlejuice, Monsterfest Graveyard Revue at Universal Studios Japan for Cinnabar California, Inc.  Chris was the installation foreman on The Cerritos Millennium Library with Scenario Design, Inc.

In technical design, highlights include Art of the Motorcycle, a Guggenheim Exhibit at The Venetian, Las Vegas, NV (also with Scenario Design, Inc.) Here, Chris developed construction methods and prototypes for fabrication of the exhibit ramps designed by Frank Gehry and Associates. 

As scene shop foreman of the prestigious La Jolla Playhouse, Chris also taught the fundamentals of scenery construction and technical theatre to undergraduate students at University of California at San Diego.

Chris has lead fabrication teams building theme parks, libraries, museums, television shows, commercials, films, trade-shows, and theatres up and down the East Coast and throughout Southern California. Two decades of working as a master carpenter, model maker, and welder has fueled his current passion for sculpture and glass blowing.

With a background in live theatrical entertainment, Laura Fine Hawkes has developed a body of work which broadly encompasses scenic design for opera and theatre as well as art direction for museum exhibits, events, and live shows for concerts and theme parks.

Most recently, Laura has been working with Thinkwell Design and Production in Burbank, CA as Scenic Designer on the central live show within the Warner Bros. Theme Park in development in Abu Dhabi, UAE.  Laura has also developed several additional live shows and cultural events with Thinkwell.

Latest exhibit design work includes the THEA award-winning Air Force One Discovery Center, a governmentally-themed interactive teaching space.  This permanent installation is housed in the Air Force One Pavilion within The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, CA. 

Laura has worked as Art Director on many live televised concerts and in-studio artist sessions.  Recent work includes Control Room Presents: An Evening with Avril Lavigne at The Roxy; Lights, A Hanukah Concert for PBS; and yearly concerts at The Carpenter Center in Long Beach for the launch of Roland musical instruments.

Recent theatrical engagements include work as the Resident Scenic Designer of Salem K Theatre Company at The Matrix Theatre in Hollywood.  With highly acclaimed Irish Actor and Artistic Director Michael O’Hagan, Laura opened the inaugural 2008 season with London-based directors Wilson Milam and Mark Rosenblatt.  Productions include the American professional premieres of Billy Roche’s Poor Beast in the Rain and Sir Alan Ayckbourn’s Snake in the Grass (a 2009 LA Drama Critic’s Circle Award nomination for best set design, 2008 LA Stage Alliance Ovation Award Nomination for best set design, and LA Times Critic’s Choice.)  Laura also continues scenic design across the spectrum, celebrating continuing collaboration with opera director Thor Steingraber in productions of L’orfeo and Candide at Cal-State Long Beach’s Opera Institute, as well as the new musical American Tales with Antaeus Theatre Company in Los Angeles.  Laura has extensive work in scenic design for such other companies and institutions as The Geffen Playhouse, Ensemble Studio Theatre LA, Circle X Theatre, The Road Theatre, Pacific Resident Theatres, El Portal, The Odyssey, Latino Theatre Company, UCLA Opera, Cal-State Los Angeles, and San Francisco Opera.

Laura is a former Lead Design Associate to Broadway’s David Mitchell.  With Mr. Mitchell, Laura executed both scenic design and studio management for Broadway projects and Las Vegas shows in development, as well as regional theatre productions.  With Mr. Mitchell’s input and guidance, Laura has recently overseen a donation of his life’s work to the UCLA Arts Library, Special Collections.

With a BFA in Theatre and Minor in Visual Art from the College of Santa Fe in New Mexico, Laura holds an MFA in Scenic Design from UCLA.