Every Tongue Confess was a lyrical play that moved between the real and spiritual world that called for a blending of naturalistic, historical and fantastical imagery. The central design element was a large sculptural tree reminiscent of African jungles and the bottle trees of the American south combined with rough-hewn wooden floors and red clay earth that served as the world of the dead. Before the build, I felt it was important for students to understand the context of their work. In addition to discussing the play, (all shop students read and see every play they build) I showed students my dramaturgical research of African symbols and gods and African American churches in the south and how their connections manifested in both the play and the design of the environment. Over the course of a few months we created a fully sculptural three-dimensional tree which was lit from within to show the beautiful glow of translucent carved masks. Students learned traditional large-scale papier mache for the tree and a release mold method for the masks.