The look of the play
WHAT ARE THE DESIGN ELEMENTS OF A PRODUCTION?
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Costumes
Scenery
Makeup
Lighting
Sound
First step in design process
Read the script to allow design IDEAS to emerge
RESEARCH the script for its historic, intellectual
and stylistic context
IMAGINE its potential on the expected audience
The design process
THROUGH repeated readings and design conferences with
Director and other collaborators, a comprehensive design
emerges....
Costume renderings
Lighting Plot
The design process
Everything begins with the script...
“The home of MARTIN VANDERHOF—just around the corner from
Columbia University, but don’t go looking for it. The room we
see is what is customarily described as a living room, but in this
house the term is something of an understatement. The everyman-for-himself room would be more like it. For here, meals
are eaten, plays are written, snakes collected, ballet steps
practiced, xylophones played, printing presses operated—if the
room were big enough there would probably be ice skating. In
short, the brood presided over by MARTIN VANDERHOF goes
about the business of living in the fullest sense of the world...”
Set design for the play
A description of character
LEAF CONEYBEAR is a second alternate, he never expected to
compete at the spelling bee. Home-schooled with his many
siblings, everything about this public bee is an adventure for
him, from meeting the other kids to showing off his
homemade clothing...He may have severe ADD but delights
in his own wandering focus. He doesn’t expect to win—or
even to spell one word correctly—but he finds absolutely
everything incredibly amusing...
Which one is Coneybear?
LEAF CONEYBEAR – The 25th Annual
Putnam County Spelling Bee
Goals of the design
 What will the final design look like?
 Will it propel the action of the play?
 Will it communicate to the audience?
 Is it suited to this theatre? These actors? Our expected
audience?
 Can we afford it? Do we have the technology to make it
happen?
WHAT DESIGN DOES
 It makes the general real...Beckett’s WAITING FOR
GODOT begins with this description:
“A country road. A tree. Evening”
Scenery is what we see first
Design for a producion
in Rome, 1998
Another design
Another approach
Broadway’s
BOOK OF MORMON
Broadway’s
BOOK OF MORMON
Broadway’s
PIPPIN
Broadway’s
ONCE
National Theatre’s
WAR HORSE
HAMILTON
On Broadway
ESU Theatre
ALL SHOOK UP
ESU Theatre
WORKING
ESU Theatre
SOUTH PACIFIC
ESU Theatre
THE FLICK
Evolution of scenic design
 Costumes, makeup and masks are more ancient than
settings
 There was little spectacle in CLASSICAL or MEDIEVAL
stages
In many Asian theatres, scenery is
minimal or absent
A Kabuki Stage, Japan
XIQU stage, Chinese Opera
Design advanced in 19th century Europe
as realism emerged
Common stages
Thrust Stage
Proscenium Stage
Black Box (Flexible) Theatre
The Ronald Q. Frederickson Theatre
in Roosevelt Hall, ESU
Early Scenery Conventions
 Wings and borders
Drops
Box Sets
Wing and Drop Set
Metaphoric design
Festspielhaus Baden-Baden
“Der Freischütz”
Metaphoric design
RSC, Stratford, 2008 – “Love’s Labours Lost”
Festspielhaus Baden-Baden
“Der Freischütz”
AIDA, Bob Crowley (2000)
DAS RHEINGOLD
SF Opera-2008
E. Gordon Craig
Adolphe Appia
Influences of Appia and Craig
on Postmodern design
 Disruption of unifying stylistic
themes replaced by random
assemblages
 Reconfiguration of theatre
space
Joseph Svoboda
Joseph Svoboda (Czech, 1921-2002 )
Scenographer and artist in light,
shade and projections, he reinvented
the stage for drama and opera.
Scenic materials
FLATS
PLATFORMS
Drapery
Stage drapes
Cyclorama
Set pieces
Light as scenery
SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE
Mernier Chocolate Factory, London - 2006
Appia’s Design for Parsifal
Theatrical Scrim
Stage machinery
 Turntables
 Hoists
 Wagons
Sound
Scenic designer must account for
the sounds of actors and scenery
moving on the stage when
designing
Properties and furniture
 Set props
 Personal props
 Hand props
Designer’s process
 See Textbook, page 151-154
Prominent designers
TONY WALTON
Death of a Salesman
Original design by Jo Mielziner
Bob Crowley
THE HISTORY BOYS, MARY POPPINS
John Lee Beatty
Functions of LIGHTING
 Visibility. Can we see?
 Focus. Where are we suppose to look?
 Verisimilitude. What practicals are in use?
(Lifelikeness)
 Atmosphere. What moods are being created? Is
the lighting like life? Is it stylized? By color? By
shadow?
Techniques and materials
in Lighting
COLOR
GOBOES
Moving lights
 Chasers
 Follow spots
 Fog
Light Plot
Cue Sheet
Prompt Script
Lighting instruments
Source four
Fresnel and Par Can
Fresnel lens
Other lenses
Moving Light
Striplights
Realizing the plot
 Hanging
 Focusing
 Gelling
See photo essay, pages 162-166
What do GODOT’s actors wear?
Evolution of Costumes
 Ceremonial
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Costumes began as ceremonial vestments
Greek Himations
Medieval liturgcal garments
Elizabethan garb was “contemporary”
 Illustrative
 Many modern characteristics came about during the 18th
and 19th centuries along with increased expectations toward
realism
 Sure but gradual movement toward historical accuracy and
specificity as opposed to stock
Ceremonial function
Determine the production’s style
Express character individuality
Distinguish characters (cont.)
Wearable clothing
Wearable clothing (cont.)
Costume Designer at work
 Read
 Develop ideas
 Collaborate with director
and other designers
SEE PHOTO ESSAY, 168-171
Catherine Zuber, Designer
Renderings for Dracula and
Love’s Labours Lost
The Coast of Utopia
Women on the Verge of a
Nervous Breakdown
How to Succeed in Business
Without Really Trying
Design process
Most productions are built, pulled or bought
Fabrics for built pieces are selected,
swatched and, if necessary dyed or textured
Many designers are also in charge of hair and
makeup design
Costume sketches
Costume renderings
Patricia Zipprodt
Fiddler on the Roof
Cabaret
Pippin
Makeup
Sound Design
 Aristotle considered music one of the six elements of
tragedy
 Shakespeare’s texts call for “flourishes” and “tuckets”
 SOUND EFFECTS have been devised over time using tin
for thunder, pebbles and dried seeds for rain and other
sound effects
 Since the mid-1970s, sound design has become highly
technological and sophisticated
Music
Sound reinforcement
Various Body Mics
Special
Effects
Computer Assisted Design
Sketchup
Vectorworks
Technical Production Team
PSM-Production Stage Manager
(pages 182-3)
ASM-Assistant Stage Manager
TD-Technical Director
Technical Crews
The following are supervised by the TD
Shop Foreman
Scenery Supervisor
Production Carpenters
Scenic Artists
Backstage at the MET
Costume Shop
Costume Shop
Manager
Dyers
Drapers
Cutters
First hands
Stitchers
Craft specialists
Hairstylists and
wigmakers
Wardrobe
supervisors
Dressers
Lighting
Master electrician
Electrician
Lightboard operator
Follow-spot operator
Sound
Sound engineer
Soundboard operator
Grips, Stagehands
PRODUCTION CREW, IATSE LOCAL 33