What Is It? Why Do We Care?

Design is the collaboration that determines how the technical elements of a theatrical production will support and enhance the performance and what details will best support the desired effect. Depending on the size of your production all of these roles/steps vary in a number of ways, but the main focus is that the design goes from a general collaborative idea to the tangible formation of a set design with enough detail and specifics that the crew can re-create it. Design is also the act of actually creating the design. The designer takes the ideas discussed in collaboration with other production members and creates a tangible, detailed design to be passed on to the technical director/crew head.

A theatrical production can be split into two basic components without which the production cannot exist: The producer, playwright, and director determine their vision for the show: message, concept, theme, purpose etc. To begin achieving the desired result a meeting must then take place between the director and the various designers of the show. This insures that everyone is on the same page and that a cohesive/unified production will take place. The director collaborates with the script and the actors to create the roles of the play (performers), a designer collaborate with the vision and the script to formulate the design concept.

1.First Reading Experience the Play Like the Audience Experience the Play Like the Audience 2.Read the Play Again Time & Place Time & Place Mood, Theme, Genre, Style Mood, Theme, Genre, Style 3.Collaborate/Agree Mockups: drafts/sketches Mockups: drafts/sketches 4.Read the Play Again confirm or challenge ideas from 2 nd reading, 1 st collaboration confirm or challenge ideas from 2 nd reading, 1 st collaboration Research: playwright, style, time period, location, historical figures, etc. Research: playwright, style, time period, location, historical figures, etc. 5.Collaborate/Agree Mockups: drafts/sketches Mockups: drafts/sketches 6.Rough Draft collaborate/agree collaborate/agree Simplify, simplify, simplify… Simplify, simplify, simplify… Re-read & Repeat 7.Final Design collaborate/agree collaborate/agree create perspective drawings create perspective drawings create scale drawing/model create scale drawing/model Pass on to the technical director Pass on to the technical director explain/review explain/review

1.Provide Logistical Support 2.Match The Production 3.Reveal Time 4.Reveal Place

Serves the Actors Complement their character/appearance Complement their character/appearance Not create obstacles Not create obstacles Avoid distractions Avoid distractions Serves the Production Match the directors intent Match the directors intent Be simple in design, construction, and shifting Be simple in design, construction, and shifting Utilize the 6 basic elements of design Utilize the 6 basic elements of design

1.What’s the first step to the design process? 2.What is the designer looking for in the 2 nd reading of a script? 3.List two subjects that should be researched in order to achieve the necessary detail in ones design? 4.What do we call the quick drawings that a designer creates to first express their ideas to the rest of the design team? 5.How do drawings evolve from the sketches in the selection step into functional drawings in the implementation step?

Closure: A psychological drive for completeness which allows the audience to fill in the “gaps” of a scenic design. The “fourth wall” in action. Ex. Science Fiction & Sitcoms

Willing Suspension of Disbelief: The audience’s willingness and ability to suspend “reality” for the world of the play; an unwritten contract/agreement to work together in favor of the performing arts experience. Ex. Musicals

Theatricality: Whether or not the director wants the audience to be very conscious of viewing the world on stage. Ex. Classical Plays: Shakespeare, Greek, Medieval

Reconstruction of actual places or items with the same materials and scale as would be used in a real setting. Ex. Modern Theatre, True Stories, and Hollywood

Using alternative materials and scale to create representations of actual items or places; building fake versions of real things. Ex. Horror & Action Films

Very few, carefully selected elements to suggest time and/or place. Very common. Ex. collections, reviews, & low budget productions

Leaving out all unnecessary factors/details. Ex. Dramas & Cartoons

Use of abstract shapes, images, and colors to suggest a mood or feeling versus specifics. Ex. Fantasy or Anime