Download Introduction to Design

Introduction to Design
• What is theatre? What makes theatre
theatre?
Now.
• What is the difference between
performance and production?
Tomorrow.
What is the difference between
production/design and everyday life?
Here
Us
Our
•
•
•
•
Context
Collaboration
Choice/Intention
Communication
Wicked, scenic design Eugene Lee
• Context
– Given circumstances
• What the text demands
• What the production demands
The Turn of the Screw scenic designer Robert Klingelhoefer
Textual demands
• Text is our framework. Most of what we do
as designers begins with the text
– Play text - words to be spoken and the stage
descriptions concerning action
– Performance text – characterization, space,
action
• What information can we get from the
text?
• Time
– Why is the knowledge of time important for designers?
• Esoteric reasons
• Practical reasons
• Historical reasons – Neoclassicism, Verisimilitude
and the Three Unities (place, time, and action)
Broadway Bound
Old Globe Theatre
Directed by Scott Schwartz
Set Design by Ralph Funicello
• Period
– The historical age, decade, or era when the play is set.
• Practical considerations – what does a 1950s typewriter,
Roman toga, 1970s hairdo, Medieval chair look like? Why is
this information important?
Lion in Winter. Directed by Trevor Nunn, Design Stephen Brimson Lewis, Lighting Peter Mumford
– Thematic considerations – people in other time periods had
different motivations than we do, even though we cannot
separate our modern sensibilities from the understanding of a
text (Oedipal complex, modern ideas of racism and Othello.)
This will change how the audience perceives the production and
is something the team might have to take into account.
– Researching the major intellectual/political/social/cultural ideas
of the play’s time period will give insights into the motivations of
the characters.
Pacific Overtures, set design: Aronson
– Knowledge of period styles will also be very
useful if the production is removed from its
time – conceptualized/modernized.
La Boheme.
Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Director: Louisa Muller
Set design: Michael Yeargan
Costumes: Walter Mahoney
Lighting: Duane Schuler
Rent, the Broadway Tour.
Director: Michael Greif
Set Design: Paul Clay
Costume design: Angela Wendt
Lighting design: Blake Burba
• Place and Locale
– The environment inhabited by the characters.
This is the context in which all action occurs.
– This is not only the physical environs, but also
the genius loci – the spirit of the place.
A Streetcar Named Desire.
Guthrie Theatre
Scenic: Todd Rosenthal
• In a play like A Streetcar Named Desire, the place is a
small, messy, two-roomed apartment in New Orleans –
summer, 1940s
• The genius loci is a poor, run-down section of the city but
with raffish charm. It is hot, muggy – a pressure cooker
for the action that is to follow. Fertile ground for Stanley’s
lust and rage and Blanche’s descent to madness.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56ExGsnLtP8
• Revelation of character
– One of the most important because characters are the drivers of
plot. Non-verbal communication by the characters – how they
are dressed, how they walk, gestures, business, what they carry
– allows the audience to understand the story more fully.
Carmen. Boston Lyric Opera. Set: J. Conklin, Costumes: G. Berry, Lighting: T. Hase
Threepenny Opera. Willamstown Theatre Festival
Director: Peter Hunt
Lighting Design: Rui Rita
Set Design: John Conklin
Costume Design: Laurie Churba
Practical Demands
• Budget, space - venue, time, personnel,
method, equipment, materials.
Sound of Music. Millburn Stone Theatre. Director: S. Lee Lewis, Lighting: David Allen, Costumes: Gale Bareham
Sound of Music. Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Director Marc Bruni Set: Michael Yeargan, Costume: Alejo Vietti, Lighting: Duane Schuler
• Collaboration
Anything Goes, scenic-Derek McLane, lighting-Peter Kaczorowski
• Choice/Intention
• Communication
What does a production have to have?
Jerzy Grotowski asked the same
question.
• Can the theatre exist without
costumes and sets?
• Can it exist without music to
accompany the plot?
• Can it exist without lighting
effects?
• And without a text?
• But can the theatre exist
without actors?
• Can the theatre exist without
an audience?
“So we are left with the actor and the spectator. We can
thus define the theatre as ‘what takes place between
spectator and actor’. All the other things are
supplementary – perhaps necessary, but nevertheless
supplementary.”
-Jerzy Grotowski
Towards a Poor Theatre
So why do we bother?
What is design?
What does design “do” for a
production?
What is design?
• The telling of the visual story.
• A physical representation of the world of the play
or of the interior life of the play.
• The realization of the playwright’s and director’s
intentions in visual terms.
• The interpretation and visualization of the text.
• The shaping and filling of the stage space.
• A collaboration by many artists towards an
unified vision of a production.
• Design is the look of the environment around the
actor, the clothes on their back, the music in
their world, light so they may see, the furniture
so they may sit, and a million different pieces of
the characters’ lives.
Oleanna
• Design is life. Design is the interpretation
of life. Design is the fulfillment of life – the
fruition of text, intention, and ideas.
Gem of the Ocean – costume design - Constanza Romero
• Design is reality – the creation of a specific
reality made for a unique world that exists
briefly.
• Design can be anything or nothing – it can
be a recreation or an interpretation.
Quick definitions
• Concept
• Visual metaphor
Concept
• An idea. The meaning behind the words.
• Concept goes deeper than mere
representation.
'One and Three Chairs‘ Joseph Kosuth
Visual Metaphor
• When one object is used to stand in for
another.
• Metaphor usually leads to a greater
understanding of what is being conveyed.
Umberto Boccioni, Unique Forms of Continuity in
Space (1913)
Funeral of the Anarchist Galli by Carlo Carrà, 1911
Theme
• Theme is the intellectual
aspect or the main idea
contained in the script – its
what I mean when I ask,
what’s this play about.
• The theme is typically
universal – most readers
can agree on the main
theme.
• Theme is partially
communicated through
subtext – the meaning
behind what the characters
say and do.
• Think about WHY.
The Crucible
Mood
• The emotional impact on the audience –
how we feel when we see a play
performed.
• Atmosphere, ambiance, immediate
reaction, visceral response.
• Mood is intensified in climatic moments.
• Lighting and sound design are the two
design aspects that link directly and
unintellectually to mood.
Macbeth
Style
• Method of expression, how the piece is
written/presented
– Literary
• Abstract or realistic, stream of consciousness or
naturalistic
– Artistic
• Based on artistic movements- symbolism,
surrealism, expressionism, cinematic
– Period style
• Ancient Greece, modern France, the future, the
1920s
• The style, whether textual or conceptual,
must be clearly presented in the design.
Genre
• Category of expression – comedy,
tragicomedy, melodrama, romance,
musical theatre, farce, satire
• Each of these have their own mode of
expression, but they are rarely purely one
thing or the other – Hamlet is considered
one of Shakespeare’s funniest plays
Areas of Design
• Scenery and props – the stage picture,
including realistic elements like walls,
doors, windows, stairs and non-realistic,
conceptual elements.
• Also included under the umbrella of
scenery are props, set decoration,
furniture, scenic art, and sometimes even
the alteration of the stage house itself.
Costume
• The clothing of the CHARACTER, not the
actor.
• This includes hair (or wigs), make-up,
shoes, masks, jewelry, gloves, purses and
wallets (sometimes), umbrellas
(sometimes), and hats.
Lighting
• The design of the illumination for a productions.
This includes stage lighting from lighting
instruments and “practical” sources on the stage
itself. Sometimes the lighting designer is also in
charge of any projection design as well.
Sound
• The design of the audible elements of a
production. This includes not only
practical sound effects, but also
atmosphere noises and music,
underscoring, AND the placement of
microphones and speakers.
Crossovers
• Umbrellas, wallets, luggage, purses – could be
costumes, could be props.
• Lamps, ceiling fans, hanging lights – could be
lighting, could be scenic/set dressing.
• Period mics, musical instruments – could be
props, could be sound.
• Masks and puppets – could be props, could be
costumes, could be its own area.
• Projections – could be scenic, lights, or even
sound.
Scenography
• Scenography is a holistic approach to design. It
is the creation of a stage space as a complete
whole.
• A scenographer is called to create all or some of
the design elements and to collaborate with the
director to develop the first thoughts about a
work.
• Scenography goes beyond decoration into the
realm of creating a total unified vision of a
production.
• As the departmental designer, I am a
Scenographer.
Chain of command #1
Producer/
Board of Directors
Artistic Director
Playwright
Managing Director
Director
Production Manager
Stage Manager
Actors
Production
Budget
Scenic Designer
Costume
Designer
Technical Director
Costume Shop
Supervisor
Lighting Designer Sound Designer
Production/Master
Electrician
Sound Crew
Development
and Marketing
Box Office
Set Designer
Technical Director
Props Designer
Scenic Charge
Props Master
Scenic Artist
Props Artisan
Props Carpenter
Prop Assistants
Painters
Touch-up Artist
Scene Shop
Supervisor
Master Carpenter
Carpenters
Riggers
Stage Crew*
Deck Captain*
Deck Carpenter*
Costume Designer
Wig
Master/Hairstylist
Costume Shop
Supervisor
Dyer/Painter
Make-up designer
Cutter/Draper
Shopper
Craftsperson:
Armor
Millinery
Jewelry
Prosthetics
Make-up
Effects
Wardrobe
Mistress/Supervisor
Wardrobe Crew*
Dressers*
First Hand
Stitchers
Lighting Designer
Sound Designer
Master Electrician/
Production Electrician
Sound crew
Sound board operator*
Electrician
Deck Electrician*
Light Board Operator
Stage Manager
Assistant Stage
Managers
Production Assistants
Stage Crew
Wardrobe Mistress
Production
Stage Carpenters
Dressers
Electrician
Flymen
Light Board Op
Production Manager
Production
Assistants
Housing Manager
Sound
Crew
Sound
Board Op
Design Process
• Read the script / Analyze the script
– Once for feeling, once for fun
– Twice for images, moments, and incidents
– Three times for information
• Make notes about specifics and generals
• Prepare a list of questions
• Research
– Historical/Practical
– Precedent
– Conceptual/Emotive
• Generation
– Sketch, sketch, sketch
– Mini-models, swatches,
effects, images
– Meetings, meetings,
meetings
• Implementation (aka. Into the shop)
– Meetings, meetings, meetings
– Production model, draftings, working
drawings, paint elevations, prop drawings.
– Renderings, shopping, patterning, detailed
drawings.
– Light plot, cue sheets, hang and focus.
– Sound cue generation, cue sheets, prep the
space.
• Fruition
– Technical Rehearsal
– Dress Rehearsal
– Opening Night
– Strike
• Evaluation
– Critique
– Archive
Why study design?