1. Scenic Design

2. All designers must read the play.
The first step….
All designers
must
read
the play.

3. Five considerations a designer must face when designing a set
The play
The director
The theater and its physical facilities
The budget (time and money)
The experience and ability of the crew

4. Questions that must be answered before a designer can begin work
Where does the play take place?
Country
City
Interior or exterior
Place
Cottage
House
Castle
Forest

5. Questions that must be answered before a designer can begin work
When does the play take place?
The period
The year
The season
Night or day

6. Questions that must be answered before a designer can begin work
What is needed to stage the action?
Doors
Windows
Furniture
Chairs
Tables
Shelves

7. Questions that must be answered before a designer can begin work
What is the style of the play?
Realistic/Representational – tries to create an illusion of reality
Presentational – emphasizes theatricality and acknowledges the theater as a theater – a “backdrop” behind the performer

8. Questions that must be answered before a designer can begin work
What is the tone of the play?
Light or dark
Warm or cool

9. Four areas of influence
The stage floor – ramps, steps, platforms
The general background – walls, wings and borders, backdrops
The specific units of scenery – doors, windows, rocks, trees
The furniture and/or set props – chairs, benches, beds, tables, shelves

10. Designer and Director
The director has the artistic concept for the production
Designers meet with the director to hear the concept and work together to realize the vision of the director.
Directors have the final say in all designs.

11. The theatre space Types of stages
Proscenium – like a picture frame, the audience sits on one side to watch the action through the frame.

12. Proscenium stage

13. Proscenium stage

14. Arena Stage
Sometimes called in the round because the audience sits on all four sides of the stage.

15. Arena stage

16. Thrust stage
A combination of arena and proscenium . Audience sits on two or three sides of the acting area.

17. Thrust stage

18. Flexible staging
An acting area can be anywhere. The director may choose to perform at an outdoor venue or in any space that would work for a theater production.

19. Read and take notes from Theater: Art in Action pgs on types of stages, theater space layout and terms and stage areas and pgs on technical theatre, the emergence of the design team, elements of production design, and set design/plans/models.
Turn in your notes!

20. The sketches
Designers present sketches to the director with their ideas for the set, costumes, make-up etc..
There is usually further discussions about the design sketches and the directors artistic concept.
The preliminary sketches are called thumbnail sketches as are rough ideas often in pencil.

21. Designers idea books
Designers keep idea or scrapbooks of pictures that they may find useful in their research for a production.
These are called morgues. Each show may have their own morgue (collection of pictures of various time period furniture, tress etc..)

22. The designer morgue project
Homework: Create a set designer collection of 10 pictures that will guide you with ideas for your set design for Cinderella. (total points 20)
You can find the pictures in magazines, newpapers or online.
Include title of show, time period or style of show and your names with the date.

23. Working Drawings vs Presentational Material
Working drawings – the “blueprints”
Floor plan
Front/Rear elevation
Detail drawings
Used by the production crews to build paint, and assemble the set on stage

24. Floor Plan Ground Plan
The floor plan/ground plan is used by the crew to locate the set on the stage floor.

25. Symbols used for doors, windows, flat, steps and platforms

26. Designer’s Elevation
A Designer’s Elevation is a front view of each individual piece of scenery. The designer’s elevations are used by the shop crew to determine the height and architectural detail of each scenic unit.

27. Painter’s Elevation
A Painter’s Elevation is a copy of the front elevation which has been rendered to indicate the color and painting techniques which are to be applied to the final set.

28. Elevation

29. Rear Elevation
A rear elevation is a scaled drawing of the back of the scenery. It is the guide used by the shop carpenters to build the setting.

30. Working Drawings vs Presentational Material
Rendering or scale model

31. What is a rendering?
A rendering is a colored sketch of the finished set as it will appear, under light, to an audience member seated in the center of the house.

32. Which will best help the director understand the stage space with which he/she has to work?
A scale model

33. Virtual Model
On a computer, the two dimensional world of the ground plan and elevation can be extruded into a three dimensional world. The virtual model can be viewed in perspective from the front, side, top, and back.

34. Examples