Stage Design

Stage Design

• Designers create the visual and aural elements of a production

• Four major designers– Scenic Designers or

Scenographers– Costume Designers– Lighting Designers– Sound Designers

What do designers do?• Accept offers to design• Read the script for ideas

– Plot– Characters– Genre– Style– Theme– Meaning

• Research the world of the play– The Fuddy Mears world is distorted– Victorian England

• Develop initial design ideas– “unpacking”– “brain storming”– First production conference or first production meeting

• Collaborate in developing the production concept– Director’s concept or interpretation– Developing the Production Concept

• What the play will look and sound like

First draft of visual and aural designs

• Scene and costume designers– Sketchs

• Manually• CAD or Vectorworks

– Scale Model– White model– Model Box

• Lighting Designers– Storyboards

• Sound Designers– Existing sources– Build

Soft Scenery

• Flat scenery– Drapes– Hanging Fabric– Backdrops

• May be painted to look three dimensional

Soft Scenery

– Cyclorama or “cyc”• Huge white or light

gray, tightly stretched curtain attached to pipes at its top and bottom place at the back of the stage

Hard Scenery

• Flat scenery• Flats• Flats can be put together

to create– Walls– Doors– Windows– Fire places– Arches– Anything that must sustain

the illusion of a constructed surface

Dimensional Scenery

• Non flat scenery• Staircases• Ramps• Platforms• Columns • Tree trunks• Any three

dimensional scenery

Further development

• Solidify the Production Concept – Second production conference

• Finalize Designs

• Communication

• http://www.stanford.edu/group/rams-head/archives/sprshow/00/Productionmeetingagendas.html

Technical Drawings

• Complete technical drawings, charts and plots• Manually to scale

– Scale ruler• CAD or Vectorworks

– Ground Plan• Looking down on the set

– Elevation• Looking from the front

– Cross Section• Looking from the side

• http://dolphin.upenn.edu/~pacshop/graphics.html• http://www.goodmantheatre.org/About/

Production.aspx

Costumes

• Costume Drawings• List

– What the actor will wear

• Plot– What order the

costumes are worn

Lighting

• Light plot– May use the

• designer’s plans• Theatre’s plans• Draw his or her own

• Instrument Schedule– What light

• Color media– How the lights will be

gelled• Cue sheet

– All the light changes and when they happen in the script

Sound Designers

• Sound Plot– Where are the

speakers to be places

– Which channel are they connected

– Microphones

• Cue Sheet– When is each track

to be played– What microphones

are used and when

Technical Director

• Supervisor of the scene shop

• Supervises– Budgets– Schedules– Personnel– Construction and

installation of scenery

Supervise realization of designs

• Scene designers consult with technical director and scene painter

• Costume designer– Fittings

• Lighting Designer– Master Electrician– Technical Director

• Sound Designer– Sound board operator

Load in or Move in

• Stage manager• Focus the lights• Technical Rehearsal• Dress Rehearsals• Preview• Opening

Final Rehearsals

• Technical Rehearsal• Dress Rehearsals• Preview• Opening