Where to begin 1: The circumstances

I wonder how other stage designers begin working on a show - a design. I teach a nice linear process that nobody uses - the students or myself. I have a career of designs behind me and I'm still looking for the magic bullet of insight. We all have shows of which we are proud, and some we list only to show the breadth of our work.

I think anybody that has worked for a while has a certain collection of rituals for teasing out the show. When I ask some other designers, I usually get a kind embarrassed mumble about reading and researching and sketching.

This is the first of three (or more) entries on how the design collaboration works for me. I welcome any comment.

However we go about designing a show, the beginning phase usually comes down to working out a requirements list of some sort, and then coming to terms with the amount of work the director already has done. That varies greatly with the production circumstances.

Some of my most gratifying experiences have been spending up to a year talking with a director about a show. With that time frame, the director is not a long distance out in front of you with ideas. It also helps if you both have a commitment to making it a special experience.

Although I work in an academic environment, that kind of development time is a luxury. You can get the calendar time, but you still have many intervening preoccupations unrelated to the show or to theater, and you may not be able to do the homework to keep up with the director.

The second-best experience is working early with a director with whom you are in sympathy. Some of my best work has been with a director whose approach to shows and concepts of performance fit well with the kind of theater I like to make. Regardless, if those factors aren't true, then I have to pretend they are.

I have a different relationship with a design that is handed to me by the director. Usually it arises from the director's focus on how to achieve certain moments or effects. A few directors just want to do the script from the acting edition - not very gratifying work for me.

If the director does have a vision to which she is committed, my job is to develop that. It is so much better than me playing "guess what will work." In the end, it is much easier for me and the show can be tightly choreographed. But I'm less enthusiastic about being relegated to set decorator.

The question is, when and how do you connect with the director? It's a very busy world we live in and they can't always wait for me. I've had to learn to think two or three shows ahead - six months to a year, and start asking questions early. It does require multi-tasking and having multiple designs in development at the same time.

I can realize a design in 4 to 6 weeks from first discussions, but in that circumstance, the director has already made conceptual commitments when we start. That's the summer theater approach and I believe that it usually encourages conventional ideas. It's not the kind of theater I prefer to do.

scenemaker
January 14, 2011

Next: "Making the List"