Back in the swing

The pressure ramps up a bit now. In the face of classes, committees, and incomplete projects, the drawings have to be ready for a build by Friday. Oh, and the shop wants the paint, too. I just learned about some new furniture requirements that came out of a rehearsal. When I went without a design assignment last semester, why did I feel left out?

The creative process of developing and working through a design is gratifying. It has its frustrations, its moments when no idea seems to rise to art. Two full days of looking at pictures and sketching and reading and more sketching is not uncommon. I joke about whether "this is the time when they find out what a fraud I really am." But if it doesn't take that time, I don't trust it. And, if the answer is crisp and apt and a little surprising, it always seems to merit a response of "well, of course." I've hit the mark. Although I won't really know until I've introduced it to the director. A good director always has much to say, which prompts many changes and I return to the worktable. But the nugget is there, and the dialogue strengthens it and makes it all integral.

The struggle with my current project was to integrate the backgrounds of various scenes and two different shows into one construction. In this case, I have to drive the aesthetic. Normally, I prefer not to design for student productions, but when they can't identify a student designer that can even begin to handle the project, I feel I must take it on. Where I work, almost all students want to be stars, and that's what attracted them to program. I can't find a great deal of fault with that. I, too, started that way. I studied acting and directing and taught it for several years before finding my way into design when I had to design for my own productions. The day came when I found I could get more gratifying results from my design efforts than from my directing. And then I worked with some excellent directors. I discovered that the work of being an outstanding director required an investment and a skill set that I was less interested in developing than the satisfactions of doing good design and lighting. So I returned to school for my third degree.

As my professional life has grown in length, I have found rich satisfactions from the range of experiences. I try to pass on to students an excitement for their future and the many paths that can open before them. I'm often glad that I don't teach in a graduate program where I might have more students with more concentration and ability, but where I probably would find my own activities to be too focused.

Scenemaker
February 8, 2011