Launching a Design Project

Back into theater design again. I just left a design class where a student was complaining about the 2 to 3 hours he spent working on a model for Marlowe's Faustus. He's a good guy and really wants to get it, so I don't fault him. Somehow we don't really communicate the commitment it takes. (Perhaps because nobody would pursue it if they knew.) I told him that the design I'm working on now, a production of Sophie Treadwell's Machinal, got worked out in model last weekend - all day Friday, Saturday, and 6 hours on Sunday.

That time was just on the rough design model work. Not counting the sketching and research and conversations with the director that have taken place over the past couple of months. And it's a rough model - a design proposal, something to have a conversation about.

I explained that the advantage of model work is that it really is slow. I had done a lot of visual research and had a sense of where we wanted to go. I began with a short list of requirements that evolved as I worked, and I had a vague thumbnail of a visual idea.

I knew I needed three platformed spaces above the stage, so I cut three scale platform tops and posts to hold them up. Then I worked out the access. I also created the slipstage for scene changes I knew I'd need. I had already discussed most of the furniture needs and how the changes might be done (emphasis on "might be") with the director. I included a required door, and I created steps - three versions before deciding we could use a spiral stair and began to research that. I went back to the research and did some doodling to develop the look, then began constructing the model pieces to make it work.

This is designing in the model and it is a slow, evolving design process. In the following design meeting with the director we worked out more of the detail and flagged problems for scene changes and properties. The build TD was able to look at the model and flag problems he saw. The model doesn't show the final ideas but it leads to conversations about requirements and alternatives. Discussion begins on budget, materials choices, alternatives for positioning elements, the build sequence, and acquiring materials and a spiral stair. And things I failed to allow for.

So the director and the stage manager have the very rough model to work from for blocking and directing traffic. I have the feedback I need to begin working on the draftings for the design. I doubt that I will have time to do a finish model. Since the show is to be done in shades of gray, I really don't need to do a scenic sketch for painting. I may paint a construction elevation just to work out a pattern of grays, but I won't need a full scenic sketch. In a thrust stage arrangement, a perspective view is pretty artificial anyway.

This is how a design begins in a good way.

Scenemaker