Set Design

 Our word theatre is derived from Greek word theatron, a” seeing place” or “place for watching”
o Involves both performers and spectators. Environment enables actors 2 bring script 2 life
 Theatrical environment reduced to two basic categories:
o Buildings or location in which theatre takes place, and dramatic world within
o Buildings have a range of functions but have permanence. The dramatic world is created
afresh for each production. Complex relationship has a bearing on choices made in
producing a play for performance
 Success of theatre building depends on three basic demands:
o Facilities for audience (entrance/exits, lobby, restroom, seating
o The stage and its equipment and control rooms or booths
o Work and support spaces like dressing rooms and construction shops, storage
o Parts that serve audience given highest priority from an architectural standpoint
 The seating or House being the most important
 Economic considerations drive architect to maximize capacity by many seats
 Stage will be visible and performers audible, seating comfortable and
insulated
 Theatre has developed since Athens, Greece in the fifth century BCE
o Moved from outside in sun and weather, to indoors where environment is controlled
o Emergence of illusionistic realism of modern drama and fine attention to scenic detail
wouldn’t have happened without development of proscenium theatre
o Advances of technology like gas lighting allowed a lit stage while auditorium was dark,
through video effects and computerized mechanics like Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark or
War Horse. Even have holographic projections in their “seeing place”

Types of Theatres

 Today, design of most theatre buildings falls into four fundamental types
o Proscenium, the thrust, the arena, and the black box
o Proscenium theatre is the most common and well known arrangement today, taking its
name from proscenium arch, frames the stage and separates audience/performer
 Viewed from the front of the stage, acts as a picture frame
 “Fourth wall” concept; audience views action of play through invisible wall
 Often a curtain for changing scenery
  Space behind the performance area is Backstage
 Either side of stage are the wings, and the area above the playing space is fly
space or flies, where scenery is raised or lowered with pulleys/lines
 Masking: black draperies around performance area that limit what the audience
can see, part of proscenium theatre
 Hides lighting and sound equipment, scenery, and provides enter/exits
 The Thrust Theatre projects forward so audience surrounds on three sides
o “Front” is somewhat problematic, actors may present their backs to audience
o May seem more “natural” but there is an expectation of performers being “on display”
when seen on stage, and performers may be directing to different parts of audience
 The Arena stage requires scenic elements to be handy on stage for speed
o Changes are carried out in full view of the audience
o Theatre technology is partially visible to audience, requires provisions for hiding
o “Theatre in the round”, no part of the stage is considered the front, no backstage
o Equipment presence is accepted. Audience may be in tiers, or stage may be raised
 The Black Box theatre has few fixed features, can be arranged into any configuration
o Spaces are disconnected from performance areas.
o True black box is an empty room with no designated stage, backstage, or offstage
o Lighting and sound are in plain sight
o Audience seating is temporary
o Performance space is determined by need of production, floor or raised
 Black box is small and utilized for experimental shows
 Often warehouse, school, or office building (different purpose building)
 Advantages and disadvantages
o Proscenium offers realism by viewing dramatic world through picture frame without
seeing audience members in back. Easy enters and exits behind masking
 Sightlines (The unobstructed view from the audience) is easily controlled,
equipment isn’t seen on stage. Easy scenic changes.
 Give “two dimensional” quality to dramatic world, depth of stage is difficult to
estimate, and performers always direct their efforts toward the front stage
o Arena and thrust theatres allow “three dimensionally” but audience must see from 3-4
seating areas.
 Scenery is limited.
 Performers must always be cognizant that they are watched from different
directions, directors blocking must arrange so no bad view

Setting the Stage

 Actors and directors are associated with the dramatic world, they are users of it
 Set design should not only be pleasing to eye, but functional, evocative, and part of production
concept. Set expresses dramatic world as kinetic space
o Set movements convey rhythm and pace of production, set becomes part of
performance through actors interactions with its elements
 The role of the set in performance and design is a fairly recent development
o Globally, scenery reflects a sense of and respect for continuity
 Chinese opera use two chairs, table and a rug to convey any setting
 Japanese noh use Shinto shrine with polished cypress floor, distinctive curved
roof with four pillars and a painted tree.
 Actors in full mask can orient themselves. Audience knows pillars
associate with different characters
 Similarities between Western and Asian until middle of nineteenth century.
o Western theatre has privileged innovation for audience expectations and successful
patterns, rather than preserving historical practices
o Scenic elements in West were not seen as critical until the eighteenth century
 They were result of pragmatic financial considerations and not artistic analysis
 Theatre of Asia and Europe originated in a context of festival and ritual, influencing the look
o Theatres of Greece were temporary for City Dionysia, annual religious festival
o Theatre use remained tied to the festivals
o Décor and specific locale wasn’t important in Greek Theatre, buildings behind stages
were the scenery. Doorways indicated houses or palaces
 Left stage was the harbor while right stage led to the city
 Place was supported by costumes worn and language of the plays
 Romans adapted the Greek approach to theatre design and practices
o However, they built structures more elaborate and ornate
o Theatre in Rome was disconnected religiously from Greece, they didn’t need detailed
scenery
o After fall of Roman Empire, theatre was performed but in lighter and transportable form
that could adapt easily to different social environments
 Theatre began to reemerge in middle of eleventh century called the late medieval period
o Spread Christianity and Bible to illiterates through dramatizations of stories on festival
days on the liturgical calendar, with scripture as a pantomime by priests/monks
 Used clerical objects and attire to recall Nativity or the Resurrection
 These plays turned into original dramas – plays based on Christian teachings but
not Scripture – and by thirteenth century performed outside of church. Needed
a dramatic world
 Performances involved entire community on the few occasions with large populace such as
market or trade fairs, and certain feast days
o Several short plays about biblical story in sequence. Actors were drawn from community
 Actors rarely performed in more than one play
o To make more accessible to community, two approaches
 Fixed stages were open surrounded by small scenic units as biblical locales. The
open space was platea and the small spaces were mansions and actors would
enter the platea from their mansion. This gave sense of place
  Second approach: plays were on a special wheeled platform called pageant
wagon or pageant drawn place to place. Pageant could be elaborate with space
under the stage specified to specific play/story.
 Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre was built around a large open stage, requiring little
scenic elaboration
 One of the earliest theatres of the Renaissance was Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza Italy desigined by
Andrea Palladio
o Audience area arranged as a semicircle open to a broad raised stage backed by a
scaenae frons, a three story façade found in Roman theatres
 Renaissance designers displayed creative flexibility
o The Teatro Farnese opened in Parma but the audience was an elongated horse shoe
shape with stage in the middle. First appearance of a proscenium arch, scenery became
an inescapable part of theatre and design had importance
 Sebastiano Serlio publicized Architettura which was about three stock settings
o Inspired by periaktoi, a triangular prism with three different painted scenes
o Stock is a set design guided by genre of the play
 All scenes had right angles and straight lines so shapes converged toward a
central vanishing point.
 Many theatres slope the floor so it is “raked”
 Buildings were farther than they actually were, painted smaller
 System was popular and used throughout Europe
 Set designs as a profession would not arrive until mid-nineteenth century
o Scenic demands were handled by skilled painters
 Two major developments in nineteenth century challenged painted scenery
o Box Set – represented an interior space by enclosing the stage with three walls of scene
 Interact in a “natural” manner with their dramatic environment
o Rise of intense attention to historical accuracy in production and scene design
 Actual historical artifacts were acquired for use in performance, if not, facsimiles
were constructed to look like originals
 Overtime, set designer became a more important member
o Starting early twentieth century, demand in artists who understood principles and
demands of mounting a theatrical production
o Realism was dominant, but turmoil after World War II changed style

Process
 A set designer’s first experience of a new play is reading of the script
o Set designer must be good at script analysis to dig for characters environments
o Set designer creates the dramatic world of the play. Must be affordable and practical
 Site-specific are theatrical works presented outside traditional theatre spaces
o Performances devised specifically for a found space are capable of more complexity
o 2007 Waiting for Godot was presented in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans after Katrina.
o 2012 Andre Chenier was built on Lake Constance, Austria for the Bregenz Festpiel
 Based on painting The Death of Mart, depicting Jean Paul Marat in bathtub
o 2010 We Player did Hamlet on Alcatraz to highlight justice and punishment
 o 2006 Roam at Edinburgh Airport collab between Grid Iron Theatre Company and
National Theater of Scotland moved from check in to departure nominated for Sottish
Critics Award for best Design
 Common elements of set designers are
o Establishment of time and place, materialization of a setting that elaborates details of
characters lives, circumstances, and relationships: mood and atmosphere and
relationship between audience and performance
 Set designer helps tell story through visual metaphors, facilitating dramatic action
o Audience will “read” every aspect of visual manifestation on stage for symbolic meaning
o A set designer is a scholar, researcher, sketch artist, draftsperson, model builder, and
communicator
 A set designer will first share their responses to script with creative team especially director
o Such discussions are built into production schedule as design meetings or design
conferences
 Design meetings also bring needs or preferences that set designer will have to address
o Entrances and exits, furniture, placement. Understandings of script and visual images
 Building on design discussions, set designer develops design concept, expresses production
concept as a complete plan for realizing choices made. Set becomes visual metaphor for ideas in
concrete symbolic form
o Jo Mielziner’s design of Death of a Salesman, captures claustrophobia with multi rooms
and Brooklyn bridge with small backyard, world has passed Willy by, leaving him out of
touch with place and time
 Set establishes style and tone of production through colors, arrangement, and qualities of scenic
o Today, process begins when audience takes their seats
o Common practice is to leave act curtain (main drape that separates stage and audience)
open so set is in full view and free to make assumptions
 Heavy, dark, somber might suggest tragedy
 Lighter, brighter, and airy environment might bring comedy to mind
 Julius Caesar presents Rome differently than A funny thing happened on Forum
 Style, in most basic sense, means how something is said or done (color, shape, arrangement,
texture)
o Labels like “realistic” should always be considered broad descriptors rather than a set of
criteria. Realistic might be highly illusionistic setting with full furniture
o Other style choices like expressionistic, absurdist, epic, or post modern
 “The artist should omit the details, the prose of nature, and give us only the spirt and the
splendor.” –Robert Edmond Jones, theatrical designer
 Set becomes the world of characters, so must visually convey social/political/religious rules in
which it operates. Provides insight into the peoples tastes, personalities, occupations.
o Neil Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoir’s reminds audience of economic hardships of 1930s
during Great Depression, but hopes and aspirations with realistic style with worn but
cared for furnishings family held together by bonds of love and trust
 One of the set designer’s first tasks after production concept and during design concept is
research particulars of the play
o Review of play, era and culture, lives of characters (if historical), or time and place
o Visual research, seeking out images of all sorts that represent architecture or décor
 o A picture is worth a thousand words is accepted wisdom in theatre
 Pictures used in discussions with director, before design meetings
 Set designer must be open to several different types of information
o Factual level, attention is given to objective details of the play, especially when realism
o Questions on topics such as color schemes or construction methods and materials
o Images will express ideas of production concept or spur inspiration in new direction
 In many instances, plays are “updated,” set in familiar present time and place
o Moliere’s classic Tartuffle might be set in American south instead of seventeenth century
Paris
 Set designer must research both periods, looking for “feel” of original
o Research discoveries filed away in a collection known as a “morgue”. Starting point for
new project
 As design coalesces from contemplation of research, set designer consider shape color, budgets
schedules, and architecture in which set will be located
o Common to sketch, represent ideas graphically, limits or restrictions
o Set designer may also storyboard the design by presenting a series of sketches that
show sets changes over course (Common in musical comedy)
 Set designer employs line, mass, color, texture, space, and composition
o Line: helps define edges of masses on stage and create feelings of movement or distance
(vertical, horizontal, diagonal, straight)
o Mass: size of scenic elements on stage, or amount of space they occupy
o Color: hue, (color), and saturation or depth of hue
o Texture: qualities of smoothness or roughness, variation of materials, patterns, or colors
o Space: three dimensional volume of stage, divided into positive and negative spaces,
scenic elements occupy positive, empty negative space for actors
o Composition: How scenic elements and open space between arranged with height,
width, and depth of stage space
 Different masses of color can complement or contrast, arrangement of elements can create
symmetrical or asymmetrical, balanced or unbalanced: mood and emotion.
o Vertical lines are considered imposing. Red suggests passion or anger, none are innate
but learned cultural responses
 Responsibility of technical director to determine appropriate materials and methods of
construction for realizing the set designer’s creation, most designers are familiar with both
scenic elements and building techniques
 Scenic Elements available in most theatres are
o Flats: two dimensional panels, made of canvas or thin plywood on wooden frame. Used
as interior or exterior walls or vertical expanses. Joined together to increase mass
o Platforms: large horizontal units, heavy plywood on wooden frame. Can create various
levels, can suggest a raised floor or second story, even different locations
o Wagons – Platforms on casters, permit movement of different levels around the stage
space. Transports bodies in The Oresteia or quick scene change
o Turntable, or Revolve – circular platform, pivots around its center, revealing different
aspects to audience at different times. Handy scene change device, some older theatres
have turntables built into the stage
o Step Units and Stairways – provides access to different levels or platforms
 o Drops – Large fabric panels lifting entire vertical expanse of stage behind performance
 Backdrops – canvas or muslin painted to represent locale, may be painted many
 Cyclorama – seamless canvas, white or blue, creates “sky” or wash of color
o Scrim – large loosely woven expanse of fabric appear opaque when lit from the front
(audience) side, yet transparent when lit from behind
 Today, set designers have technology like projections, lasers, and automated mechanics
o Many Broadway hits would not have been possible without tech innovations
 Set designers penultimate step is communicating myriad details of design to technicians and
artisans who bring it to life.
o Most important are spatial arrangement of scenic elements like stage space, dimensions
of elements, colors and textures and changes. Furnishings and decorations set
 Some theatres have a props designer who assists set designer, but set designer must include
furniture, carpets, draperies, lighting fixtures, and decorative items like paintings and
memorabilia. Memorabilia helps audience understand characters lives.
o Cat on a Hot Tin Roof college pennant on wall recalls happier days
 In finalized form, sketches can become renderings and become the guide for the set
o Dimensions of scenic elements are technical and are conveyed mathematically
o AutoCAD and VectorWorks are programs that provide formal drawings
 Two special types of mechanical drawings
o Groundplan – represents stage looking down on it from above
o Elevation - represents stage looking at it from one side
 Both include dimensions of each object
 A cube would be shown with 4 elevation views and a top down, then an inversion of groundplan
called reflected plan to show the bottom.
 Most used mechanical drawing is groundplan. Shows outlines of walls stage and audience area.
o Shows furnishings, storage locations,
o Groundplan valuable for lighting designer, using it to place lighting equipment, and
sound designer
o Paint elevations – elevation drawings portraying surfaces of scenic elements that will be
visible and colored and used as guides , convey final look
 Set designer might build a three dimensional rendering useful to director
o Blocking problems can be worked out.
o Full model is accurately painted and furnished. Theatre keeps models as portfolio
o Sketches may be used by marketing department for advertisements/posters
 Once design is recorded graphically or complete model, technical director and technicians and
artisans bring it into being. Technical director oversees all aspects of engineering and fabricating
the scenic elements and installing them.
o Technical director oversees operation of scene shop or construction
o Work done by scenic carpenters led by master carpenter includes raw materials and
assembling
 Metalworking, welding, molding and carving
o Constructed scenic elements are finished by painting crew under guidance of charge
artists skilled painters and apply finishes
 For set designer, telling the play’s story and making the telling as clear and comprehensible as
possible is the prime objective.
o The work of the set designer is an embodiment of the production concept
Sound Design: Interview with Richard Woodbury
 Richard Woodbury is a composer, sound designer, and educator working theatre. Worked as
music director at Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago professor and Distinguished Faculty
Artist. 2012 Resident Sound Designer at Chicago’s renowned Goodman Theatre
o Role of sound designer is make storytelling more potent
 Two divisions of labor
 Hear the actors, provide additional sonic content enhances storytelling
o First thing he does is read the script, without any other consideration other than
reading. Story and characters.
 Reads again thinking of place and practical issues, sounds, contribution.
Environments? Transitions of sound or music
o Most designers are composers in Chicago and less so in New York
 Sound designers pick up compositional skills and apply them to their craft
o He was a composer and that led him to sound design
 Not trained specifically at all
o Works with several Directors and has a teaching position
o Favorite in terms of sonic content was A True History of the Jonestown Flood. 2 minutes
of just sound.
 Desire under the Elms eight minutes of music
o Does his research unless he’s writing the music, doesn’t like recreating, but uses instrum
o The tools of sound designer are his ears, Pro Tools (digital audio workstation) recorders
and microphones, records his own sound effects, Digital Performer
o Likes sitting with an audience
 Payoff is seeing how it affects them

Costume Design
 Costume designers create the entire visual identity of a character
o Body shape, hair, and makeup all give clues to audience about character and world
 Helps tell story in nonverbal way
 Every story has a setting in which it takes place. Defined, partially, or not at all
o Director and designers must make choices that define the world of the play
o Clothing has many functions, like protection from elements
 Clothing helps indicate geographic location
 Clothing functions as a statement about the wearer based on money spent, trends, society
o We attach meaning to those choices based upon our own understanding
o Flannel and jeans conveys a more rural location/activity
o Costume designer helps indicate when story is taking place. Visual cues orient setting
 Costume designer provides visual cues about characters such as gender, age, social status
o Can provide insight into relationships between characters and emotional states
o Colors evoke emotion/symbolism – red anger/passion, purple royalty
o Society creates rules about appropriate clothing which can be followed/broken
o Costume designer imparts information about characters through clothing choices
 Costume designer carefully selects from many choices available to provide the visual image of
the character that will best tell the story
 Sometimes, character is not specific person, but rather visual representation of idea
o Costume designer makes choices based upon personal and societal meanings we attach
to visual cues. Designer however may choose to evoke a feeling, create atmosphere, or
visualize an idea of something relevant to the story.
 Operating on more emotional and instinctive than rules or fashion society
 Visual images that assist in telling the story
 Choices begin with the script, first study the script, then what they want audience to feel
o Director and designers work together to approach visual elements unique to prod
o Photos, paintings, or music can spark an idea
o Research required about specific time periods events or locations
 Decide whether to represent reality.
 Collaborative process results in unique to production design/concept
 Costume designer must always base his or her designs on what supports design approach and
creates the world of the play. Choices affected by practical elements
o Most basic practical element is number of characters and different costumes
 Compiled into a costume plot or list. Determine specific costume needs
 Whether performers must change costumes and how much time to do so
 Running dancing fighting and gestures impact particular choices of design
 After artistic foundation, costume designer must visualize specific choices for costume
o Goal is to visually represent the physical appearance of the play’s characters
o Designers create artwork to communicate their intentions called costume renderings, a
series of sketches, paintings, or collages

 Many designers compile research to accompany this artwork

o Magazines, photos, illustrations, and portraits. Some use swatches, examples of colors,
textures, and fabrics they wish to use.
 Conceptualization and visual representation is only half. Ideas must be turned into reality
o Requires many people,
o For every production, particular amount of time, money, and labor is available/required
o Costumes are sometimes created, or existing garments are used
Costume Personnel
 Costume Designer – conceptualizes look of all performers and creates visual representations or
renderings. Guides realization of design through production and rehearsal process
 Assistant Costume Designer – Assist designer in conceptualization phase through research or
illustration. Assists through sourcing of materials, organization, budgeting, scheduling, meetings
 Costume Shop Manager – oversees realization of design into physical garments. Acquiring
materials, scheduling/conducting fittings, hiring personnel, budgeting, and organizing info
 Cutter/Draper or Patternmaker – uses renderings provided by designer to create or alter
physical costumes. Creates pattern that is used to cut out and assemble. Oversees construction,
fitting, and finishing the garment
 First Hand – assists cutter/draper. Altering patterns cutting fabric oversees stitchers
 Stitcher – sews the garments
 Craftsperson – creates or modifies elements of costumes that requires skills in millinery, armor,
dyeing, painting, distressing and jewelry
 Wardrobe Supervisor – oversees appearance of performance during rehearsals and
performances oversees maintenance of costumes during run time of show
 Dressers/Wardrobe Crew – assists performers in wearing and changing of costumes during
rehearsals and performances, clean and maintain costumes
 Wig Designer – conceptualizes look of hairstyles in collaboration with costume designer
 Wig Supervisor - oversees appearance of performers’ hair during rehearsal and performance
 Wig Run Crew – applies wigs and facial hair to performers during rehearsals and performance
 Makeup Designer – conceptualizes creates visual makeup with costume designer, application is
handled by performer or makeup artist

 Rendering becomes a blueprint. Process involves creating a mockup – a version of garment

made out of inexpensive fabric. Allows designer to see how fits, and allows adjustments
o Costume Designer is involved in selecting the fabrics. Must fulfill visual representation
 If costumes aren’t created, existing are pulling, borrowing, buying, and renting
o Theatres maintain a stock of costumes from previous where they can pull
o Costume designer must coordinate all costume items
 Ultimate goal is for costumes to be worn by actors onstage
o Fitting – each costume is tried on the actor and adjustments for image of character
 How it fits, actor can move, accessories, makeuphairstyle, renderingscome 2 life

 Visual representation made up of choices, and must be replicated each night onstage.
o Must be documented: common are costume plot and a pieces list of every item used
o Wardrobe crew responsible for dressing actors, making sure they match design,
maintaining costume look for each performance. Laundry/maintenance
 Last step is costume designer to see everything come together during dress rehearsals
o Allow them to see this world for the first time.
 Refinements can be made or whole new ideas reenvisioned.
Costuming Fantasy and Reality: Conversation with designer
Stacey Galloway
 When did you know you were first interested in costume design
o Thinking about what to be for Halloween. College friends in theatre.
 Knew how to sew so took costuming class
 First Design? Work-study job, first was Waiting for Godot. Didn’t know what was doing
o Talked to director and make it happen on stage
 Favorite period or type of show?
o No, something interesting about every project
 Any advice for someone interested in costume?
o Have passion for costume history and history in general, psychology, visual arts
o Not an easy business, not a lot of money. Passionate about story telling, creation of
characters
 First thing she does is read the script and again and again
o First read feeling of story, setting aside costumes. Experience as audience
o Second read is about design
 After reading, creating costume plot (spreadsheet of every scene in production, character,
scenes look like), talk with director, research period and style, and visuals
 Musical Nine, how are musicals different from straight plays costume perspective
o More complex, don’t get to know characters, more background people. Transition
through different scenes
o For ensemble, creating feeling of a scene that gives audience info about location and
setting and mood of the number
 Nine based on life of Federico Fellini, Italian film director, fantasy and realism, is about Guido and
interactions with women in his life,
o The Grand Canal movie creating about Casanova iconic Italian lover
o Costumes was to show difference between reality and fantasy show world
 Challenging to create difference between realistic and fantasy
 Historical reference for movie he was making, not Guido’s life
 Distinct surrealism to help audience understand movie reflects stresses in his lif
 Colors and styles that refer to other colors and styles
o The Grand Canal and then The Grand Canal Reprise. Casanova was in Venice
 Venice is romantic but has an ugly side like Guido’s relationships, women are making life more
complicated
o Venice is known for Carnival, like Mardi Gras, masks big celebration
o Grand Canal costumes morph into threatening by a color change, started with white
o Shapes of circus and circus coloration in exaggeration
o Concrete after sketched went through a lot of discussion with director
 Tossed a design and started over. Yes, sometimes doesn’t work out. Costume choice must serve
the story or no point in having it

Lighting Design
  Lighting allows audience to see world of play, but reveal what must be seen and hide what needs
to be hidden. Subtly influence perceptions of audience and transport them from one magical
place to the next, time of day

Functions of Lighting
 Lighting designer works with five basic principles, functions of lighting (the visual vocabulary the
lighting designer uses to communicate with the audience)
o Selective visibility – revealing what the audience needs to see and the manner
o Composition: Directing the eye of audience to particular place or places on stage
 Composition begins with scene designer places on stage, director places actors,
then lighting designer guides audience’s eye
o Revelation of form: altering shape is one of greatest powers of lighting designer,
maintain constant three dimensional presence
o Establishing the mood – inescapable feature of light, color shape and visibility must be
used to establish tone of a scene
o Reinforcing the theme: lighting of scene must support action of the scene, helps convey
themes of the play
 Greatest mistakes a lighting designer can make are ignoring these functions of lighting, enhance
audience’s viewing and interpretation.
o Ignoring them will confuse and cloud the play’s meaning

The Lighting Designer

 Lighting designer someone who strives to paint with light, capture meaning and intent of a
scene.
o Spends time paying attention to light, shadow, highlight, and shade, recreate effects of
natural light and color for an audience.
o Tries to bring natural world to life on stage in order to highlight meaning
 A team player and collaborative artist. Actor director and costume designers bring their work to
stage before lighting designer.
o Lighting designer begins working until end of design process. Must be highly involved to
unify elements of production
 Cannot complete tasks without a support team
o An assistant lighting designer helps communication between lighting designer and
production team as well as paperwork. Must be incredibly organized to keep lighting
designer on task to make sure everything is on time

 Theatre will have a master electrician working for them

o Responsible for physical implementation of lighting designers work, making sure
everything is hung and focused correctly, working, supplies are purchased
o Supplies other support staff that may be needed

Brief History of Stage Lighting

o Many texts on lighting design do not take the past into account
 o Greek and Roman theatre only assumed that plays took place during the day
 Torches and shiny pieces of mica used to redirect light entering theatre
 Allowed actors and moments to be highlighted like modern lighting
o Similar practices continued until sixteenth century
o Theatre experienced rebirth at dawn of Renaissance
o Theatres began using chandeliers and oil lamps hung on walls to light stage
o Early 1600s, theatre practitioners began to use reflectors to intensify effects of candles and
lamps to light the stage. Later, theatres used candles or oil lamps at front edge of stage as
footlights. Then placed in wings
o Created serious fire hazard, many theatres were burned down because of this
o 1792, William Murdock distilling gas from coal, inventing new illumination
o Gas quickly moved into theatres and other public spaces
o Improvement, it provided brighter and cleaner burning source of light, easily
controllable
o Posed a fire hazard and produced heat and odor
o Urinetown used footlights to give actors faces a ghastly menacing appearance
o 1879, Thomas Edison developed a practical incandescent lamp, or light bulb
o Many lamps are variations of Edison light bulb
o By 1900, many theatres had converted to electricity using incandescent lamps
o At first, electricity did not change the way lighting operated.
o After first circuit board electronics, stage lighting improved the second half of twentieth
century.
o 1975 the first computerized lightboard – a specialized piece of computer equipment
designed and used to control theatrical lights – was used on Broadway by Tharon
Musser in her groundbreaking lighting design for A chorus Line
o Since intro of computer technology, lighting has changed as much as computer market
o Each new generation of lightboard can process faster, control more lights, and interface
easier
o Lighting instruments are brighter and more energy efficient. Automated fixtures have
been introduced to theatre. LEDs are being introduced. Energy efficient, produce less
heat, and very controllable

Lighting Pioneers
o Adolphe Appia son of a physician who supported music but disliked theatre cause of Calvinist
views
o Studied music including operas of Richard Wagner. Didn’t like their staging, two
dimensional scenery and lack of unity
o Wanted to blend acting with staging, lighting, and music to help create depth
o Use of three dimensional scenery and lighting to artistically unify a theatrical piece
revolutionized stage and lighting
 o Standley McCandless – father of modern lighting, developed McCandless Method
o Published his method in A Method of Lighting the Stage in 1932
o Theory was that light cast on the actor from a forty five degree angle enhanced visibility
and appeared natural. 2 lights at 45 degree angles aimed at the front of an actor, one
with warm tint and one with cool tint. Still used today
o Jean Rosenthal – first professional lighting designer, studies light with McCandless
o First resident designer for Metropolitan Opera in New York
o Worked when women were not accepted as professionals backstage
o Well known for her work with the Martha Graham dance company.
o Her lighting techniques for dance have become standard
o Tharon Musser – began in 1956 lighting Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night
o Pioneer in her field. Nominated for ten Tony Awards and won three
o Known for her introduction of the computerized lighting board to Broadway
o Jennifer Tipton – Unified the field of lighting design in her work in theatre
o Since 1969, best known for use of white light and how it shapes the space

The Design Process

o Once a designer is hired, they receive a copy of the script and music if musical
o First step is analysis, reading several times
o First reading is for a sense of plot and characters
o Second and third readings are used to see where lighting can enhance specific scenes
o Meetings is where highlights can be sicussed
o Textual analysis leads lighting designer to second step in design process: research phase
o The Heiress by Ruth and Augustus Goetz in 1880 uses gas lighting , designer might look
at what the fixtures look like and what color it produces
o Lighting designer looks for visuals that support their ideas about mood, atmosphere,
composition and theme. Images help convey ideas between team
o What they want a scene or moment to look like
o Arthur Miller’s All My Sons have light through trees to a family home and mentions tree
o After production team agrees on certain images and ideas, the lighting designer moves onto
specific visuals for scenes or moments
o Light sketches, or create CAD renderings for specific moments of visual interest
o Sketches help further conversation between team

o Design and production team meets regularly, couple times a week, virtually or in person
o As long as there is a free flow of communication and information is shared regularly
o After production ideas are finalized, lighting designer can move onto production stage
o Producing a light plot in order for the master electrician to hang lights in the appropriate
places to make the lighting designer’s vision happen on stage
 Will provide three important pieces: which part stage light should be focused,
what color it should have, and how it is controlled
o Color is created by a gel, a colored plastic filter placed in front of a lighting instrument
o Control is achieved by assigning each light a channel number helping designer identify
the purpose of instrument
 o “I can make you cry, excited, jump to your feet, by doing a light cue in the right way, I can change
the emotions of what audience sees” –Ken Billington, lighting designer
o Supporting paperwork is produced with all lighting instruments and their channel numbers, their
order and gel colors. Helps provide info for master electrician
o Master electrician makes information in plot into reality in theatre space
o Final step of design process is the cuing of the show. A Cue is a change in lighting on stage. Cuing
a show is defining how and when the stage lighting will change
o Lighting designer will watch several rehearsals in order to understand action happening
in each scene on stage
o Cues are refined during each technical and dress rehearsal until everything meets the
satisfaction of the lighting designer

The Tools of a Lighting Designer

o Lighting designer works with lighting instruments and the lightboard.
o The modern lightboard, aka lighting control console, is a highly specialized computer
o Controls level or amount of light that each fixture puts out
 Designer can control and dramatically change look of light on stage
o All have purpose of controlling the light output of fixtures on a stage
o Many types of lighting fixtures
o PAR fixtures, Fresnels, ERSs, cyc lights, and automated fixtures.
o Hog 4 Lighting Console used to control automated fixtures
o Classic Palette II used to control conventional and automated fixtures
o PAR fixtures (parabolic aluminized reflector lamps) are a mainstay
o Referred to as PAR cans
o must be placed in a housing to secure it in place. Can refers to round extruded metal
housing that absorbs extra light. Looks like a coffee can painted black
o Oval beam, nearly twice as tall as it is wide. Direction only adjusted physically changing
lamp. Size of beam is changed by changing housing
 Very narrow, narrow, medium, and wide. Width is determined by glass
o Quality of light is harsh, output and beam difficult to control. Limited control and
brightness make the PAR good for onstage lighting.
o Indestructible. Good for touring and popular among concerts

o Fresnel invented by August Jean Fresnel. Invented for use in lighthouses

o Takes plano-convex lens (lens with one curved side and one flat side) and cuts curved
steps into the curved side to reduce thickness and weight
o Soft edge and smooth illumination. Soft shadows without harsh edges, blends easy
o Few other controllable properties, difficult to use other than over stage, scattered light
would provide too much illumination in auditorium
o The ellipsoidal reflector spotlight, or ERS is the workhouse of lighting world
o More features and flexibility than any other conventional fixture on market
o Source 4 designed by ETC (electronic theatre controls) is industry standard
o Contains shutters that can be used to shape the beam of light and has a barrel through
which light passes changing quality of light. Designer controls sharpness and softness
 o Pattern can be projected with gobo, small template of steel or glass placed in center
o Cyc lights special lighting units made to light up painted backdrop or cyclorama.
o Cyclorama is a large smooth piece of seamless fabric made to catch light and spread
light, used as backdrop
o Spread large wash of light evenly over the area its focused
o Units called cells come individually or in a group of two to four, controlled from
lightboard, provide great flexibility and diversity, can make quick changes of mood and
scene
o Automated lights used in concert for many years and now making appearance in theatre
o Provide variety of option in colors, gobos, and focus areas all in one instrument
o Only needs to know how to program one
o Will have specific purposes. Some are wash fixtures, lights that cast large even field of
light. Others to highlight specific people or objects at specific times, special effects, and
draw audience attention. Change color and move with push of a button
o Lighting is becoming more advanced and efficient. Making new LED fixtures

The Toys
o Gobos, fog machines, hazers, strobe lights, black lights, and projectors. Can enhance mood and
meaning of a theatrical experience
o Gobos can create texture or realistic object like a tree. Made out of circles of steel but now glass
for sharper detail.
o Fog machines or hazers enhance look of scene pumping safe chemicals into atmosphere to
replicate conditions onstage. Can create dense white fog, direct eye with light cast through fog
o Dry ice foggers create low lying fog mimicking steam rising from ground, hazers will fill
theatre with mist mimicking a humid day.
o Mist allows light beams to be visible to audience
o Disco balls and strobe lights and projectors, appropriated to create special effects
o Strobe light can create lighting effect, but originally developed by Harold Edgerton to
freeze objects in motion in order to capture their image on film
 Can cause epilepsy
o Disco balls or mirror balls or glitter balls reflecting surfaces. Slowly rotate.
o Used in dance halls early part of nineteenth century
o Dream world full of stars or night sky are possible uses
o All lighting is a form of projection. Projectors are becoming common lighting tools
o Projectors allow lighting to provide scenery
 Large blank surfaces can create variety of looks
o Organizations are investing in projection designers whose job is to create and program
all projections used in a show

Computers and Design: AutoCAD and Other Programs

o What used to be created with pencil and paper can now be completed in a fraction of the time
using computer programs.
o Adobe Photoshop and AutoCAD to create light renderings
o Theatre specific programs
o Nemetschek’s Vector works for Lighting Design, Lightwright, WYSIWYG
  2 and 3 dimensional drawing capabilities
 Rendering to see what it might look like on stage
o No longer does light designer have to waste time and manpower
o Can now use computer generated model
o Can work from home

Set Design
Mihai Ciupe UF Professor is an internationally renowned scene designer

 Where you get your ideas?

o Starts with reading script and talking to director. What kind of environment and practical
requirements. Researches a specific period
o Most important: don’t copy reality, create a specific reality, focus on message and
subject. Tries with design to reinforce meaning. Not copy, but use what he can
o Get inspiration from looking at images in magazines photo albums, street, everywhere,
movie
 What are the tools you use to present your ideas
o Model, scale model, renderings (3 dimensional space), sketches, color model (Very
detailed).
o Shows texture, color schemes, color schemes,
 How do your designs become reality?
o The shop. Complex organism built by technical director. Picks drawings and turns them
into technical drawings, and hands them to carpenters that build the show
 Use his drawings. Produce it in shop from wood metal and materials he specifies
 What do you enjoy about your work?
o Never doing the same thing twice. Show environment and set was never same
o Creative process was never the same. Freedom and freshness
o Did Romeo and Juliet twice but not the same
 Where might a scene designer work?
o Not always theatre, interior design, designing posters, web page, parks and recreation,
firms companies. Lots of skills applicable in different areas. Painting skills, creating space
and three dimensional ability to work with color shape and line.
 Care to share with THE 2000 students?
o Call his office or email him

David Korins talks about his work on Hamilton

 First thoughts about Hamilton were to serve a sweeping story as simply/easily as possible
 Challenge to depict all different locations.
 First sketch circular feeling, building off dome of the capital, turn table effective way of telling
sweeping and cinematic moments
o Double turn table
 Beams and half spherical was inspiration architecture. Liked feeling of seeing how something
was made
 o Coils of rope around were reminiscent of ship building, framework, scaffolding for which
country is to be created from. Building of a scaffolding that a country could be built
from. Support that helped build the country
o Walls of set grow 8 feet, people are building ideas and laws
 Everyone is responding to it in the art world, politically, people rushing to theatre.

Projection Design
Projection designer Jeff Suggs process of creating artwork used for projections

 Creating any video, still imagery used in performances, anything that comes out of a projector
o Creation of media finding of media, editing, construction of that into a software
 Don’t have to worry about having a super dark stage to have projection
o 10 years ago, technology came so far that you don’t need a dark stage
 Control image so much more
 Interests him is old magic tricks. There is a mysticism to, projection embodies that,
 His visibility is much higher
o 33 Variations had cohesion among designers is what made him proud.
o Projection showed bethoveens mind, his sketches to audience, his state of mind
 Work he most loves to do is take time to go into rehearsals
 Likes work that has intense collaboration, blurring lines between whos responsible for what
 Accidental Nostalgia conceived by Cynthia Hopkins in 2002, brought him to design
o Performers as well as designers, performing the design
o Woman looking for missing parts of her past
o Projections are about a story telling device, scale models, spy cameras, showing people
how the technology works. Allowing audience into creation
o Taking to French festival most popular for touring
 Allows you to draw, really difficult than other design disciplines, burgeoning art form, great time
to be a part of it

Costume Design
Broadway Costume Designer Paloma Young discusses her work on The Great Comet

 Based on a sliver of Tolstoy War and peace, part feels ground in early 19 th century Russia
o Core of design world
o Late 20th century punk behind iron curtain, trashy fashion
 Audience struck by opulence of space and chandeliers, red curtains, 19 th century opera to crazy
urban club, middle of a ball elegant but darker
 Visual story from distance cause a large theatre
 Costume needs to be striking from a great distance, 100’s of feet away. Costume also has to tell a
story about texture and how much money and age, personality heavy or light
o Fabric and details “Filmic details” miniscule details
 o Designs them to be seen from up close
 Inspiration comes from the score itself and its musical influences, looks at magazines
o Puts together collages to capture feeling of different parts
o Russian fashion designers, designers like Galiano and Vivian Westwood, things that feel
punky but party atmosphere, feathers, rhinestones, a lot of fur (very Russian)
 Military elements Adam Ant to have military style but heightened punky world
o Ensemble members are discrete chorus giving us information, introducing audience,
costumes had to have party atmosphere. Feel a little bit Russian and dark, war and
religion going on outside. Attitude color and texture, shapes
o Natasha has followed Anatol, he feels sexual, violent, abandoned with some
recognizable textures, mirrors, shiny things, disorienting, 80’s clubs in new York
o Thrift store elements that come together fashionable but drug out sexualist world
 Natashas ball dress feel more of Moscow, should have beading and lace, fabric had silver poka
dots, delightful childish bubbliness, swirling cosmos
 Male ensemble had rhinestone cosmic storm
 Impossible to be pick a thing loved the most about Great Comet, knowing that someone
someday will see a detail no one else has noticed before

Lighting Design
Elusive and ethereal element, making it difficult for lighting designer to communicate ideas and
intentions to director and production team. Professor Stan Kaye relates the methods

Lighting is considered the most crucial of the design elements since audience wouldn’t see w/out it

 How you got started

o In high school into college, worked on Broadway and touring, ballet and theatre,
Midwest, all over the country
 Where you get ideas from
o The sun, where light comes from, leads to time, how light behaves from natural light

o In theatre, simulate natural light, understand how color behaves

o Emotional peaks and valleys, trying to feel what director or music is trying to convey
  Technical stew, organize it, but then artistic so audience feels how director wants
them how to feel
o Ideas can come from anywhere: a trip, photo, having an open mind, the flash, visual
picture in your mind, translate it into reality on stage. Through research observation and
as a human being
 What are the tools you use to present your ideas
o Depends, light designers didn’t really have a lot of tools unless you could draw
 Flashlight and color filter
o Now they have visual research, images going through artbooks, actual light fixtures in a
lighting laboratory (in University of Florida), take materials and costumes and place them
and experiment, to see what resonates
 Work with scale models, with miniature tech and fiber optics to explor
o Now with a computer and show to director
 After you’ve presented your ideas and approved, how they become reality?
o Really complex technology and high art, work as a painter but 3 dimensional, a sculptor
o Stone and chisels, etch what we see, painter starts with blank
o Start with everything is black, take a guess at how we want observer to feel about what
they see, comeback from visual ideas and work with quipment
 Lay out a schematic plan
o They have an electrician and take drawings put everything together, could take days,
build looks, cues or states of lighting, push button and stage picture evolves like sun
o Like glue holding everything together
o 2-300 thousand decisions before seeing curtain go up
 What you enjoy about your work?
o Dad was a photographer, interest in technology and humanistic streak love story and
creative side. Lighting satisfied these sides. Exhilarating
o Did Moby Dick, whiteness of the whale, albino whale and sun hits whiteness
 Now goes technical to make that happen, movie light, whale represented by
woman
 Director said he wants Niagra falls.
 Where might a lighting designer work
o Hes been doing it for 20 years, now theres so many jobs in lighting in film theatre
television, crusie ships
o They can have a career
 What else like to share
o Lighting is a subconscious art form unless it’s a special effect, if you pay attention and
subtleties without concentrating, does it help you understand, look but not too much
o You should feel it, if you notice lighting it wasn’t done well, it should work

Sound Design
Sound Designer and Composer Alma Kelliher discusses his creative process on The Elephantom

 Deals with technical side of things, balance sound intricately. Makes noise, builds noises, musical
in that sense. Flowy. Treat it like a score and compose it
 Alwin is actor, presents ideas
 Sound engineers come from technical. Their speaker placement and microphones would be
sharp.
 Does moody and long range sound scapes, atmospheres, cartoon, boinks and bumps
 Shouldn’t be less vigorous or excellent
 Toby Ollie says sound makes it more funny
o Actors making their own sound effects
o Sounds bring more clarity and focus, sound can throw focus
 Finn Caldwell says needed alma worked on Hansel and Gretel
 Launch pad, goes onto next que, good for visual things for pouring tea or suctioning
 Go with the flow and add what you can for the god of the show
 Elephantom is kids show
 Technology allows makes things sound good, ears are open a lot more, vital component 4