Our company had their preliminary production meeting and some very exciting ideas have been discussed! Meeting with the head technician lighting sound and set design were all narrowed down so that they could be finalised. The meeting allowed us to give the Head Technician an idea of what I want our set to look like and to give him an idea of materials that may have to be sourced and whether the venue could accommodate my vision. This is a brief outline that I presented for our initial ideas.
SET DESIGN: FILL IN THE BLANK THEATRE.
The desired set design for our show will combine emotive elements whilst also representing the scientific side of the story. The stage will be quite sparse in the centre and any set will be upstage centre and downstage left and right, framing our stage space.
Our theme and narrative is about memories and memory loss, I envision clear Perspex or clear plastic boxes/thick or wide clear frames that will hold a variety of objects. These boxes/ frames and objects will be lit individually by small battery powered LEDs. Through the action and narrative of the performance these lights will be gradually be turned off, representing our protagonists loss of memory.
To represent the scientific side the boxes of ‘memories’ will be connected by either red rope or cables. These cables represent the synapses and connections the brain makes when remembering. For health and safety these will only be on the stage floor downstage where the actors are less likely to walk. In rehearsal they will be marked so they become accustomed to their place. There is a possibility that they’re maybe boxes/frames hanging from the lighting rig that will also hold, these will be plot by the lighting rig and programmed into QLab. Our lighting designer has discussed that he may want the rig lowered therefore they will not high off the stage but still hanging with enough space above to accommodate the physical theatre scenes and lifts. See diagram for rough idea.
This brief came alongside a rough diagram I drew up to give an idea of placement of the set and a rough diagram of the boxes. See below;
(Thorpe, 2015)
The idea for this was that the boxes would litter the stage frame the small projection screen upstage and the same with the piano. Here we are in the early stages of creative development therefore I recognise that the positioning of the boxes will most likely change depending on the blocking of each scene.
In beginning my research into different set designers I came across American designer John Conkiln. Conklin is known for using art to influence his designs, through this is not how I developed my ideas, the reasons for creating such a set, incorporating the science and emotional side of our performance echos Conklin’s belief on how set sho uld be represented on stage, he creates his set for a deeper psychological insight into the world of the play, this then “allows him to connect to the work that is present, you are connecting lives and feeling, it’s not just decor” (Aronson, 1990, 18) The idea of the set representing a couple’s memories , then incorporating the lights to dim as each memory fades matches Conklin’s ideal of what set design should be. It is part of our production not just there to fill in the
Works Cited:
Aronson, A. P (1990) American Set Design. New York; Theatre Communications
