Help with stage designing

[kennioje]

As you say, you don't have any specific shows to design for - which does make it harder coz you've got no specific things actually happening on your set design.

 

When you've picked one of the genre options (perhaps one your already familiar with - already done shows in, even if you were doing something other than the set design) have a look a a selection of shows from that genre, and see what their requirements are (you should look at their scripts, as well as photos of their previous productions). If you've worked / seen several shows of this genre you will know how the sets can get used. (e.g. musicals often need space for dancers).

 

On a practical note, it seems that you should be keeping an eye on how these set pieces get changed - if your college has done this project before see what the format of the real running show is - is there a show each day, in which case you may have a few hours to move set pieces around, or does it have to be changed within say five minutes between shows on one night. Even if you do have hours to change it, the easier you can make it to change the better.

 

JK

[Darkfold]

A good number of shows require a central room with table, chairs, windows, doors and an optional fireplace. It would then be fairly easy to design a set that allows the room furnishings to be quickly swapped into place. Say all the flats made to a standard size with continuous detail, then a pair of door flats, a fireplace flat, various window flats (shuttered, vertical open out, sash etc). You can then just bolt that lot together or switch it around to make new rooms relatively quickly (possibly not a simple blackout, but certainly for new shows).

If the decoration was kept fairly generic it then becomes a case of adding period finishings to suggest the room age and setting.

edit: spell chunking and clarity.