I’ve been doing scenic design work for a couple of years for McCarter Theater’s education department. It’s work that I enjoy because it combines the dual challenge of making a design that fits a shows aesthetic as well as one that will tour. The current project is for their First Stages Company. It’s not a touring production, which feels like a total luxury. I mean, I don’t have to figure out how to fit the set into a van and put it up in an hour. On the other hand, the set that I design will be used by all the classes in this project, which means that eight different productions will appear on it over the course of a weekend — ranging from Hamlet to the Wiz. It has to make sense for all of them.
Today’s meeting was to introduce the design concept. I don’t have to have scale renderings or anything like that, I just had to have some drawings and an idea. Since the First Stages is made of fourth-twelfth graders, I decided to focus on the idea of raw materials. These kids are tomorrow’s adult actors, you know?
So I want to keep the wood bare and use simple shapes. I don’t want to pretend that things are finished, but I do want to surprise and delight the audience. So in the rendering that I’ve got here, what you see are three platforms, and several 2 x 2s. The 2x2s slot into the platforms, the way a square peg goes into a square hole. Spandex strips weave between them to introduce color. This one shows my idea for the yellow brick road on the way to the Emerald City. Simple, eh?
The fun thing is that all of those poles can reposition at angles to become the jungle in the Tempest, or get different, gray ribbons to become skyscrapers in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. The platforms can move around becoming anything from a boat in the Odyssey to the ramparts in Hamlet. They made some suggestions, which were intelligent (part of why I like working here), but for the most part seemed enthusiastic about the design. Always a relief, I’ll tell you.
The next step, before I do anymore work, will be for them to talk to the production department to check schedule. While all of this is fairly simple, there are a couple of trick pieces (the 2×2 that breaks to form a door frame, for instance) which we need to make sure can fit into the schedule. I’ll show you other scenes and the model as the design progresses.
It must be nice to not have to cross the continent to have a meeting with them.
Wow. This is a level of creativity that I will simply never attain. Truly fascinating stuff.
-d-: It really is.
BS: Oh, I dunno about that. It’s all about what skills you practice.