Set Design for Sole Practitioners
It seems like all the great architects have set design credits in their biographies. Set design is an exciting and fulfilling project. It is a difficult career path, but can fit nicely into the practice of a small firm or sole practitioner.
Set design for theatre and film uses the same skill sets practiced by architects, but requires a new toolbox of language, methods and production. This session will look into that toolbox and compare the conventions of set design and architecture including: stage directions, nomenclature, who hires you, who builds your set, and a brief overview of contracts, unions and the Associated Designers of Canada (ADC). http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/stage-and-costume-design/
1:15 Presentation 0:15 Questions & Discussion --
0:00 - 0:05 Introduction & About Me. 0:05 – 0:15 History of the Stage 0:15 – 0:30 Theatre Architecture – The Site 0:30 – 0:45 Script analysis – The Program 0:45 – 1:00 Types of Scenery – The Toolkit 1:00 – 1:15 Drawing Conventions & Models – Construction Docs 1:15 – 1:20 Production Schedule; Resources (Backstage handbook, etc.) & Other (a)venues – TV & Film , Structural Design for the Stage; PACT, ADC, Equity, IATSE 1:20 – 1:30 Questions & Discussion - The production team & the role of the set (scenic) designer – The Client
Slide Copy # 1 Cover slide Designing sets for theatre, TV, and film is an exciting opportunity and is a chance to expand your practice. From the Bauhaus to the Ballet: Architects, Artists, and Designers have made their mark on contemporary culture through design. Romeo and Juliet is a love story for the ages, but the stage setting whether: classical, contemporary, or avant-garde, tells the story of our age.
Set Design uses the same skill sets practiced by interior designers and architects, but requires a new toolbox of language, methods and production. This session will at the conventions of set design including: a brief history of theatre, theatre architecture including stage directions and nomenclature, some script analysis, drawing conventions, and some of the key players in getting hired and getting your set built. 2 A little about me… My first career was in theatre. I was trained as a set & lighting designer, but I made a living as a stagehand touring with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet during the winter, lighting design in the spring, and film set design/drafting during the summer. 3 A Brief History of Theatre 4 Greek Theatre - Was originally a gathering to sing the dithyramb – a hymn sung to honour the birth of Dionysus. - It was a chance to celebrate Greek myth and lampoon Greek society. - Seating or theatron built into hillside - Orchestra at centre - Skene is the stage - Across the back of the skene was a wall called the paraskenia - A columned arch at the front of the skene was the proskenium 5 Roman Theatre - Similar to Greek theatre, but enhanced and supersized. - Some had awnings & roofs 6 Medieval Theatre - Secular drama was outlawed - Drama was used for Church doctrine & lessons - The sets were called mansions or stations and represented important biblical locations with Heaven at Stage Right, 7 - and Hell at Stage Left. 8 Renaissance Theatre – Teatro Olimpico - Secular theatre re-emerged. - The interest in classical styles dictated the style of the theatre. - Seating is an ellipse - Stage is raked to the back with fixed entrances 9 Elizabethan / Globe theatre - The English developed their own style of theatre - Open-aired with a pit for the lower class to stand - The Elizabethan theatre used very few set pieces, mostly hand props and the occasional tree or rock 10 The Restoration - The restoration theatre evolved to allow more spectacle and effects - The stage was deeper with painted drops, borders and wing space for set pieces - There was stock scenery – drawing room, courtyard, library, royal garden, etc. 11 Vaudeville Pantages - The accessible part of theatre history for us. - The stage is now flat - Electric lighting is being used consistently – a lot here in Winnipeg. - And everyone gets a chance to sit down. 12 The Grand - Before latest round of renovations/restoration it was an indoor driving range? - Winnipeg has an old theatre that is now bowling lanes… 13 The Fox Theatre Atlanta - Another chain of theatres. - Islamic style - Amazing twinkle light feature for “House 2 Half” 14 The Fox Theatre Atlanta Electrical Panel – CRAZY! 15 The Cinema – The Capitol Theatre in Vancouver - There were a number of purpose built cinemas in the early days - Many vaudeville theatres converted to cinemas - There’s a conspiracy story of how Joe Kennedy tried to extinguish legitimate theatre 16 The Modern Theatre - Theatre Calgary – Max Bell Theatre 17 The Modern Theatre - Chan Centre 18 The Modern Theatre - Timms Centre (Sparse) 19 Gas Station Theatre - Black box/flexible 20 Prairie Theatre Exchange - Thrust stage/ Arena stage 21 Avant Garde 22 Theatre Architecture 23 Proscenium theatre - This type of stage refers to a theatre that is wholly separated between the stage house and the auditorium. - Remember the proskenium from the Greek theatre? Prosc Arch Apron The Auditorium aka The front of house 24 The (Orchestra) Pit Stage (Stage House) Wings Tormentors & Teaser / The main 25 Legs & borders - Italian Legs & German Legs - Stage Directions - Upstage - Downstage - Stage right – jardin (heaven?) - Stage left – court (hell?) - Offstage & onstage - cross over 26 Exit – Stage Left 27 Section - Out/in (up & down) - Review of spaces (auditorium, FOH, pit, stage, cross-over) 28 Fly Tower - Identify fly tower as architectonic building component 29 Manitoba Theatre Centre fly tower 30 Manitoba Centennial Centre fly tower 31 Fly System Schematic - Batten - pick-ups - loft blocks - head block - Clew - Arbour - Counterweights – pipe weight & others - floor block - line lock - fly floor - loading floor 32 Vienna Opera House Stage House 33 Fly floor & Loading Floor 34 Gridiron; loft blocks 35 Underside of grid @ MCCC 36 Stage @ Jubilee 37 Line set/batten working height 38 Fixed Grid theatre - All work is done by ladders - Equipment is in sight of the audience 39 Analyzing the script 40 Legitimate Theatre – spoken drama – Death of a Salesman 41 Comedy, farce – Comedy of Errors 42 Surreal – Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead 43 Absurd – Rhinoceros by Eugène Ionesco 44 Realism - Subject Was Roses 45 Ballet – Moulin rouge 46 Opera - Die Walküre 47 La sonnambula (The Sleepwalker) 48 A small break for some philosophy and theory…
The root of theatre from the Greeks is very strong – just like design.
Plato did not like theatre or poetry. He was all about the physical ideal. However, nothing could match the idea, so the physical construction of the idea was forever 1 step removed from the perfection of the idea. That is why we should always strive for a platonic ideal, so we achieve universal beauty. Anything less is derivative. And that’s why he hated art. Art is an imitation of a construction, it is 2 steps away from the idea, and so it is crude and ugly. 49 Aristotle was a student of Plato, but disagreed for he thought highly of the poet. Aristotle argued that art is actually closer to the idea than the construction of the idea, and is therefore more pure. A platonic construction is simply a physical version of the idea. Aristotle’s poetics are a version of the idea that could be, should be, might be, etc.
Vitruvius’ work was based on Platonic ideals of form and symmetry. Palladio took those ideals and created Palladian architecture. We are still strongly affected by these ideals today.
In the Renaissance theatre they embraced Aristotle’s laws of theatrical unity.
Aristotle’s 3 Unities
1. unity of action: a play should have one action that it follows, with minimal subplots. 2. unity of time: the action in a play should occur over a period of no more than 24 hours. 3. unity of place: a play should exist in a single physical space and should not attempt to compress geography, nor should the stage represent more than one place. 50 These rules seem outdated, but we see them in every Hollywood movie.
It was Aristotle who decided that a story needs a beginning, a conflict, a climax, and a resolution.
Boy meets girl; boy loses girl; boy discovers he’s actually a prince; boy gets girl back.
Of course, I tell you this not because you need to follow rules, but you should know what rules you’re breaking.
51 Back to the show… Where is the play? Simple Questions like: - What is the locale? - Inside/outside? - Miss Julie – Sweden during Midsummer 52 Book of Mormon – Uganda 53 Theo Fleury Story – Hockey rink 54 Dancing at Lughnasa – Irish Countryside 55 The same play can be set in different time periods - Elizabethan 56 Early 20th Century 57 1990s 58 The Ballet 59 Gnomeo & Juliet the animation 60 Sometimes a play doesn’t exist in linear time, but in memory & recall The Glass Menagerie 61 The Rimers of Eldritch - … focuses on the murder of the aging local hermit by a woman who mistakenly thought he was committing rape when he actually was trying to prevent one. 62 Two Dimensional Scenery Flats - Height & finish - Reveal - Sightlines - Seams 63 Rear view of flats - 7/8” thick - Escape stair - Return flats 64 False Proscenium 65 Cyclorama 66 Sky cloth Legs & Borders 67 Cut Drop 68 Sharkstooth Scrim - Sample 69 Sharkstooth Scrim – example 70 Three dimensional scenery Riser – plywood construction Balance between sturdy and lightweight. 71 +8” Riser on the stage 72 +24” Riser 73 Step Units 74 Ramps 7.5 degs is optimum 75 Furniture 76 Sculptural pieces like lamp post, or columns, etc. 77 Student work relies on the floor 78 Stage Hands move your scenery 79 Stage Hands move your scenery 80 Stage Hands move your scenery 81 Set up your drawings - Favilli Studio in California. 82 Canadian Institute of Theatre Technology – Plan, section & elevation drawing orientation. http://www.ryerson.ca/content/dam/theatreschool/student_resources/download/CITT%20CA D%20standards%202000.pdf 83 Layer Standards 84 USITT drawing symbols 85 Guys & Dolls Ground Plan (not floor plan) 86 Guys & Dolls Wagon 87 Guys & Dolls Wagon elevations 88 Design & drawing freedom/flexibility 89 Highly descriptive details. Your carpentry crew can build this, but it has to be participatory. 90 Set Design Models are highly descriptive for colour, texture & treatment 91 The set – In The Heights 92 The model – Annie “Preset” 93 The set – Annie 94 The model – Amadeus 95 The set – Amadeus 96 The model – Camino Real by Tennesee Williams 97 The set – Camino Real 98 ADC, IATSE, CITT, USITT, ACTRA, CAEA 99 There are essentially 3 ways you are hired to be the designer for a show (3 ways I’ve been hired): The Director has either worked with you before, or knows your work and wants you to work on his specific show. The Director is responsible for the artistic vision of the show. 100 The Artistic Director knows your work and wants you to work for the producing theatre. The Artistic Director is responsible for the over-arching artistic integrity of the producing theatre. All hiring decisions will be vetted through him/her. 101 The Production Manager has worked with you before, and your show wasn’t too much of a pain-in-the-keister, so you are invited back. 102 Theatre Superstition Break a leg, merde, toi-toi-toi
In the days of early vaudeville, the producers would book more performers than could possibly perform in the given time of the show - since "bad" acts could be pulled before their completion... so, in order to insure that the show didn't start paying people who don't actually perform, there was a general policy that a performer did NOT get paid unless they actually performed on-stage. So the phrase "break a leg" referred to breaking the visual plane of the legs that lined the side of the stage.
i.e. "Hope you break a leg and get on-stage so that you get paid." http://www.theatrecrafts.com/page.php?id=603
Opera Singers Opera singers use ‘Toi Toi Toi’ which is believed to be an onomatopoeic representation of spitting three times (believed to expel evil spirits)
http://forward.com/articles/15158/spit-your-way-to-safety-toi-toi-toi/
Merde
http://www.dance-enthusiast.com/features/view/The-Dance-Enthusiast-Asks-Why-do- dancers-say-MERDE-before-Performances-2010-01-31
In days gone by, when members of high society went to see an event in their horse drawn carriages, the horse crap would pile up in front of the theater. The more successful the show, the bigger the pile -- hence the expression ‘merde’ as an expression of ‘good luck’. 103 Theatre Superstition – The Scottish Play (MacBeth) This superstition has many sources. One is related to the witches not being happy about their portrayal, so they cursed the play. Some say the incantation is real. When repertory theatre was more prevalent, they would replace a poorly producing show with MacBeth – a sure hit. So, if you heard someone rehearsing MacBeth, you knew you were doomed. The play is physically demanding with many fights and special effects giving opportunity to accidents. My favourite explanation is that King James I didn’t really like the play, so he always referred to it as “That Scottish Play.” 104 Theatre Superstition – The ghost light Theatre people are a superstitious bunch. Lots of us believe that most—if not all—theatres are haunted. Ghosts need help, the thinking goes, when they tread the boards in a dark and deserted playhouse. Otherwise, they might bump into the scenery. On the other hand, some folks say the opposite—that ghost lights ward off evil spirits by fooling them into thinking the building is occupied.
Also, it’s bad luck (and bad business) for a theatre to be “dark”—i.e., without a show. Leaving a ghost light on is also superstitious way of making sure the house is always “lit.”
Ghost lights have a practical purpose, too. Empty theatres can be dark and scary places! Remember, they are specifically designed to shut out natural light. Imagine how pathetic an onstage blackout would look with sunlight streaming in through a haphazardly covered window.
So before departing for the night, the stage crew switches on the ghost light—usually these days, an energy-saving compact florescent bulb. This helps make sure no one accidentally crashes into the scenery, which is set up differently for every show. Or mistakenly steps off the edge of the stage in the dark. Yikes! 105 Thank you.