Scene+Design


 * Scene Design**

Below are a number of illustrations showing how designers communicate their ideas to the director, the design team, and the producer.

The works above were created by Mr. Dunsai Dai, a scene designer at Webster University, St. Louis. I had the please of working on The Diary of Anne Frank with Mr. Dai several years ago at the State University of New York/Stony Brook. Mr. Dai presented me with a white model which also served as a floor plan of the set seen just below. The white model clearly indicates the performance area, the entrances and exits and the walls. He has accomplished an excellent and compact set with strong lines based on the hiding place of the Frank family in Amsterdam. He has even shown illustrations of sections of other buildings that may be seen in the background outside the house.

Next he provided a colored rendering of the same set. As you know, the colored rendering helps the costume designer and the stage lighting designer to establish their own color palettes. Below is the actual photograph of the set with actors. This gives you a clear idea about how these other factors have textured and changed Mr. Dai's original scene design.

Scale models are also a good way to communicate scene designs. The following is a black and white model for the play The Changing Room. The play takes place in a men's locker room in a British football stadium. Note the entrances and exits and the features of the set which help us to understand the actual locale depicted.

Below is an example of a finished model for Tanya Moiseiwitsch's Tartuffe produced in 1983. In this scaled model you see a six foot man depicted to give you some idea about the actual height of the balcony and the doors.

Below is an example of a pencil sketch for another show. Below that is the actual set.

The following three illustrations show a colored rendering, colored model, and final set for Racine's Phaedra performed at the Old Vic in London.