Scene+and+Lighting+Design

Miller Mrosek Theatre 2100H Dr. Farley Richmond 25 November 2014 Scene and Lighting Design  Unlike many plays, Harold Pinter’s “The Homecoming” has one set throughout the duration of the play. The setting is London in the mid-20th century, at time where most of the population lived in flats. A flat isn’t very conducive to this play’s storyline, so I chose to expand it a bit and make it look more like a living room in a house. The set is a fairly standard looking living room, with a front door, door leading to the kitchen, a set of stairs, and tall walls.

 I decided to give the scene a bit more color than most living quarters probably had at the time to make the set a bit more aesthetically pleasing. It makes the scene design slightly less authentic, though I believe it is worth the gains made in its visual appeal. Considering that the set is static, I think having a bit more colorful set will be beneficial.

 I would design the lighting to hit the stage from above at a 45 degree angle. I believe this angle will give the audience the best view of the actors and props. I do not want the stage to be lit too brightly and would prefer a relatively dim level of light onstage, as our set is meant to resemble a living room. In my experiences living rooms are generally dimly lit rather than very bright, so I think a slightly dim level of light onstage would be the most authentic lighting strategy.

Another factor that influenced my decision to have dim lighting is the story line of the play. It is not intended to be happy and joyful. It is more focused on being thought-provoking and exemplifying realistic problems of our world that the audience can relate to. I feel the somewhat dark nature of the plot calls for dimmer lighting.

A hint of red could add a nice warmth to the stage and could be a nice addition. If possible, some spot lighting on high traffic areas onstage, such as the couch, would be a good way to emphasize some of the more important moments in the play.

 In venues that allow it, a chandelier would give the set a more “homey” feel and could provide some natural lighting. I would use a chandelier whenever possible. This set as whole would be fairly easy to build, though the one hard part would be building the staircase so that actors could exit the stage as though they were going upstairs. As long as the stage space allowed for the building of a exit through the staircase, my job as scene designer would be quite easy and I would have no trouble building a high quality set.