Our first semster of third year theatre arts consisted of us being divided into two groups of around fifteen or so students and forming two production companies for a show to be performed at the end of November. The production company itself consisted of a tech crew, director and actors. As part of the tech crew I decided to focus on the set and lighting side of the production. The play we decided on was Dennis Kelly's Love and Money. The reason we chose this play was that we believed the issues of materialism, capitalism and society, for example, were extremely relevant. Especially considering the economic climate of the time and the recent recession Britain had undergone. Not only this but practically and logistically the play was appropriate; it contained the right number of characters that were even enough for the cast to agree with and the running time of the play was around what we were aiming for, based on the fact we had under eight weeks to pull it off!
Having read the script my first job was to decide on the set, after a meeting with the director we thought the best approach would be to have a very simple, almost clinical set. The reason behind this was that play was very much driven by the characters it presented, not the location they were placed in. For me the play read like a science experiment, putting a variety of people in modern day society under the microscope and analysing them. Thus it was decided the set would be simple, but in many ways striking, perhaps even intimidating. It mainly composed of two white cubes (chairs) and a white cuboid (table) placed in a rectangular space in the centre of the stage. This rectangular area was to be made of two strips of dance mat that, placed together, formed the acting area, the black space that surrounded this 'stage' was empty, a no-man's land where no performance took place or light was to be focused on.
This would focus all of the audience's attention on the actors and therefore costume was crucial in helping create the characters the cast would portray. We considered what would surround this black floor space and after initially considering three black drapes we decided three white cycloramas would emphasise the idea of the white box and the sterile, cold atmosphere of our play.
I therefore went away and made up a model box for the production company and lecturers to help explain our idea. After the idea was approved by everyone we began work on constructing our three shapes as time was ticking by and, although simple in their look, i realised it would take alot of time and concentration to give them the smooth, solid, seamless look to their surfaces that i felt was very important. This would be difficult to achieve, as they were comprised of five pieces externally.
Above shows the rough design of the boxes and the underside of one under construction. The drawings on the right give an insight into how we formed the cubes and the wooden skeleton that gave the thin sheets of wood the strength of durability demanded of them. The cross of wood underneath the box was designed not only for additional strength to the structure, but also to conceal the four wheels that would eventually be attached underneath. It was important to me that these wheels, though practical and essential during scene changes, remained unseen by the audience. This, as well as aesthetically pleasing, gave me the opportunity to adjust the wheels if the box became too wobbly, say by moving them further out from the centre and more towards their corners.
Once the boxes were constructed i began work on giving them a smooth, solid look. At first i sanded them down using sandpaper and, in the case of the table, a surf form. Once i had exhausted myself doing that i decided to use a thick layer of builder's cork to literally plaster the sides smoother. As it was cheap and effective we spent a few pounds of the budget on a couple of tubes, this being the only thing we had needed cash for as the wood for the boxes was recycled from previous sets. This, combined with a generous layer of white emulsion, created the desired effect and we could move on from the boxes.
Further down the rehearsal line we realised that during the hospital scene we would need a bed and screen. In order to keep with the sterile, crisp look of the set we used a metal frame with material attached for the screen, and a metal, wire framed bed. To improve their appearance we sprayed them both with metallic silver spray paint, making them look as good as new, as opposed to the tatty state we had found them in.
Another development in the set design was the use of the white cycs that would frame the black stage area. The realisation that this would be a major task to light meant that we ditched the two side cycs and kept the one at the back as a focus point. Furthermore, we realised we simply didnt have enough lighting resources avaliable to us to light all three, and to have rented some would have massively eatten in to the budget (which really wasn't an option).
Above is my favourite picture that i took of the set, simply because you could easily mistake it for the model box! But rest assured it is the real thing. Here you can see the side cycs have been replaced with black masking curtains. This turned out to be incredably useful as it completely openned up the wings for the cast and allowed us to side light them with booms, much like a dance piece. This marked an important turning point in the relationship of the set and lighting as it allowed us to light the cyc separately, as i will be explaning later.
With the set nearing completion we began to design the lighting plan. To begin with we rigged the lights we would be using for the general cover, as these are used simply to light the space and not relied on to do anything too fancy. Below you can see the general cover prior to focusing. Once finsihed they would light the grey dance mats/acting area only and, in keeping with the set, would not light the black space, being focused sharply as best we could.
The arrangment of the lights in the rig were designed with the idea that it would incorporate two lighting designs, one that focused on the acting area and one that would be used to light the white cyclorama behind. As we were now only using one cyc I begain to become more adventurous with the lighting plan. We decided the cyc would focus on creating the location of the scene taking place on stage, be it a dining room, dingy pub, mental hospital or a park bench at sunset, etc. As the set was placed half way up the stage, there was a huge void of space behind the cyc perfect to set up a lighting rig at ground level as shown below.
Using scaffold and steel decking we created a rig directly behind the cyc. I then spent the best part of a day simply playing around with the lights and experimenting with different coloured gels and lights to create the scenes for the play. The scaff you can se in the foreground was stacked in a row to create a horizon, by lighting it the from further back it created a sunset across the sheet. I researched a number of different skylines at dusk to try and create a autumn sunset. Using reds, yellows and oranges, as well as pinks and blues to create a watercolour like stain across the cyc. Which to be honest was a lot of fun!
What i began to realise while devising the lighting scheme was that the decisions made during the set design hugely influenced the role of lighting, in a positive way. Although at first dewildering to try and imagine how we would go about lighting the space, it became evident that there was a huge amount of potential to the show in what we could create.
This photo shows the sunset I had created, although this photo didnt turn out brilliantly because of the white glare that has obscured the cyc you can see how we began to go about creating scenes, here the trees in the park have cast a shadow across the bench while the sun sets in the distance. While much would be altered and many more lights used, this shows the early stages of our work. I really liked the way our gobos (such as trees, windows, etc) cast their shapes across the white surfaces of the boxes, such as the jail bars, which gave a striking image.
As the lighting progressed we became determined to make every scene look radically different then the previous one through the lighting, whilst still making it appropriate for the scene and remain within context.
For the preset we wanted something that intrigued the audience as they entered and took their seats. This photo, taken from the lighting box, shows what we decided on. The stage is dimly lit, while the cyc is soaked in blue. Each of the cubes has a profile pointing directly down on it from the rig with a square outline gobo inside that outlines each of them as they seem to float on the stage. It almost looks like a surreal game show set. I thought it important to highlight the boxes right form the beginning because they become very important as they are sat on by the various characters that emerge on stage, exposing them to the audience and lifting them up. After all, it is the characters we are here to observe and learn about.
Overall I was pleased with what we accomplished with the set and lighting designs. I think if given an extra week we could of tightened it up alot in terms of lighting. Perhaps experimenting a bit more and going over each scene to make sure the cast were perfectly lit and, in terms of the side booms, they didnt mask each other when enetering on stage. In the end the stage was completely surrounded by lights and i think one of our biggest achievements was that we didnt get carried away and use lights for the sake of it. Everything we included played a role and hopefully the audience were pleased with the end result. I suppose in the end I could have spent forever re-tweaking it but I am satisfied with what I achieved and the invaluable experience I gained from the production.
Here you can see as well as the ornate detail, the design also includes more rigid structures such as the gears and wheels. I thought this was more fitting but would be too complex to make. Not only that but I didn't have the time to dedicate to it, and from the audience's postiton they wouldn't see it very well anyway, especially if the lighting was dim. However, I still used it as my main design and would construct its outline, if not the interior detail.
