Stage designers take ordinary materials and create extraordinary worlds. From foreign cities to eras long gone and from fairy tales to ancient realms, it is the set designer who translates ideas to the stage or screen. But it takes more than a little plywood, paint and glue to turn a concept into reality. It requires inspiration, innovation and dedication before reaching success, and it presents many challenges.
Inspiration
The set is the audience’s first contact with the world portrayed in the story, so it has many jobs to do. For artists like Tom St. Amand, whose designs appear in films like “Star Wars” and “Jurassic Park,” inspiration comes from other films, such as the “Sinbad” movies he watched as a boy.
Innovation
Designers must also be innovative. They must have the eye of a painter or photographer, since the set generates the atmosphere and mood of the film or play. The audience relies on the set to determine the specific time period in which the story unfolds. The designer decides where the audience’s attention should focus and, through crafty blueprinting, ensures their eyes are drawn to the right spot.
Set design does not happen overnight. The general timeline of creation includes developing a rough sketch, drawing up floor plans to scale (complete with placement of props and furniture), creating front elevations with platform and window details and making small-scale three-dimensional models that represent the entire set upon completion. Only then can the actual construction begin.
Dedication
A set designer’s job requires dedication, since he or she must find methods of breaking down entire worlds and building new ones. In respect to transportation, the set designer works much like a construction site project manager. The pieces of the set need to be light enough to be moved by hand, pulled by pallet or hoisted upward. Set parts must be packed as safely as fine china if the show hits the road, too.
Success
If all of these components come together correctly, the set designer becomes a magician, instantaneously transporting the audience to the corners of his or her mind in another time, another city, another world.
The musical “Chicago” is a great example because the set design manages to capture the essence of the 1920s. Current Broadway set designer and Tony-winner John Lee Beatty channels the spirit of vaudeville in the show’s current existence. Silver metal bars are used to set up the jail scenes and a glaring Chicago sign exemplifies the glitz and glamour of show business. He also uses harsh red lights and silhouettes to capture the drama of the jazz music and dancing.
The set designer’s job is not an easy one. It requires attention to detail, boundless imagination, practical construction skills and adaptability. But it is a necessary job. It is the stage glue that holds together the fabric of the story’s reality. It is the audience’s vehicle into distant lands and far away places. Set design is the stuff that dreams are made of.
