Design

There is a lot of thought and preparation that goes into mounting a production, not least of which is a budget! The budget needs to be one of the first considerations when thinking about a show, but what if your budget is on a budget? How do you produce a professional looking show without professional amounts of money? With the Production Design on a Budget Toolkit, of course! This toolkit is designed to give you a new way to think about productions with a tight budget in mind. From how you choose your script, to rethinking the design process, to tips on where to find show materials for little or no money, this toolkit will help you get a show on its feet without bringing your budget to its knees.

The following exercise is a large-scale culminating project for your entire class. Students will form small groups and work together to create design concepts for a play in six areas of technical theatre: sound design, lighting design, set design, costumes, props, and hair/makeup. Each group is responsible for completing four components: • an inspiration component • a research component • a practical component • an analysis component This is a great way for students to demonstrate what they’ve learned throughout the semester or challenge themselves to explore a new technical area. Students will gain a broader appreciation of all the factors that go into creating a cohesive theatrical design. Before you start: Don’t worry if you’re not a technical expert! Check out our Technical Theatre section in the Theatrefolk Learning Centre for lots of technical advice. Three good articles to start with are: Tech Exercises for the Non-Technical Teacher Tips for Success When Tech Isn’t Your Specialty Tips for First-Time Lighting Designers Instructions:1. Select a play that the entire class will design for. 2. Divide students into six groups. Assign each group one of the following areas of technical theatre: sound design, lighting design, set design, costumes, props, and hair/makeup. 3. In this exercise, you (the teacher) will act as director of the selected show, and share your overall vision/concept with your design teams (your students). For example, Romeo & Juliet under the sea, Alice in Wonderland in outer space, a steampunk Beauty and the Beast, or a film noir Antigone. Feel free to give as many or as few details as you wish. If you’d like to give students more artistic freedom, try one of the following options: Option B: Have each group pitch a vision/concept (for example, Romeo & Juliet in the jungle, Wild West Romeo & Juliet, or Romeo & Juliet in the year 3000) and allow the class to vote on one. Option C: Scrap the director idea and have each group come up with their own original design concept for the selected play, without consulting other groups. 4. Once the design concept is settled, each group must complete their design projects, which will consist of the following four parts: a) Inspiration: An inspiration collage or mood board featuring colours, textures, sketches, photographs, or cutouts that illustrate the concept. (Minimum size: 12 inches by 12 inches) b) Research: A written (or audio/video recording if that works better for your students) research component on one aspect of the concept. For example, if the concept is “in the jungle,” which specific jungle is the group focusing on? What plants and animals are native to the area? Are there any films, television programs, or documentaries set there? Are there any major current events or important historical events that occurred there? Tailor the questions as appropriate to the selected design concept. (Minimum length: 1 page) c) Practical: A practical sample element that is relevant to the technical design area, such as a sound playlist, a lighting plot and gel sample display or a found lighting demonstration (live or filmed), a scale model set, an original costume design or built costume, a built prop, an original hair/makeup design, a designed wig, or a makeup demonstration (live or photographed). Students may have their own suggestions as well. d) Analysis: A written (or audio/video) component describing how and why the group made the design choices they did. (Minimum length: 1 page) 5. Have your students share their projects with the rest of the class, either as group presentations or as a fair-style presentation around the classroom. 6. Discuss how each group approached their design work. Do the different theatrical areas work together as a whole? Why or why not? Do they support the director’s overall vision? What could be adjusted to work better together? 7. Each student will complete and submit an individual reflection (found below).

What better way to welcome students into the drama department than allowing them to make a grand entrance through a decorated door? Many teachers enjoy door decorating for holiday contests, spirit week celebrations, or just to make their classroom look more welcoming. It’s fun for students too. So why not get them involved in decorating your drama classroom door? The following individual exercise is like a mini set design challenge. Students will create a door design and complete an accompanying worksheet where they’ll discuss their inspiration for the design, as well as other production-related questions. You can then use the door designs to decorate your classroom, and even use a student’s design to decorate the door. It’s a great exercise for the end of the semester when you just can’t think, and it can be as low- or high-tech as you wish. Materials Needed • Door template (or a blank piece of paper) • Pencils and coloured pencils • Rulers • Optional: collage items such as fabric scraps, magazine tear outs, ribbons, pipe cleaners, coloured tissue, and wrapping paper • If you want to make this a high-tech project, you could use computer design software such as AutoCAD if it’s available at your school. 1. Give each student a door template (a blank piece of paper will do in a pinch). If possible, tailor the door template to your own classroom door, noting the style and direction of the handle as well as any windows and nearby signage. Note whether it is a push or pull door from the hallway. It may also be useful to include any important nearby features, such as a display window or electrical outlet. Note: If you plan to decorate your door, you may want to check with your administration and/or custodial staff ahead of time to ensure that there are no safety hazards (e.g., tripping hazards or flammable materials). 2. Students will design their doors. If you wish, have them brainstorm a list of door décor topics. Then have students colour their designs. They may use collage materials if desired/available. Door designs should be creative and reflective of what you do and learn in drama class. They could be entertaining, educational, thought provoking, inspiring, attention grabbing, or use interesting materials or techniques. Students could create something seasonal, or related to the play you’re currently studying in class, or themed for an upcoming production, or that demonstrates a recently learned scenic painting technique. The options are only limited by your students’ imaginations. 3. Students will complete the accompanying worksheet, responding to the following questions: • What’s the title of your design? (“A Winter Wonderland,” “Ode to Romeo & Juliet,” “Lost in Rundoon,” etc.) • What inspired your design? • What materials would we need to create the design for real on the door? • What is an estimated budget for materials? Where/how will we acquire the materials? (For example, will the student use items they bring from home or pull out of the recycling bin, or will they need to purchase them?) • If you’re going to have a voting portion: Why should your classmates vote for your design to be the winner? 4. Post each door design and accompanying worksheet in the classroom. _Optional: Voting _ 5. Fold over or cover the names of each student on their paperwork so they’re not tempted to vote for their friends. 6. Students will vote for their top two door designs. You can either do a secret ballot or simply have students raise their hands. If you’d like to add an additional writing component, have students complete an exit slip explaining why they voted for the design they did. 7. You will create the design with the most votes. Be sure to credit the student designer on the door! You may want to offer extra credit or volunteer hours to the students who do the work of bringing the design to life.

There are many things to think about when it comes to designing your virtual classroom. BackgroundWhen teaching classes via video conferencing, it’s good to think about what’s going on behind you. This doesn’t mean pets walking through your virtual classroom or visible piles of laundry in view of your camera, although those should probably be kept out of view as much as possible! Having an interesting and creative background can grab students’ attention, be a conversation starter, or make them laugh. It’s also fun to switch things up and create a fresh atmosphere for your virtual classroom. We’re talking old school and low tech here. Virtual backgrounds are always an option, but sometimes they can be visually distracting. Think about creating your own teaching set. In terms of materials, pretty much anything goes. This is very much an exercise in “use what you have!” • Blank canvas: Start with a plain wall, or hang a large bed sheet, blanket, or large pieces of paper (butcher paper, Bristol board, wrapping paper) on your wall. If you don’t want to attach things to your wall, you can use a curtain and pin items to it, or use a bookshelf and display items on it. • Adhesives: Use tape meant for walls to hang paper (make sure it doesn’t damage your walls). Safety pins for fabric, binder clips, or command hooks can all work well. • Loose parts: Your imagination is the limit here. Ribbons, magazine cutouts, post-it notes, clothing or costume items, pieces of fabric, books, props, household items… if you can hang it, attach it, or display it, use it! Here are some ideas for your virtual classroom background: Warm-Ups to Wake Up the Brain:• I Spy: Put a variety of small items in the background and have students search for specific ones. • Memory: Put a variety of small items in the background and have students study it for one minute. Turn off your screen. Remove one item. Turn your screen back on and have students figure out which item is missing. • Taboo: Put a variety of small items in the background. Have students describe the items without using the actual words for the items. For example, if one of the items is an apple, students can say “fruit,” “juicy,” “grows on a tree,” “round,” or “red,” but not the word “apple.” See if students can get you to guess the item they chose in fewer than five descriptors. Creative Challenges:• Colour Scheme: Create a background using only household objects all in one colour. For example, if your colour is red, you could display a red t-shirt, an apple, a toy fire engine, a rose, and some strawberries (or pictures/photos of these items). • Set Design: Make a background that looks like a set from a famous theatrical production, using only items from around your house. • Funny Frames: Attach cutouts to the wall that frame your head and shoulders when you sit in front of them, such as a hat, halo, wings, a speech bubble, or an animal sitting on your shoulder. Feel-Good Moments:• Student Stars: Cut out colourful or sparkly stars, write your students’ names on them, and stick them up. You could add small sticker stars on each student’s name star for answering questions, participating in discussions, or submitting assignments. • Inspirational Messages: Have students submit various positive messages or favourite quotes from plays, musicals, or performers. Make them into posters and display them on your background. • Virtual Scrapbook: Hang photos of your students, as well as rehearsal and production photos, posters, and playbills from past shows on the wall.

Full disclosure – lighting design is NOT my forte. I am in awe of those wonderful people with skills in creating atmosphere with just the right shade of lighting gel, an artfully angled instrument, or the touch of a programming board button. While you may have a lighting designer for your upcoming production, if you are directing the show, you still must have an overall idea of what you’d like your lighting to look like. You can’t just expect your designer to do everything. And if you are a do-it-all director or working on a shoestring budget, you may BE the lighting designer yourself! Working with a number of talented lighting designers over the years has greatly helped to make the lighting process less scary and less painful for me. What I’m saying is, if I can come up with a basic lighting design, you can too. Here are some tips I have learned over the years that have helped me a lot. • You need to have a general idea of what look you want to create, lighting-wise. What is the mood of the piece? What is the time period (era)? At what time of day do the scenes occur? Does the scene take place inside or outside? Answering these questions will help get you on the right track. You may even want to collect pictures that help to show the lighting effects you’d like to have. • Have a basic knowledge of your school’s lighting situation. Does your school have a full lighting grid or only the most basic of lights that can only be turned on and off? Do you have LED lights, PAR cans, Fresnels, a spotlight, something else? Can your lights move? What is your gel and gobo situation? Do you have the ability and/or budget to rent additional lights? Basically, this tip is to keep you in check. There is no sense dreaming about LED movers and stained glass gobos when your school doesn’t have these items. You can still create amazing lighting with minimal equipment – you just have to get creative! • Note directly in your script where you know you want lighting cues to occur. Number and highlight each cue so you can see them in your script. Don’t worry about adding a cue later and having to change all your notes – it is standard practice to put in additional cues by adding .2, .3, .4 and so on, so you don’t mess up your original cue count. Be sure to include cues for turning on and dimming the house lights at the top of the show, at intermission, and at end of the show, as well as a lighting look for the curtain call. As well, ensure that your stage manager has all these cues noted in their prompt copy of the script, so they are able to call the show properly. • If you have lighting looks that repeat throughout the show (such as an outdoor wash, an interior wash, a nighttime look, a daytime look, etc.) make a note of the repeated cue numbers so those cues can be programmed all at once. This will save you time during programming. • Note how long you want each cue to last. Do you want the lights to fade out, and if so, how long should the fade take? There is a big difference between a 3-second fade and a 5-second fade and the lights snapping out abruptly. Do you want a crossfade? Do you want blackouts between each scene? Do the lights change during a song? Don’t expect your lighting programmer to know how long a song intro or interlude lasts – give them an exact duration. • Here’s a final tip that really made me pause and think the first time I heard about it: “blackout” versus “brownout” versus “blueout.” Many directors will want to have the lights go completely off in between scenes, as a clear message to the audience of time passing or a location change. A “blackout ” means turning off the lights completely so it is pitch dark and the audience can’t see anything happening on the stage. This also means the actors and stage crew will have a difficult time seeing what’s happening on stage, which can be dangerous when people are entering, exiting, and moving set pieces and props on and offstage. A “brownout” gives a similar effect as a blackout but isn’t pitch black – a small amount of light is left onstage so actors and crew can see better. It does allow the audience to see a little bit of movement but is much safer than a full blackout. A “blueout” allows even more light onstage than a brownout but creates an interesting look and atmosphere. You can change the blue to any other darker colour (green, red, etc.) depending on your overall lighting design.

Since Shakespearean plays have been around for hundreds of years, we need to shake things up by trying new ideas in order to make these shows different and exciting. One of the most wonderful things about Shakespearean plays is the freedom to be able to set them in another time and place. Here’s a classroom exercise that will get your students thinking outside of the box when it comes to Shakespeare! There are three variations to this exercise: 1. Students all work on the same play but with different time settings; OR 2. Students all work on different plays set in the same time and place; OR 3. Each group has a different play and a different time setting. Divide students up into groups. Have each group select a Shakespearean play and a time setting. Here’s a list of time settings, places, archetypes and themes to get you started: • Traditional English Renaissance • American Frontier (“Wild West”) • Paleolithic (dinosaurs/cavemen) • 1860’s American Civil War • Roaring 20’s (flappers) • 1950’s Greasers • 1960’s (“Mad Men” or “surf culture”) • 1970’s Hippies/Flower Children • 1980’s “Yuppies” • Outer space (modern or retro) • Vaudeville • Steampunk • Circus • Edward Gorey/Charles Addams/Tim Burton • Modern (current year) Students will need to research the history, fashions, political backgrounds and world events that occurred during that time and use it to create a design or performance concept for their selected play. As a group, they will choose PERFORMANCE or DESIGN, and they will complete the assigned tasks listed below. For a greater challenge, have students complete both sections! DesignThe group will work together to create a themed scrapbook, illustrating the play’s concept. Include the following parts: 1. A set design sketch. 2. A colour scheme, with swatches/fabric samples. 3. Costume design sketches/tear sheets for four characters. 4. A playlist of five songs to be used for atmospheric music, pre- or post-show music, or for the final curtain call (for bonus points, include a CD with the songs). 5. A brief write-up that describes why the concept was chosen for that particular show, and how the concept is going to be used to tell the story. 6. The scrapbook itself should resemble the concept as well. For example, for a Wild West concept show, perhaps the scrapbook has fake bullet holes in the cover; or for a circus concept show, the scrapbook is shaped like a circus tent. PerformanceThe group will work together to learn and present a 5-minute scene from the assigned play, illustrating the concept through performance. Have students include the following parts: 1. Pre- and post-scene music. 2. All group members must have lines, and all lines must be memorized. 3. At least one costume item or accessory for each student that illustrates the concept (for example: cowboy hats for a Wild West concept scene). 4. Three or more props that demonstrate the concept (for example: perhaps for a modern concept scene, a letter might be read from a smartphone – or for a Paleolithic concept scene, a letter might be in the form of smoke signals or a cave painting). 5. Students should think about how they can present the concept through their performances. Have them think about accents, jobs, or tasks, and how the characters carry themselves. A steampunk Romeo & Juliet will look and sound very different than a 1950’s greasers Romeo & Juliet! For example, think about the party scene in Romeo & Juliet – a 1950’s greaser version might have the characters at a sock hop, while the steampunk version might have the characters waltzing! Have all students complete a reflection after the assignment is completed/presented.

Came across this lovely article about costumer Jane Greenwood over at the TDF Stages website. She has been designing costumes since 1963 with multiple Tony nominations under her belt. She’s in the middle of designing the costumes for the upcoming Broadway production of Rebecca. Here’s what I took away from this article. First, the amount of prep work that goes into Greenwood’s process before she even meets with the production team. She is “immersed” in the world of the play. She knows everything there is to know about what the characters might wear. “The show won’t begin performances until October 30 or even start rehearsals until next month, but Greenwood is already making choices that will shape its future. For instance, she has filled several large binders with sketches and ‘inspirational photographs’ for every character.” Second, that she’s prepared to throw away that prep work if it doesn’t jive with the direction of production. She wants the costuming to be a part of the team and because theatre is a living entity, things change. Things change. If you are an actor, an artist, a writer, a dancer, that is the core of the creative process. Things change. If you are so married to your idea that you’re not willing to alter it when need be you’re not getting the most out of your creative process. This is not to say that you have to throw everything out the window on someone elses say so. But if the idea needs to change to make it the best work possible then you need to be able to make that change. Things change. But in order for things to change you need a start. You can’t change in a vacuum. You need a starting point, you need that idea. And you just can’t come up with something frivolous and slight. “What’s the point in putting work into my idea if it’s just going to change anyway.” No. I meet so many young writers who don’t want to put the work into an idea, they just want to jump into the deep end of the pool. And then they’re upset when the play starts to fall apart in the middle. The idea is as valuable a part of the process as the finished product. As Greenwood states: “Without the idea, you’re lost, so you have to have that. But then you have to take the idea and channel it through so many different areas.” Are your students flexible enough to go with the flow when change is suggested for a scene?

We saw a production of Football Romeo at Centre Dufferin High school and were mesmerized by this set piece. It’s a bench! It’s a bed! It’s a platform! It’s on wheels! It’s everything! The stage, as you’ll see in the video, was very small with negligible wing space. Simple creative solutions like this are what theatre’s all about!