Fasymmetric Theory - November 2011

In November of 2011, The Mellow Drama theatre company of which I am a part put on a show at St Mary's University; Fasymmetric Theory. A play written by our very own Kat Evans and directed by AJ Fenemore, Fasymmetric Theory is a play containing 10 scenes, all of which exploring the concept of beauty in all of its conceited, wonderful, surprising and hurtful glory. For the project, I took on the role of set designer, prop designer and assisted costume design with Laura Blaauw. This blog will explore and describe how I went about being head designer for the brand new play, what I wanted to achieve and how and if I achieved it. We were allocated a £500 budget for the whole play, which was spread fairly and appropriately across all areas of the production.

Set

Firstly, I took into account that the play has 10 very different scenes with locations varying from living rooms to bars and back alleys to ethereal spaces between realities (or at least this is how I interpreted the first scene entitled 'Undergod'). This wide variety demanded a set that would be both flexible dependant of context and practical enough that it would not look out of place in multiple scenes. Initially, I had the idea to create 5 flats, double sided, that would be changed from scene to scene. Although this may have been effective, I decided that flats would make the scenes look too, well, flat. It was decided early on in the rehearsal process that half of St Mary's Theatre space would be used, so I wanted to fill the space as effectively as possible without cluttering the stage too much and without the need for ASMs changing too much between scenes. To begin with, I began to play with the  steel decking in the theatre; making different shapes across the space and then observing how the actors reacted to different combinations of steel deck. I played around with more or less set in many combinations across the space for about a week, then finally settled on a configuration that lied somewhere in the middle; not too little decking but not too much. The final design for the set was uncomplicated, but provided enough of play area for the actors. Once the final layout for the set was confirmed, they were all clad with chip board. Then, once tech and dress rehearsals were finished, the set was all painted black (along with the stage which was painted several days beforehand) so as to suggest that the set was part often floor; to make it look as though these shapes were rising from the floor.

An early concept for the set design. The idea was to essentially
create a playground for the actors.

Final set design layout.

 As for the depth of background and atmosphere, this lied in lighting designer Scott Atilla's hands. Scenes such as 'Rapture' that necessitated an alleyway and 'The last Storyteller' that required a backdrop of stars had to be carefully thought out so that set and lighting would work together. The end effects of both of these scenes definitely showed a certain rapport between set and lighting.

Across the play, there were several scenes which only used a certain portion of the set. An example of this is the scene 'Jumpers' [add photo?]. This scene only used the left portion of the set, which was home to a covered sofa. The rest of the stage and set were not lit. The function of the set in this scene serves as a living room. It was intended to look cozy and homely; an effect that I feel was achieved through the use if the set looking smaller because it was isolated for the rest of the set through cover of darkness.

A special effect that was built into the set was needed for scene 'Rapture'. In the scene, a gun is fired offstage towards the characters, barely missing one of them purposely. To achieve this effect, the tallest piece of set was rigged with a device that housed a small amount of Fuller's Earth. Compressed air was then fired through so the Fuller's Earth would shoot through the hole and give the audience the impression that a bullet would have ricocheted off a nearby wall. [include image]  This effect was carefully timed with a line onstage, so that one ASM could fire the air, while another fired a starter's pistol backstage against a microphone.

Other work I undertook was a the repair of a bar found in the basement of St Mary's theatre. This was used throughout the whole play in various ways. When it was found, it was in a poor state of repair. The top was replaced with a new panel and a shelf was added inside of it. There were also pockmarks across the front which were easily hidden and filled in with PolyFiller. It was then sanded down for safety. The whole bar was then painted black to match the set.

The bar in disrepair.

Repaired and painted bar.

Props

Fasymmetric Theory had a relatively extensive list of props, ranging from beer bottles, boxes of chocolates and bar cloths to stacks of magazines and slug pellets.  The majority of the props throughout the play were fairly easy to find; much of them were easy to find around the the cast and crew's homes, and those that we could not source for free, were bought for a low a price as possible.

'Mum' and 'Dad' with their operators

'Bad'

The largest task for the props however was the conception and construction of a number of puppets. Used in the scene 'The Last Storyteller', the script calls for Sam, the storyteller by proxy, Mum, Dad, Onion (representing the constellation Orion), 'Good' and 'Bad'. Ideas that were thrown around early on to avoid the construction of puppets included the use of projections of these characters; child like illustrations would be projected onto the upstage curtain. We felt that this idea wouldn't give the scene the right feel, so it was decided to actually make the puppets. With advice from Tina Bicat, Sam, Mum and Dad were made as rod puppets. Onion was made from a large inflated balloon and rope. 'Bad' was made from an old dryer hose and the remainder of a puppet from a show prior to ours. 'Good' was made as a simple paper chain. Overall, the puppets took around two weeks to complete by myself and several of the cast, but the final products definitely showed how much work had been put into them all.