Love's Labour's Lost

Earlier in the year, I was asked if I would like like to be set designer for a production of Love's Labour's Lost at St Mary's University College that would be taking place in mid to late April 2012.

Unfortunately, due to many conflicts with other commitments and scheduling issues between the majority of the cast and crew, the show has had to be postponed until September 2012.

Much of the work I had commenced was still in the design phases, but ready to go to be built by myself and Abi Toghill, who had volunteered to help me out.

The concept of the play was to have it set in 1980's Oxford University, with the story unfolding through the students. The play would be set outside on the priest's lawn. With this in mind, I began sketching general ideas for an outside set after conducted some research.

Scan of the initial design

A more refined idea, closer to what the set should look like

From the start of the design, I wanted the set to be completely static, but fully functional (eg; if there was to be a door, it would work). The grander idea (see top left image) would have ideally be built as a 3-piece set onto flats that bolted together when needed, then weighted at the back with stage weights for stability.Although I would have greatly enjoyed all the attention to detail this design required, I knew it could not realistically done considering time and budget constraints.


The next idea I worked on is the pillar (see top right image). This idea came from researching a particular campus in Oxford University; Corpus Christi (see below image).

Oxford University's Corpus Christi Campus' Quad.
The design was focused on the pillar.

Seeing as the set would be static, the pillar idea would work extremely well outside. Paths would be laid down in each compass direction from the pillar in gravel or sand, and benches would be added on two sides.

3D drawing of the set 

Scale version of the set

Cross-section showing how the set should be built

The pillar will be around 12ft high and built in sections for ease of transport, with the bottom oblong section, the pillar section and base section being separable.

Carvalho Studio

21/3/12

Today I worked at Carvalho Studio. Based in Hoxton in East London, Carvaldo Studio is a small studio dedicated to bringing the best sets and ideas for theatre into life through precise and beautiful scale models.

The workspace

Luis Carvallho invited me to visit the studio for a day to see the work  that goes into set model making. We spent time going over the process of the making, and chatted away about our own backgrounds in theatre and design. Currently, Luis working on developing a model box for a production of Eugene Onegine taking place in Canada later this year.

Luis' model thus far for Eugene Onegine

I was able to help Luis along with some of the work; I was asked to complete a digital scale version of some rolling flats that will have tree silhouettes spread across them. The design was made from a photograph of a wood. Once the design is fully finished, it will be sent to be laser-cut for the best precision in the model. It roughly measured  34 x 77 cm

The forest silhouette design

It was a pleasure to work at Carvalho Studio for a day, and will hopefully work there again in the near future.

They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (4)

 7/3/12

With the show starting today, everything has been completed. Since the last post, the posters have all been put up around the theatre; across the back section and across the adjoining pillar. The bed section has had flats put up inside it to mask the walls, which has since been painted black and dressed appropriately with a noticeboard full of photos and sign-up sheets from the age. The hours elapsed board has had the font amended and extra panels made for the ease of the cast. Also, it has been painted to give it a wooded effect. With the 6ft section up and ready, it has been masked with sheets of board and then had posters scattered across the masking. For Rocky’s office, a flat was reconditioned to be able to accommodate a door. When the door was found, it was a flat black; it has since been cut and now has a window made from a frosted gel. A new addition to the design was a banner that hangs above the postered section which reads ‘Marathon Dance Contest 1936’.

The show run from Wednesday 7^th March through to Friday the 9^th at 7.30pm each day, with a matinee on the 7^th at 4.30pm.

All in all, this production was an absolute delight to work on. It had a great production team and a great work ethic behind everyone involved.; it’s been a pleasure working alongside TA2 and the technicians.

They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (3)

22/2/12

Scaffolding for the set was cut today (6 x 6ft scaffold poles), but we are still currently waiting for the supplier to deliver the rest (another 6 poles). Also, work began today on the ‘Hours danced’ board. Using old materials found in the workshop, a 60 x 140cm board was cut out. To provide the numbers for the board, sheets of board with the same dimensions as an A3 sheet of paper (29.7 x 42cm) were cut, with 13 in total.

24/2/12
Progress on the ‘hours danced’ board continued today; the sheets have been painted white with the numbers in black. The scaffold for the 6ft section also arrived today after much delay from the supplier. The posters have all been printed and are now ready to all be placed on the conservatory section.

They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (2)

23/1/12

The photo shoot was successful; the appropriate cast turned up in an early design of the costume and plenty of photos were taken for myself and the publicity crew to work from. These photos will then be taken and illustrated appropriately to match the style of the intended 1930s material.

To see the photographs taken, please follow the link:
https://picasaweb.google.com/117599584378156466291/TheyShootHorsesDonTTheyPreliminaryPhotos?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCMrg78jMldy8rwE&feat=directlink

21/2/12

Since the photoshoot took several weeks ago, I have since finished work on the posters that will be used for set dressing. With a total of 21 posters, the posters have gone to print to be used to dress the set. The majority of the posters were designed from the photoshoot, but the rest were all deigned as posters you would have seen in a 1930s sports hall where the action of the play takes place. The designs for the posters range from advertisements for the dance marathon itself to posters promoting local businesses, holidays and mayoral candidates. The designs for the posters are all sourced and inspired by the research I found relating to the 1930s, ranging from movie posters to old flyers. These posters will be used to cover the back part of St Mary’s Theatre, the section nicknamed the ‘conservatory’. From the measurements taken, I calculated that we would need around 380 A3 posters to cover the face and side of the conservatory, but that number may change depending on how overlapped the posters will be.

To see the processes of my designs and the final images, please follow this link:
https://picasaweb.google.com/117599584378156466291/TheyShootHorsesDonTTheySetDressingPosters?authuser=0&feat=directlink

During a production meeting, the problem of how to increase the staging area and solve the problem of masking unused space arose. It was my suggestion from a quick doodle on paper to change the shape of the steel deck stage to more of a pronounced L shape rather than the flatter, less pronounced shape of the initial idea model. This has since been approved, and is a major part of the layout of the steel deck part of the staging.  The steel deck area has enough room for a 4-piece band and an upstairs office area for the character ‘Rocky Gravo’. 

Early set concept

Another early set concept

A more finalised set concept, with the 'office' section between the
pillar and the wall

The set set out

The lower part of the steel deck is around a foot from the ground, with the taller section (as of yet to be set up due to suppliers not delivering scaffold in time) at 6 foot high. The steel deck is covered with a tacky-looking orange valance, so as to elaborate upon  the makeshift nature of the actual dance marathon event.

 The theatre floor has been taped off, with the actors playing to a line of action for the rehearsals. The idea for the floor is to convey that this was indeed a beat up old sports hall with markings for sports such a basketball and tennis mapped out in various colours of LX tape. Director Patsy Burn was specific about not using red for this; it would draw too much attention away from the action and would stand out more during flashback scenes where the lighting changes dramatically to convey the sense that the scene happens in the past.

The floor has been painted in the style of a worn out dance/ sports hall floor, with layers of grubby yellows and light browns. The sports lines will be added soon.

Concept model for the 'hours danced board'

Also in development is the ‘hours danced board’. After several placements with problems with visibility and functionality, it has been decided that the board will be rigged between the 6ft steel deck and the parallel pillar.

They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1)

I am currently working on a production named They Shoot Horses, Don't They? At St Mary's University.  Directed by Patsy Burn, the production is due to go on early march. My role is to act as a mentor to the students involved in the production; I am there to aid with general ideas, problems that may occur during the design and construction and to oversee what the second year student are doing. They Shoot Horses, Don't They? Is a play set in 1930s Los Angeles - during the great depression. The public submit themselves into dance marathons, forcing them to compete against each other in pairs to win $1000. During the competition, which lasts hundreds of hours, the competitors are only allowed to rest for ten minutes every two hours or they are dropped from the contest.

 At the current stage in the process, I have discussed the set ideas with designer Tina Bicat. From there, I have begun to gather research ideas and designs for the production. 

An idea that came up early on was to cover the bare walls of St Mary's theatre with posters of the era.  These would have to be new designs of our own creation. Alongside some members of the crew, we have plans to have at least ten different designs of posters to cover the walls. The posters which I have in mind have members of the cast in poses based on film and dance posters from the 1930s, so as to give an edge of familiarity and authenticity to them. My method will entail the actual drawing of the subjects SketchBook Pro, then importing and finishing the posters on Photoshop. These posters will also work hand in hand with the posters that will be used to promote the show; reworked versions of the promotional ones will be included in the show itself.

With a photo shoot scheduled soon, work on the posters will continue with a greater depth of research to back it up.

Fasymmetric Theory (2nd Run) - February 2012

The Second Run

 After the initial run of Fasymmetric Theory, we were encouraged as a company to put on another run in a different space and promote ourselves to theatre magnates and theatre festivals. The reaction we got from the run prompted us to think bigger and take the production further. Lecture Mark Griffin advised us to apply to perform at the International Student Drama Festival in Sheffield in the summer. To become part of the festival, we need to perform again in a new space. With Studio 3 at St Mary's being our new venue, the company is setting out to rework the production for a smaller space. This ultimately means less set, fewer lights and a few cuts within the script. As set designer, my task is to water down the set to work to the same effectiveness as the first production did, but with much less of the rostra. Ideally, I think we need to keep the use of levels and have the same sort of spread of the set, so as to keep it broad enough to be as useful as possible for the majority of the scenes.     

Early rough set plan

The set design sticks to the same rough idea of creating a playground for the actors, but on a much smaller scale. Although I could have stuck to the same set layout in a less dense format, I consciously chose to reconstruct the shape. The new layout retains the use of asymmetry and the use of a downstage centre set of blocks

Final set plan front elevation

Final set plan birds-eye elevation

Props remained largely the same as the initial run of
the play, except for those that would have needed to change due to re-writes. One of these  changes is the death of one of the ‘Goodness’ characters in the scene ‘Goodness’. As opposed to eating slug pellets, the character will now be felled with a shovel. Another change was the clothing on the puppets, as the clothes used before were departmental, it was necessary to source new clothes.

A new role I have taken on in the current production of Fasymmetric Theory is that of Graphic Designer for the new posters. Although admittedly not the largest task in the world for this production, I still threw myself into the task at hand. The posters are simple, clean, crisp and in black and white to cut down costing. 

Fasymmetric Theory re-premiers February 16th at 7.30.

See Facebook for more details

https://www.facebook.com/events/334269666605731/