An overview of the elements of scenic design.

2. Scenic/Costume Design
Learning Objectives
• Identify the visual elements and principles of design.
• Describe how scenic and costume design contribute to the theatrical power of a play or
musical.
• Apply the terms and vocabulary to specific examples of live theatre to identify and
differentiate the effects of scenery and costumes on a production.
• Discuss the tools and processes that scenic and costume designers use to accomplish their
art.
• Discuss the contributions made by other related personnel to a theatrical production.

3. Scenic/Costume Design
Key Concepts
• The scenic and costume designers help bring to life in three
dimensions the world of the play, taking into account tone or
mood, level of abstraction, period and location, and aesthetics of
the play being produced.
• Set and costume design are as old as theatre itself.
• Although today, illusionism, or realism, is the dominant mode for
set design, throughout history it has shifted from realistic to
abstract to combinations of the two.

4. Scenic/Costume Design
Key Concepts
• Designers' working processes may differ, but most utilize a similar set of
building blocks and working methods. The materials used by the costume
designer are somewhat more limited than those used by the scenographer.
• Both scenic and costume design involve an elaborate multi-step process,
from play analysis to realization on stage.
• Careers in scenic or costume design require extensive training, either
through apprenticeships in theatres or, more commonly, through more
formal educational environments.

5. Scenic/Costume Design
• What does a set/costume designer do?
– Tell the story through their design

6. Brief History of Theatre Design
• Greek skene (background)
• Medieval wagons on wheels
• Renaissance paints perspectives, moves changing scenery, and
adds vertical areas and furniture
• 17th-19th c invents box set (room with 3 walls) and recreates
historical periods
• 19th-20th c symbolizes scenery, lighting, costumes
• 20th-21st c designs technological eclecticism

7. Scenic/Costume Design:
Greek skene

8. Scenic/Costume Design:
Pageant Wagons

9. Perspective Painting in Scenic Design

10. Scenic/Costume Design
• Realist sets are relatively new (circa mid-to-late 1800s)
– Rejected two-dimensional flats for three-dimensional space

11. Scenic/Costume Design:
Design Eclecticism
The Wooster Group, Vieux Carre

12. Designer Working Methods
• Designers ask these questions:
– How many settings are required?
– What size and shape will the stage be?
– How will the scenery be moved or shifted?
– What materials will be used to build the scenery?
– Are there any special effects?

13. Scenic/Costume Design:
Creating a Concept
• Designers create mood and atmosphere through design
– Realistic? Metaphorical?
• Work with director to identify themes/images/metaphors
– Base their designs off of these

14. Processes for Building Scenery
• Draw groundplan in scale to space
• Draft blueprints of front/side elevations and
measurements for all flats, platforms, units

15. Scenic and Costume Design
• Just as critics, directors, and actors read in specific ways,
designers read in specific ways
– Try to visualize the world the characters live in
• Environment
• Clothing
• Time of day
• weather

16. Scenic/Costume Design

17. Scenic/Costume Design

18. Scenic/Costume Design

19. Scenic and Costume Design:
Elements of Visual Design
• Line
• Shape
• Space
• Color
• Texture
• Ornamentation

20. Scenic and Costume Design
Line
• Defines boundaries
• Permits us to perceive shape and form
• Either straight or curved

21. Scenic and Costume Design
Line
Top: Romeo and Juliet, designer Courtland Jones. Left, Elephant Man, design by Toni-Leslie James

22. Scenic and Costume Design:
Shape and Space
• Often grouped together as Mass
• Works in three-dimensions
• Defined shape (square, round, oblong, etc.)
• Space (height, width, thickness)

23. Scenic Design:
Shape and Space
Left, Julius Caesar, designer Jonathan Midents. Right, Waiting for Spring, designer Alex Woodward

24. Scenic/Costume Design
Color
• Three basic properties
– Hue allows us to identity a color
• Primary hues: yellow, red, blue
• Secondary hues: orange, violet, green
– Saturation/intensity is the purity of color
– Value is lightness or darkness of a color
• Colors light in value are tints
• Colors dark in value are shads
• Influence mood and atmosphere

25. Scenic/Costume Design:
Color
Note the hues of these iconic characters: Superman in primary colors, the Joker in secondry
colors.

26. Scenic/Costume Design:
Color
Left, The Goat, costume design by Anthony Tran. Right, Reasons to be Pretty, costumes by Gail
Astrid Buckley

27. Scenic/Costume Design:
Texture
• Quality of sets and costumes
– Smoothness
– Roughness
– Shininess
– Softness
– graininess

28. Scenic/Costume Design:
Texture
Left, A Doll’s House, design by Judith Croft. Right, The Lower Depths, design by Kie Yomomoto

29. Scenic/Costume Design:
Ornamentation
• Paintings
• Decorative Motifs
• Wallpaper Patterns
• Ruffles
• Buttons
• Fringe
• Lace

30. Scenic/Costume Design:
Ornamentation
Left, Ivanov, set design by Catherina Scholten. Right, The Beaux Strategem

31. Principles of Design
• Balance
– The distribution of weight in the space, so no element overpowers the others
• Variety
– Numerous uses of forms or types through design
• Proportion
– Measurement of size and quantity of elements within the composition
• Rhythm
– Pattern of consistency in color/lines
• Focus
– Purposeful direction of the eye of the viewer; emotional and/or critical response
• Harmony
– Untiy of all elements of design in the final product

32. Reading Elements and Principles of Design
Blood Wedding

33. Reading Elements and Principles of Design
Machinal

34. Reading Elements and Principles of Design
Medea

35. Reading Elements and Principles of Design
Hamlet Variations

36. Reading Elements and Principles of Design
The Woman Without a Shadow

37. Reading Elements and Principles of Design
Stirred From a Dream

38. Reading Elements and Principles of Design
Metamorphoses

39. Scenic/Costume Design:
Technical Vocabulary
• Flat
– Wooden or metal frame hung to add levels and isolate locations

40. Scenic/Costume Design:
Technical Vocabulary
• Drops
– Large painted canvases usually hung in the background to provide
locale
True West and The Miser

41. Scenic/Costume Design:
Technical Vocabulary
• Cyclorama (The “Cyc”)
– Large, white, tautly drawn curtain that can be used to project colors
for background
Dancing at Lughnasa and Water by the Spoonful

42. Scenic/Costume Design:
Props
• Stage Properties (“Props”)
– Items used by actors on stage
– Several different categories: costume props, stage props, acting props