Early stage sets of the 16th and 17th Century-

Most early formal stage performances were performed to entertain kings, queens and courtiers in royal courts and palaces. Only the best artist and architects were asked to design the sets at the time. They were mainly built in the palaces or grounds and were usually semi permanent. 

Professional Practice- Case Study Of A Theatre Designer

Maria Bjornson- Theatre Designer

Maria is the famous designer for her elegant and ingenious design for Phantom of the Opera; this is one of the most famous music theatre productions in contemporary theatre entertainment.

In 1950 Bjornson moved to the UK with her mother and started to get educated at a French school. She later attended the Central School of Art and Design where she studied under her professor Ralph Koltai Her early theatre career was spent at the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow which is a theatre company dedicated to being accessible and affordable for the Glasgow community.

I feel that her work is very good in the sense of its uniqueness, the way in which Maria plans out the stage design and carefully plans out her work with no rush. This gives it a sense of not rushing something so brilliant and wonderful on a theatre set. I am also proud in a sense that she was a normal schooled person, who gained the chance to become someone very important by accomplishing her studies and gaining the best experiences she could, yet still using her own ideas. She also completes all the requirements of the perfect set designer, as they should all be good at communicating with their client and generating their visual ideas. 

Introduction To The Task

My name is Mazia Laddour. I am studying the Creative and Media Diploma, with A-Level Textiles; they are both two-year courses. My course is challenging in some ways yet I am eager to face these challenges by trying my hardest in all units.

This Creative and Media Diploma consists of many Units and one of them is Set Design with Ms Wyglindacz, the main tasks for this Unit are publicizing a production of “The Little Shop Of Horrors” taking place in the school, in order to be accurate I have to carry out an amount of research and interview my client Miss Jones. I will try my best to meet all of the requirements when making props and designing the set, always remembering to meet my clients ideas.

Researching different images of 1950’s New York has helped me gain an insight on what I should be doing when making the set, I have created a mood board using all the images I feel will fit into my brief for designing the set. I hope that my ideas I contribute will be successful and help my client especially as I am working with her for professional guidance and ideas. 

Health and safety precautions

Pre-Production

Risk	Solution
Use of power tools	Wear safety equipment, such as masks, safe clothing, goggles and gloves.
Cutting equipment	This includes not walking around with sharp tools, such as knives and always cutting away from the body.
Use of paint and glue	Using water based liquids and cleaning up all spills.
Lifting heavy equipment	Always work in groups and make sure to bend knees not backs.
Making sure the action props were safe for the actors	Especially the plant, always checking on the actor ensuring he can breathe, making sure the parts attached to his body don’t dig into his body, also insisting he has plenty of water to drink as it is very hot in the plant.

Production

Risk	Solution
Stage blackout	Ensuring that none of the crew trip and fall, colliding- making sure the crew use torches, and making sure that all scenery positions are clearly marked out on the floor.
Height hazard	In case of falling off the stage, make sure clear announcements are made to cast/crew, using the curtains, pulling them during blackouts.
Moving scenery around	All crew members have specific rehearsed job roles, such as pulling curtains, using torches during blackouts.
Crowd Control	Always control ticket sales, and make sure staffs are at the doors as people come in to see the production, always research the legal limits of the venue, and draw out seating plans.
Suitable materials	Always checks out fire ret ardency rules for the particular venue, nothing that could harm actors, backstage crew or audience.
Fire	Make clear announcements and signs, carrying out the usual fire precautions, fire extinguishers to be seen.
Props being lost/ misused	Always keep props (weaponry) on specific tables, logged and under control of the prop manager.

The reason why we had to carry out a risk assessment was to gain an insight on how we could help the production run more smoothly, as we wanted the production to be as professional as in the theatre, backstage and on stage too.

Firstly we researched possible risks that could be encountered in a real theatre production, and thought of our own, we started thinking of how we could solve the problems and make them more safer for us to work on and also for the actors/actresses.

Usually in the theatre, risks such as equipment, props being left out and blackouts are looked at very closely as they could be a threat to people working on the set and off.

Aspects like this have to be looked at very closely as there is no time for faults in the theatre, as everything has to be of a high standard and professional. Whilst working backstage of the production, I was in charge of holding two torches and putting them on when there were stage blackouts, to make sure that people were not colliding into each other and tripping up over wires that were used as props.

There was also someone in charge at the back of the stage to make sure the fire exit was clear at all times, making sure that in case there may have been a fire most of the backstage crew would have to exit from the back doors of the stage.

Researching and learning about the main risks encountered in the theatre has taught me that in order for something to work in the industry there has to be very strong communication between the cast and backstage helpers, and team work, as everything has to be perfect especially backstage for no faults to show on stage whilst performing, I feel that the backstage crew are very important in order to have a good show, as they are mostly in charge of making sure nothing goes wrong, and everything runs smoothly. 

Evaluation

My role in this Unit was to create a design for the set of a production-taking place in the school of “The Little Shop Of Horrors”. In order to do this professionally I was required to follow out some research of images, different set designers and stage types. I had gained an understanding of how important sightlines were and why they were created in order for all the audience to be able to see the theatre stage, no matter where they are sitting in the theatre.

I was involved in many practical aspects for the production such as scene painting, prop and action prop constructions, following my visual research I was required to make a graphic design for the poster, and work our all-technical requirements, also involving me with stage management.

Whilst working on all of these jobs I found out that I had to work accurately yet quickly as there was a strict time scale, due to the immovable deadline of the production being viewed. Regarding the group there were many separate responsibilities, requiring a management system and organizational skills, this also helped me gain many organization skills as I learnt that talking to fellow group members can make something more easier for you, also sharing ideas between the group made us realize that each of us had something that would allow us to benefit from it.

I thoroughly enjoyed working on this project, as I found out that I was good at using different images from my 1950’s New York mood board and hanging the images from the mini set, which gave me ideas of how they would look on a backdrop of the stage, this also made me feel more professional as I was testing everything I did carefully, in order to gain the best possible results. Looking at different search engines to find my images was pretty challenging as I had to be careful that the images were clear to see at all times. I also found making some of the images come to life by painting the bricks and some of the props very challenging, as I knew that making them looks as realistic as possible was crucial.

I realized that a key element for working on this project was to work quickly in order to meet the non movable deadline for the set design, I also knew that I had to quickly learn the new skills of knowing how to organize the stage management. I found out that working as a team with good communicational skills was making the job a lot easier for each of us, including me. Whilst working backstage I learnt that communicating with the rest of the crew was crucial, in order to know your queue when to take props out safely onto the stage during a stage blackout, making sure there was no way for yourself and the actors/actresses to be harmed. There was a lot of communication between me and the rest of the crew as some of them were in charge of holding torches to guide us safely onto the stage, I also had to have an understanding that there was a time limit when taking out each of the props, in order for them to be placed accurately for the next scene. 

Designing And Building Of The Plant

In order to make the plant, we used images of how to make one and followed the instructions; we adapted on some of the instructions and used some of our own materials, such as card, foam and paper. We had to read through the instructions and look at each image thoroughly as we did not know where to start on making the plant. After looking at the instructions, we made some of our own decisions and put each idea into making the plant.

These are the images we used to help us create the plant- 

This first image shows how the plant pot can be put onto a table and guided by one of the actors hand to make it move, in some of the scenes, we needed to make two of the plants as there was a hand puppet one and a big one where one of the actors had to stand inside it and move in order for it to look like it was talking and moving.

This second image shows the measurements and how the plant prop could be lifted as a hand puppet and used, it also shows how the hand of the person could grab onto the whole inside of the plants mouth, to make it easier to handle.  

The third image gave us an idea on how to make the big plant more affective, as we needed to figure out how to make it fit onto someone standing, instead of sitting down, as in the instructions it was showing how to make it for someone sitting down. This gave us ideas of having the person stand on a chair and wear the head peace of the plant first, and instead of making a full costume, they would have a piece of green fabric for the stem, with the chair covered by a plant pot.

The fourth image helped us understand how big the head had to be, insuring that it wasn’t too small to allow the person wearing it to breathe. We figured out that by drawing around one of the members of the group and cutting it out, we could visualise how big the headpiece would have to be. 

After looking at all of the images we decided how big the headpiece was going to be, we had already made the hand prop of the plant giving the actor/actress enough hand space to guide the plant around. We also started to make the bigger plant pot to cover the chair that the person holding the plant was going to be on. These instructions had helped us a lot, giving us ideas on how to design the plant and how big it had to be. 

Publishing The Event

In order to make our posters for the event successful, we had to research different posters and analyse them, looking at main colours and fonts used in the posters, this was important as we needed to gain an understanding on what colours would be suitable for a horror and comical production.

Here are some of the posters I decided to look at, when researching connotation, denotation and colours of posters. 

Poster 1-





Connotation-

The poster also portrays another image of the production as the girls on the bottom of the plant, sitting on the car look as if they have something to do with the plant being aggressive toward the characters that it is holding.

Denotation-

The poster shows an image of the main characters of the production, being held up by the plant, it also shows the plant looking aggressive with its mouth open ready to eat one of the characters, this gives the main audience an idea on what the production is all about.

Colours-

The main colours used in the poster are- green, red, black, yellow and blue.

Red is usually seen as the colour to represent blood, yellow and green are used to link to the colour of the plant.

The colour black is mainly used to make the setting look darker and bleaker as it is a horror, so you are most likely to use darker colours other than light.

Typeface/Font-

The title is written using three different typefaces, ‘Little Shop’ is written I a thick block like form, not giving away too much of the story from it, the word ‘Horrors’ does give away a few clues on what the production is about, as it is red and has blood drops falling from it.

Information about the production is written in small print on the bottom of the poster, as the image and title want to be the main items shown on the poster. 

Poster 2-

Colours-

The main colours used in this poster are- brown, green, and red.

These colours all link to the colour of the plant, showing blood and leaves of the blood.

Typeface/Font-

The main typeface used for the title is red and shows blood drops, this also allows the audience that it is a horror, information on the play is given on the bottom right hand corner of the poster, in small print. 

Connotation-

The poster gives of many ideas as the rat running out of the shop door could mean that it has seen something so horrific inside that it got scared and ran away, or it could mean that it has been feeding on the rotting corpses inside the shop.

Denotation-

The poster shows a very well lit shop window, with the plant looking quite aggressive and ready to eat one of the characters, it also shows the shop door half open, with a body’s feet being dragged by the plants stems and a rat running out of the shop, giving us an idea that the plant eats humans. 

Poster 3-

Denotation-

The poster shows an image of the plant facing a woman on the floor, looking in distress, as if it is going to eat her.

Typeface/Font

The fonts used for the title are very similar to the first two posters I have compared, showing blood and using the colours red and yellow, however information about the production is on the left hand corner of the page where the audience can read it clearly, it also has more information written on the left hand side and right hand side of the poster, also allowing the audience to read it.

Connotation-

The image could be showing the plant bending down towards the woman in the poster to help her, as she may have fallen on the road.

As she has her hand on her head showing her to be in distress, looking at the plant in order to help her up from falling.

Colours-

In this poster, the main colours used are- purple, blue, green, red and black.

These colours are also very bright as the poster looks as if a more computerised look is used.

After researching all the posters and learning about what colors would go with each theme, we decided to make a draft poster in order to see whether we would need to make further changes in order to have something very professional to capture the audience’s eye, we then realized that as the audience was mainly the school students, teachers and parents, we had to add more brighter colors and show clearer images giving the audience an idea of what the production was about.

Image of the draft poster

After editing the poster we added more of the colors, corresponding to the plant and blood, using green, red and black as it represented the scary theme of the production, we added an image of the plant, and put it in almost a spotlight of red as it is one of the main characters in the production. Looking at different fonts that could be used, we chose to use a simple small print for other information at the bottom of the page, for the title we used the color red, and made it look like blood drips around the plant. I think that the poster we produced was very affective, as it offered more information, was clearer and easier to read and it also had a clear image of the plant. Not giving too much away. 

After all the planning and changes i had come up with another image of the plants mouth open, at the front of the poster showing that it may want to eat someone or something. I liked this final idea of the poster as it was very affective in the idea that it would not give too much of the story, yet it had one of the main characters on the front of the page. Placing the venue, date and time of the production is crucial as it allows viewers who are wanting to watch the show to know where it is being held and what time and date.

Image Of The Final Poster

 

This is an image of the final idea of the "Little Shop Of Horrors" poster, after moving around images, researching backgrounds, images, typefaces the group had decided to create this poster for the final piece. This final idea was used and put up around the school, one week before the production had started, this was to gain all the publicity we could. The target audience was mainly the school students so I thought using bright colours against a plain and darker background would be more affective and eye catching to the younger students.