#the general history of modern theatre design as we recognize it starts in like 1900

[sanstropfremir]

if it’s okay, can you share more about what you do as a career? there aren’t a lot of mainstream media that focuses on the work that goes behind the scenes and reading through your kingdom reviews, it seems v interesting! of course, that is if you’re comfortable with sharing. if not pls disregard.

also are there any resources that you would recommend to learn more about the things you’ve talked about (e.g. stage design, lighting, etc)?

sure! i just got my mfa (officially!!!) in contemporary art studio practice and my undergraduate degree is in theatre design, with a specialty in set, costume, and lighting! i’ve been working professionally for the last seven years doing mainly theatre design and stage management. i’m also a photographer and i’ve written and produced three experimental plays. i make clothing, do prop building, make experimental publications, etcetera etcetera, etcetera.

do you want me to share what the process is for doing a theatre design gig? i can talk about that briefly if you like!

so you start off with getting a contract for a job, obviously, and then the process goes something like this:

script/text analysis -> design meetings with director/other designers -> preliminary design presentations -> design reassessment -> final design presentations -> rehearsal/production start -> integrated technical/dress rehearsals -> show opening

you start with getting your script/source material, and reading it several dozen times in order to pick out all the little details of when, where, and who that are embedded in it. basically you’re looking for anything that will help you show the story to the audience. it could be as simple as what’s in the stage directions, but it’s also looking at what the characters are talking about. does someone mention the weather? the time of day? what someone is wearing? here’s a single page of a paper exercise example script analysis i did for one of my classes last year:

and yes, your script pages do all end up looking like this. then once you have all your logistics, you start doing meetings with the director in order to figure out what they want to see on the stage: if they have any overall ideas for concept, what themes they want to highlight, who the cast is, that kind of thing. you pitch any ideas you have here too. then you start meeting with the other designers and make sure you’re all on the same page about everything. there are usually a lot of meetings in this part of the process. like a lot. and lots of emails. then, once you’ve got a handle on everything, you’ll do a preliminary design presentation where you show early costume plates, maquettes, colour swatches and the like to the other designers, director, producers, and technical staff, in order to see if everything is feasible. once it all gets oked, you can proceed to doing final designs (if it doesn’t get oked, you go back and redesign and repeat). final designs are shown on the first day of rehearsal in a presentation to the whole company, including the actors, so they start rehearsal with an idea of what the stage and their costumes will look like. and once rehearsal starts, you go into production actually making the designs, which includes shopping for materials, working with technical staff, scheduling fittings, etc. you have to have everything done for tech week, which is the week before opening where all the design elements get integrated. tech week is long and hellish but it’s where you see the show start to come together. at the end of tech week is dress rehearsal, and then there’s usually a dark day (day off) before previews, and then opening night! this process isn’t going to be exactly the same for something like kpop, but all the same parts are gonna be there.

honestly there's not that many good books about theatre design. i’m sure there are a few floating around out there, but the way that i learned in university (somewhat ironically) was all through handed down knowledge. all of my professors are still working designers, so i learned directly from their practices and not actually from a book someone wrote. a lot of the history of design is not very well documented either, because it’s mostly passed down knowledge. theatre people are just bad at writing books in general, but design is probably the worst offender because the profession is really new (and small) in comparison to something like directing or acting. if you can get your hands on either of the world scenography books, those are a great start to looking at what a brief history of modern performance design looks like, but if you want to know what i learned in particular in university, pamela howard’s book what is scenography is the easiest and most concise. i also used rachel hann’s book beyond scenography for my dissertation, but she’s a lot more academic. she’s also got a youtube channel i think? the thing about design as a field is that nothing is really standardized, so experience and methods vary widely from person to person and country to country, even if the process stays relatively the same.

#if people are interested in specific parts of this just let me know #i can explain some stuff in more detail i just ran over the method really fast here #also i should preface that canadian theatre design is SUPER young and small in comparison to a lot of countries #there may very well be a writing in other languages that i do not know about #im not even that familiar with british design other than those designers that started the general canadian school in the 50s #and yes that is the 1950s i am not joking when i say theatre design is young #and i am not familiar with the schools of thought in the states #the general history of modern theatre design as we recognize it starts in like 1900 #obviously it goes back a lot farther than that but the job of 'designer' doesnt appear until then #prior to that it's like #the collective work of unacknowledged craftspeople #its obviously more complicated than this im just dredging up my theatre history notes from my brain #i dont even know what to tag this as since its not about kpop #maybe ill make a #general design questions #tag and use that as a miscellaneous dump #text #answers