Statement on Creative Activity
Introduction
My job as a scene designer seems only a small portion because the core of the theatrical experience may be the performers on stage in the view of many spectators. However, the totality of performing arts is fulfilled only through the theatre design, since the theatrical experience always has a certain look and style which makes it extremely visual. My task within a production team is scene design which creates the style and the world of the play around the characters. While I have designed the sets for numerous productions, I have developed and explored scene design based on the following philosophy and process.
Robert Edmund Jones, one of the most outstanding American scene designers in the theatre history, mentioned that “a stage setting has no independent life of its own. Its emphasis is directed toward the performance. In the absence of the actor it does not exist.” As I have been working on stage scenery, I realize more fully the essence of his statement. Even though scenery is often the first thing that we think of under the visual elements in theatre, it must not overwhelm the entire performance but it should rather be hidden and emerge from the actors’ activity. I try not to design only set but try to understand the actions throughout the whole play because the set onstage should be able to support the actions instead of being a decorative background. I love to talk about all possible actions with the directors and build up the scene together. During this conversation I can think of more interesting way to deal with the scenes and finally make better suggestions to the directors. It is very helpful for me to design effective and practical set rather than elaborate and beautiful set. In other words, I try to design the scene, not the set.
The scenery does not always exist to indicate where the scenes take place but it must support to resonate the most interesting visual style of the play. My design tends to be more stylized than realistic because I am always interested in creating a conceptual space related to some ideas in design. The set without ideas results in a boring scenery. In the process of hatching multiple ideas, many times struggling process, I can enjoy the whole design process which is finally able to make a successful show. I love theatricality. I believe that the theatre should be theatrical on stage. This is what makes the theatre more interesting work of art, and what makes big difference between movie and theatre. The stylized set allows a limited theatre space to be more unlimited so that the audience is able to feel imaginative experience during the show.
The design process depends on the given circumstances such as type of the play, the budget, and the theatre space and so on. However, to achieve my goals, I usually move forward the following steps: Incubation (analysis on a play and production circumstances), Research (visual research), Development (design idea development), Implementation (establishment of design) and Revision. The process often changes depending upon the project. Each step is often overlapped each other during the whole process. I introduce my design philosophy for each step with some of examples from the productions that I have designed.
INCUBATION
Incubation means simply planning in my definition. This step seems very stable and motionless but this step is probably the most important in the whole design process because I believe that design is not just the final product but it is the planning. This step includes all the activities before hatching some of the concrete design ideas. It is the collection of all the information about production’s given circumstances such as the budget, theatre space, technical support, labor hours, production schedule, the audience, the purpose of the event, theatre facility and so on.
Collecting all the information about a play from the director is also a part of this step. Some directors are very strong in the visual world of the play. Others are more textual and dramaturgic without giving a visual atmosphere. Depending upon the type of the director I also need to plan the process ahead of time. Play breakdown, taking a note, visualizing my brainstorm, and planning the direction of my visual research are all in this step. Discovering helpful sources on playwright, historical background on the play, and critical response on the previous production frequently provides me with better understanding about a play and drives me into the right direction. I can catch a sense of direction – what kinds of visual research would be a good fit to my design so that I can speed up my design process in a given time frame. I tend to escape past production photos because they often make my brain go numb and refuse me to generate creative thinking. Then, I can hardly eliminate my prejudice.
Incubation step tells me how I need to proceed the whole design process because the process is different for each production. In the case of Wonders Never Cease, the world premiere play, I relied more on my brainstorm than a lot of visual research. Once I read the script, I realized there are more than twenty locations which are ultimately meaningless to make all the differentiations of where scenes take place. I intentionally obscured the location and illuminate the style of the play so we can accentuate the relationship of the characters and their comic events. The set was entirely made out of multi-cubes. The film projected on the screen was used during the transitional moments to help the audience where we move to. News segment and Oprah Winfrey show were also projected on the screen during the scene.
In After Juliet based on the actions of their cousins since the death of Romeo and Juliet, I also designed from my brainstorm before research. I love brainstorming but also nervous about the struggling design process. It is sometimes hard to find the right research images to support my brainstorming ideas. The images from my brainstorming are not as accurate and concrete as the research materials. It is timeless play that could takes place anywhere which requires a strong visual style. Therefore, elements that help identify a certain time period or culture, are intentionally omitted. I wanted to overlay the old and crude feel of environment to juxtapose with highly contemporary costumes.
RESEARCH
This step is considered a visual research for me. The research includes a visual research as well as a dramaturgic research to examine such things as the playwright, social, cultural, and historical background of the play. In my design process, dramaturgic research is usually done before I meet the director at the first production meeting, which should be in the first step, incubation. The visual research is also a collecting step which means gathering all the visual images capable to assist my design. This step is also significant since it directly connects to my final set.
A visual research establishes historical accuracy for a certain time pried. It also gives a specific visual style supporting my vague inspiration. It becomes a great foundation that I can develop the ideas to extreme further. For West Side Story I counted more on the historical photographs during mid-20th century in urban city like New York. The director provided me with a clear visual direction. She loved the fire-escapes giving the crisp quality of frame structure. I explored tons of fire-escape images to find the best image that I pictured in mind. I pursued more stylized set illuminating the right feeling rather than identifying a location. Finally, one ideal research image became directly one of major sceneries. It consisted of three main sceneries, one stationary and two castered sceneries which allow us to make varied different configuration for each scene. The stationary set (13’ wide x 24’ tall) at the center stage was huge with fire escapes running along the brick wall in detailed.
I look at all kinds of visual materials like paintings, sculpture, photographs, installation arts, architecture, and illustration from a number of sources. I love to apply all sorts of visual arts to the sets because the theatre is a visual art and one of the most highly advanced applied arts. My inspiration often comes from paintings and installation arts. These are always interesting, impressive and stylized in some ways, and very helpful to catch a certain feelings. I am more of a designer than a visual artist. In other words, my duty is assembling, organizing and dissecting all sorts of visual arts already created by genius visual artists, and recreating to illuminate the play. When I worked on Animal Farm, I began to research farmhouse and barn. However, later on I spent a lot more times to research cubism arts. I thought that cubism art like Picasso or Braque’s paintings or sculpture would be very interesting to achieve the funny, childlike, and irony feelings at some degrees. Every single object onstage was reinterpreted into cubism with more lines and surfaces and also was much simplified. The farmhouse is designed in crooked form and becomes a sculptural piece of work with farming tools - hoe, wheel, and ladder.
I focused heavily on historical research for The Hiding Place based on the autobiography by Corrie Ten Boom, who fought the Nazi madness during World War II. I had to research the actual Ten Boom’s house and Ravensbrück concentration camp inside and outside. Shadowlands was another historical research heavy production which required British architecture – oxford dining, café, C.S. Lewis’ home during the mid 20th century. Once I collect abundant historical research materials, I sort things out to leave only a few images as a major iconic element for the play. To discard images is always harder than to collect images. The sliding oxford window was the key element for this production.
DEVELOPMENT
Development of design is the most struggling step in the whole design process. Facing all of the problems begins in this step. I have to solve all the problems occurring during this process. Even during this step I have to move back and forth many times to research and incubation step. Sometimes I need to go back to the script and read it again. Sometimes I need to research more images as I develop the design. As a scene designer I have to take a serious consideration on the set changes and the use of sets during the transitional moments. I must make sure that every scenic unit works for the entire show with the number of actors and given backstage running crews.
In case of The Hiding Place I was thrilled but I had the most struggling design process. The director particularly asked me to create two obviously different feelings in Act I and Act II. Act I takes place in the house for Dutch family who took in Jews and made their home "The Hiding Place", while the scenes in Act II quickly moves from a prison, Holland, to the Ravensbrück concentration camp. He wanted to portray juxtaposition between a warmth and charm of Dutch family in Act I, and the cruelty and human sufferings in Act II, questioning to the audience regarding forgiveness of those who commit such atrocities toward mankind.
It was confusing to think of two acts at the same time. At first, I completely ignored the concentration camp and concentrated on Corrie Ten Boom’s house to grasp the beginning of design process. Then, I divided up the entire set into five wagon sceneries so that each scenery could wheel in and out. For Act II we used only three wagon units to create the concentration camp and two units were discarded offstage. During the concentration camp scene, the barrack revolved by the actors intermittently for inside and outside of the barrack as one of actions of the play. Many decoration details and furniture were used to hide the rustic skeleton of the house for Act I, but all of the furniture and decoration details were wiped out during the intermission.
It was very interesting design process for Shadowlands in terms of scene changes. I tried to think simple and interesting ways to change scenes, which ended up designing sliding shutter units. At first, I designed two parallel sliding shutter units running stage left and right. When it is open, each location like oxford dining, Lewis’ home, Joy’s home and hospital was revealed with the different furniture setup. A couple of short scenes took place in front of the sliding shutters while the scene change happened behind the shutters. The problem was that we could not use downstage as a major acting space due to the parallel shutters. The shutters were at an angle into the audience direction so that it provided more downstage space.
Wonders Never Cease was quite stressful to work on because I could not figure out until I redesigned four times. It was not the scene change heavy show but the hospital scenes particularly bothered my design process. There is no effective way to bring the hospital bed on and offstage for intermittent hospital scenes during the show. Dealing with the projector screen was another hard task. I had to think about the height, the position of the projector screen and projector, the number of screen within the entire set, and the scene changes. Finally, I decided to have the stationary bed and hospital equipment onstage behind the projector screen occasionally flew in and out. Some of the cubes as the furniture are removed and brought back into the place by the actors. A number of scene changes were quick and seamless during the show.
In order to develop my design idea, sketch is vital to me. After doing enough research, I start doing rough sketches to visualize the scenes. They are not just the drawings of what the set is going to look like, but they are more like a storyboard. James and the Giant Peach is a good example. I often do as many thumbnail sketches as necessary to connect my research images with my inspiration in this step. Although I have brilliant ideas in my mind, it is hard to be determined they are good or not before it is visualized on a piece of paper. My job is all about visual. While doing many quick renderings with various art mediums such as pencil, charcoal, pastel, pen, or watercolor, they give a birth to another that makes another idea like a series of dominos. The rendering is my quickest idea generator and effective communication tool. I love to play with different art mediums. They give different feelings.
I also frequently use the computer-aid-renderings. It is able to quickly produce many different looks in details to some extent. Once I have a few sketches at the beginning, I bring the drawings into the computer and work them on in details. Sometimes I print it off and rework it with my hand. The renderings for West Side Story were done by this way. The computer is a great tool to make a detailed rendering quickly. Once I feel positive on my design from the renderings, I build a quick crappy paper model to feel the relationship between the figure, space and the set. If my director and I like the overall view, I move on to the next step, implementation.
IMPLEMENTATION
Implementation is the design establishment. The final model, construction drawings, and the paint elevations are created in this step. Therefore, it is more relaxed process than developing process because most of design problems have been solved at the previous step and determined. However, there would be always some issues that need to be solved and corrected. During this step, I draft all the construction drawings out for a technical director and build the color model, usually 3:8, or 1:2 in scale depending upon the situation. In the case of a white model, I do a 1:4 scale model. I do not really do the final rendering because the rendering itself is not an accurate tool for a technical director and a scenic artist. No matter how accurately the rendering is done, it is still 2-dimensional work which is totally different from the real 3-dimensional stage. I rather spend more times on making accurate construction drawings and a model. Obviously, model construction takes more time than renderings but it helps tremendously in many aspects. The model functioned as a 3-dimensional map for Female Transport, when a body-hung-scene was discussed. It gave a strong sense of where would be the best place for hanging and how we approach and so on. I often use the color model as a paint elevation. This is why I build it in bigger scale 3:8 or 1:2. It is the best tool for the scenic artists because it gives the whole view as well as each separate unit. For the constructional drawing, I do a hand drafting. I love the quality of drawing drafted by a hand. It looks very artistic. The construction drawing is a part of my arts. Once I do the hand drafting, I work with the computer to give extra details and accuracy.
REVISION
When my design is complete, I review all of my work if my final product reaches the final design goal. Usually it happens during the tech and dress rehearsals for about five days when I am able to see my set together with all other elements – costume, lighting, actors, props, sound on the stage. This is the last minutes that we can fix something if necessary before the show opens. I must be realistic and revise only things capable to be fixed during the given time. Once the last polish is done at the last moment, the curtain is up.
Conclusion
Scene design is my passion in theatre. I will keep trying to explore further in the professional field and work with various theatre artists in diverse venues. It is great learning opportunities as a designer to work with different people and work at different venues. Mostly I have designed the sets for a proscenium stage which is the most prevalent stage, but I love to explore different kinds of stage such as an ‘arena’ – a round stage or a ‘thrust’ – a combined stage with proscenium and arena. I feel that I need continuous research projects in theatre market to be able to teach my students deeper level. As a designer and an educator my research projects and teaching are not separate but a continuous circular activity. Because I fully understand that abundant production experiences can make my classes more productive and interest my students.
