I do not have a good solution for you, but your post reminded me of our fall
play "Our Town" this season.
The director wanted to do theater in the round, except for the fact that we have a
proscenium house, and putting the audience on
stage would: 1. Cut our audience area by two thirds by seating them on
stage on risers. 2. Create very uncomfortable seating compared to our very nice theater seats. 3. Seriously hinder our lighting scheme (how to light the actors without lighting the audience) and 4. Most importantly, BREAK fire code for the space, since she wanted to
block the front of the
stage with seating.
When I explained my concerns, she did what she always does. She gets upset that I am not able to pull her
vision out of my behind and put it on
stage just the way it looked in whatever trade magazine she just looked at when she got the idea. I gave her several options, trying my best to at least accommodate the "Concept" of what she had in mind. But since she could not have that EXACT thing, she then started sending me show images from sets of entirely unrelated shows. I should have stopped her right there, but still, I attempted to give her what she was asking for, even when clearly she no longer had a specific idea. In the end, I made a set that I was not happy with, and the show was not something I was very proud of. (And yes, "Our Town" does not normally even have a set. I did explain this. An empty
stage was too scary for her with the actors she had to work with)
When your Director asks for an "endless void", or something really hard to create in a concrete way, then the first thing to do is to get the Director to provide an example that you can see, or to get the Director to be extremely specific. maybe he just wants it as dark as you can make it. You may spend a ton of time on something that is never going to match what is in the Directors head.
Good luck to you.
I'm a HS
lighting designer lighting Waiting for Godot, and we are doing it rather strangely. We are going to have the audience seated in the back of the
stage on risers facing the pit areas, where the actors will be performing. The
house will be behind the actors. The purpose of this massive space is to create "an endless void of loneliness" (thanks Director) and the seats/sconces/portals will take away from that. Any ideas on how to give the illusion of an immense empty space, without showing any of the various chairs/portals/doors that could take away from the atmosphere?