Is there a Generic Set good for any show?

Leo Mauler

Member
I am taking a class in Contemporary Theatre, and the final project is a group project, a theatre company proposing a season of a play, a musical, and an "original play" to investors. Our group is five members, and four of them pick the musical and the play, and have to act out a scene from the "original play", a scene written by the group of a fictitious play. The fifth is the Designer, and has to develop the set design, ideally one set with minimal changes for all three productions. I'm the Designer, so I don't have to act in the conventional sense, just present the set and give a speech on it. The remaining four members of my group have yet to suggest a single play, let alone write the scene for the "original play."

Now, the teacher was a shrewd lady, and stated early on that unlike most group projects, if one or more group members fail to do their part in the group, only they will fail and the others who do their parts will succeed. The problem with being the Designer is that I'm used to whipping out the CAD application to design a set for a known play, but in this case if my other group members fail to pick plays, I'm left without a specific play for which a set design is needed.

I had thought of just building a black box, sticking in two platforms, and using a cute 1:24 scale fogger I happen to own--people in space, in smoke--but I can't imagine this will go over well with the teacher either.

Can anyone suggest a set type which would work for most plays? I'm really lost without some idea of parameters for the design.
 
For a historical perspective (that may or may not prove inspirational for the assignment), look up the book Suspended Worlds: Historic Theater Scenery in Northern New England by Christine Hadsel. A century ago, local theaters would often have had a set of a half dozen or so stock scenic flats in front of which any traveling shows would have performed. (As an aside, I must admit I'm a bit partial to this book because it features rather prominently the town hall in the little town of Reading, VT, where I grew up and in which I performed in various elementary school productions. It's rather surprising how little the town hall has changed over the years; it was in the late 1980s or early 1990s that the stage light switch board just offstage was upgraded from exposed knife switches and rheostats to modern light switches and dimmer switches.)

At any rate, the basic truth is that a great many plays and even musicals can be performed with minimal sets, largely consisting of basic set pieces like chairs and tables and planters such as are essential to the action. I suspect that so long as you don't design something too constraining (say by taking up most of the stage) or too strongly tied to a particular style or era, you probably could adapt most plays to be workable in the set. Maybe come up with two or three rough concepts with quick sketches and get your fellow group members to select amongst them, or at least use them as a jumping-off point to come up with a general direction.
 
Build it basic. Some actor boxes and black box. If the shrewd lady says why so minimal tell her theatre is about imagination and that 3/4 of the nations theatres don’t have the budget to do much more than that. Tell her to close her eyes and listen to the actors and they should be able to verbally set the time/place/set
 
And don’t forget the big friggin flying staircase up center in case somebody wants to do Man of La Mancha

But, no, no such thing as the generic set. But if you think of all the plays that take place indoor, somebodies living room, basement, etc.... are 3 walls, maybe 2 door units, some window units. Have that kind of stuff in stock goes a long way towards reducing the build budget.
 
My guess is that this will be a case where your grade depends very little on what you design, and a whole lot on how well you explain your design. As long as you come up with something reasonably flexible and can confidently explain how it might be used to suit a variety of different needs, then you should be in good shape.

So, think about stock scenery elements (platforms, flats, maybe some periaktoi?), and how they could be built to be modular and easily rearranged for the different shows. Bonus points for considering storage between shows! Probably the only way you can get really specific with design elements from the start is if there's an overall theme for the season that you could play off of... a question worth raising with your group. Otherwise, just focus on the basic stock elements for now and maybe try to find one special thing you can add near the end to differentiate each show.
 
Oooh, a giant center staircase sounds good. But seriously, all the ideas are good ones. I'm so used to doing what the director and the choreographer require that I didn't remember most plays have a very similar set: backdrops of some sort, a bit of furniture, and possibly a rug.

Now off to develop a Les Miserables transformer set...
 
Oooh, a giant center staircase sounds good. But seriously, all the ideas are good ones. I'm so used to doing what the director and the choreographer require that I didn't remember most plays have a very similar set: backdrops of some sort, a bit of furniture, and possibly a rug.

Now off to develop a Les Miserables transformer set...
@Leo Mauler Did you ever see, or hear about, a New York City off Broadway production of Les Mis' in which the performers stood on stage and side-stepped in circles in lieu of building a revolve for their off Broadway production? (I was with a tour in Broadway's Shubert; my wife came to town for a few days, caught the off Broadway Les Mis' while she was in town and was still convulsing with laughter when we next met.)
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard
 
I have two competing thoughts. One lyrical, one practical

Lyrical ( channeling my old theatre professor). “all you need is two boards and a passion “

Practical - Sounds like you should talk to your professor. Your partners are not doing their part.
 
Think about modular elements that can be reconfigured to create a different location. You don't need walls to for people to know you are indoors, you don't need trees for people to understand you are in a forest. Consider where the main acting areas need to be and where entrances and exits need to happen.
 
To Quote one of our long term Director/artist/painters "Anything worth doing, is worth doing in front of a black curtain"

I wouldn't risk my grade on it... but I have several times risked small crossover type scenes on it.
 
@RonHebbard Huh? I must be slow tonight.
@RickR No Sir; I'm being unspeakably rude and will only hint at my train of thought: Recall Donald's tweets regarding a number of his fellow American females needing to go home to their country of birth; several of the ladies being referred to were born and raised in that 'foreign country' of California.
Too rude for Control Booth and DEFINITELY more than enough said.
Toodleoo!
Ron (from north of Donald's walls) Hebbard
 
Maybe go with a classic Shakespeare - something like the IL Shakes Fest - it can be quite a flexible setup.
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