KRISTA D. PRICE
Stagecraft: Week 13
(April 26-April 30, 2021)
Important terms/concepts/info are in RED.
Google Classroom assignments are in BLUE.
Ms. Price provides ALL learning for absent students in a self-directed format so there is NO NEED TO ZOOM if quarantined.
Just read & understand/complete each of the day's activities below. You are EXPECTED to keep up with what's going on in class.
This week's unit is focused on:
PROCESS OF (SCENIC) DESIGN: WHERE TO "START"
In our next unit in Stagecraft, we will be learning about THE PROCESS OF DESIGN.
Almost everything created for art or commercial use has gone through a design process. However, many non-artistic people assume that artists simply have a "flash" of inspiration or "just come up with" ideas because they're creative. While I wish that was true, that is RARELY the case. Great ideas and inspiration are typically the culminating results of curiosity, research, and artistic collaboration.
In our next unit, we're going to explore the design process by talking about one of the most important aspects of design in a show: the set. The set in a production can do FAR more than show location. Since the scenery in stage shows (unlike most films) does not have to be LITERAL, the space in which the story is told can be FIGURATIVE, metaphorical, representational, abstract, poetic, and/or uniquely enhanced to get at the "heart" of the show's meaning or characters.
For me, one of the most FUN aspects of deciding how to stage a play/musical (and its characters) is designing the set that will become the "world" in which the story is told. This unit is focused on that process.
DAY 1: The PROCESS of Design / Literal vs. Figurative Design
1.) Chose an area (from the IB Learner Profile) to individually focus on this week. (If absent, be sure to complete this under in your REFLECTION JOURNAL (week 13) in Google Classroom. Discussed the class focus of COLLABORATION for this week.
2. Watched: KP Teaching Video - Design Process & Literal vs. Figurative Design (5:00)
If absent or quarantined, answer the following questions in your Google Classroom Reflection Journal (week 13 - day 1) after/while watching the video.
Title: Design Process & Literal vs. Figurative Design (week 13 - day 1)
1.) List the steps (in order) of the Design Process
2.) What types of things are designers looking for when reading a script and where (specifically) do they find it?
3.) Set design often begins with a show's what?
4.) Which of the nine set designs shown in the video did you find most intriguing and why? (You'll need to pause the video on your favorite to be able to analyze the design.) Was that design literal or figurative?
3. Watched: Designing a Set (3:35)
If absent or quarantined, answer the following questions in your Google Classroom Reflection Journal (week 13 - day 1) after/while watching the video.
Title: Process of Design
1.) What do you need to be a scenic designer? (awareness of space...)
2.) What did the designer share is the PROCESS of designing a set? (talk to...)
3.) What does the designer say "informs the character and what kind of person they are"? the ________
4.) What advice did she give to future designers?
Write this phrase: "There's no such thing as an original idea - it's all an amalgamation of your ________."
4. Read & Listened to chosen musical AND highlighted (in script) anything that is NEEDED for the set OR impacts set design. (If absent or quarantined, be sure to read & listen to your musical using the links below. This will be a graded assignment, so be sure to read/listen to your musical well!)
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Once on this Island (script) Setting: the French Antilles in the Caribbean Sea
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Hunchback of Notre Dame (script) (Setting: Paris, 1482)
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Fiddler on the Roof (script) Setting: a Jewish Settlement in Imperial Russia around 1905
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Footloose (script) (Setting: the fictitious town of 'Bomont' in the early 1980's)
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Little Shop of Horrors (script) Setting: Skid Row in New York; early 1960's
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Blood Brothers (script) Setting: 1960's England
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Secret Garden (Act I / Act II) Setting: 1901 British Occupied India > Yorkshire England; Mary Lennox is orphaned after her parents perish from cholera (India) and she is sent to live at her uncle Lord Archibald Craven's mansion in England
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DAY 2: Reading a Script for Scenic NEEDS
1.) Ms. Price passed out the final musical design project TASK SHEET. The process of our final project is described on the task sheet. Click HERE to read about the steps/expectations involved in your final project.
2.) Watched a video (Designing Theatre: The Comedy of Errors) about what scenic designers DO as a part of their design process. (If absent or quarantined, answer the following questions in your Google Classroom Reflection Journal (week 13 - day 2) after/while watching the video.
Title: Scenic Design - Comedy of Errors
1.) What does the designer do when she FIRST reads a script?
2.) What does she do after that?
3.) What are some feeling/mood/style words given that guided her design?
3.) Continued Reading & Listening to chosen musical AND highlighted (in script) anything that is NEEDED for the set OR impacts set design. (If absent or quarantined, be sure to read & listen to your musical using the links provided above. This will be a graded assignment, so be sure to read/listen to your musical well!)
Where will we go from here?
After learning about the Design Process, and aspects of scenic design, you will read a script and design your own set for a musical!