Wintertime: Set Design

Phuong Truong THEA 1301Jon Egging

Design Concept• Concept: We will take on a contemporary approach to

representing this play while also maintaining certain traditional elements of theater• Type of Stage – proscenium; this works well because it always for

a uniformed field of view for the audience. In other words, everyone will see the same thing at the same time.

• Mod. 1 – we chose to not incorporate a walls to further engulf the audience in the metaphors of our play: “Love knows no bounds”; by having the no walls in our living room, we can extend the nature of the external environment into our household to increase the effect of the tension that builds up as our play goes downhill

• Mod. 2 - instead of a true “summer home”, we chose to go for a rustic wooden cabin feel; in doing so we can give the illusion of isolation from “real world problems” so that once the characters make their entrance, the dramatic shift of mood would be more effective and overall enjoyable by the audience

Design Concept Cont.

• Concept Cont.• Mod. 3 – doors still remain a comedic element of the play but they will also

play a role in identification when each character makes his/her entrance, they will bring their own door• Each door will be decorated as to fit their personality

• Jonathan will have a deep red colored door matching Ariel’s to signify how deeply in love the two are, yet he is easily upset by jealousy so his door will be filled with question mark stickers when the time comes during the play

• Ariel will have a deep read colored door matching Jonathan’s to signify how deeply in love the two are, yet she is impulsive so hers will be filled with exclamation mark stickers when the time comes during the play

• Maria will have two colors on her door to match Franks’ and Francois’ doors; being the mother who wants her children to cherish love, her door will be filled with worried faces with thought bubbles containing hearts

• Frank will have two colors on his door to match Maria’s and Edmund’s doors; since Frank sometimes feels lonely, his door will have sad faces on it

• Francois will match the door of Maria; since Francois is a flirty Frenchman, his will have a bed with hearts floating over it on his door

• Edmund will match the door of Frank; since Edmund wants Frank all to himself, his will have a man pulling a man away from his wife painted on his door

• Bertha & Hildas’ will have matching doors with “ :\ ” faces

Environment

• “Outside”• Mountainous Landscape (for skiing and snowboarding)• Winter (Snowy)

• We used cotton piles to replicate the effect of a snowy landscape and had our flooring painted white to simulate the snowy grounds of Colorado

• The color scheme of blues and white also were used to keep the metaphor of “Love knows no bounds”

• Wooded (Thin White Trees)• Pieces of wood carved and painted white to look like Birch

Trees without leaves• Frosted over shrubbery represented by taller stacks of the

cotton piles

Environment Cont. • “Inside”

• Act 1

• Modern-day living room with a piano, a fireplace, a wooden table, and a couple of chairs (2)

• There are no physical walls as to maintain that cold nature expressed by the external environment

• Since we chose not to incorporate walls into our play and they are there in the Winter, the furniture is covered with “fake snow” to give an appearance of an uninhabited house

• A snow machine will be going on the entire scene

• Props

• Snowboards

• Skis

• Boots/Snowshoes

• Act 2

• Modern-day living room with a fireplace, a wooden table, and a couple of chairs (7)

• There are no physical walls as to maintain that cold nature expressed by the external environment

• The back wall is to be lined in black drapes at this moment

• Props

• Champagne

• Food/Drink

• Orchids

Act 1 Setup

= Stage = Chairs= House (no wall) = Fireplace= Shrubs = Desk= Trees = Piano

http://www.vacationrentaldirect.com/clients/8494/HouseCornerWinter.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e0/Marielundsskoven-Forest_at_wintertime_in_Kolding_Denmark_A.jpg/640px-Marielundsskoven-Forest_at_wintertime_in_Kolding_Denmark_A.jpg

I made this :D

Audience

Act 2 Setup

= Stage = Chairs= House (no wall) = Fireplace= Shrubs = Desk= Trees = Orchids

http://www.vacationrentaldirect.com/clients/8494/HouseCornerWinter.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e0/Marielundsskoven-Forest_at_wintertime_in_Kolding_Denmark_A.jpg/640px-Marielundsskoven-Forest_at_wintertime_in_Kolding_Denmark_A.jpg

I made this :D

Audience

Mood/Style• Mood

• Calming/Relaxing• The serene background of a “winter wonderland” give the audience an impression of escapism

where all the problems of the real world are left behind and one can focus on themselves and/or each other

• White = peace, snow = delicate, cold = calming, wooden cabin = isolated

• Bittersweet/Comedy• With tension between lovers, the cold environment provides a personification of the jealousy each

and every one is feeling during the play• “Inside the cabin” there will be a fireplace that will be “on” during the sequences of dialogue

• We will rig the fire place to increase in flame when heated debate goes on and once it subsides, so will the flame

• Also, towards the end, when Ariel and Jonathan make up, it will spark up again and burn brighter than ever throughout the entire play

• Doors will be repeatedly opened and slammed shut

• Style• We will take a contemporary approach while incorporating traditional elements of theater• When each character makes their entrance, the audience will be able to draw their own

conclusions of the cast when they see their doors• We will use the dramatic ups and downs to ride on the reactions/emotions of the audience

• This also will play a key role in portraying the theme of the play (love knows no boundaries ie. Jealousy)

• The set design sets up a false mood that is replaced by its opposite, as peace soon turns to tension

Real vs. Non-Real

• We chose to keep the setting of this play as close to reality as possible• We did not chose to substitute any element for

that of supernatural nature, etc.

• In choosing no to design a physical room, we can extend the cold nature of the environment to the acting space of the play• We have to remember that the action is happening

predominately inside a living room, yet there are no walls; we have to use our imagination to visualize them, but retain the cold nature of the “outside”

Locale/Period

• “Mountainous” Colorado• We chose to bring our play to a “Mountainous” Colorado because it

is a popular vacation spot for both Summer and Winter. Snowboarding/Skiing are popular here too so we kept with the plot of Wintertime and set it near/on mountains

• Dec. 30, 2006 – Jan. 1, 2007 • With Jonathan planning to propose to Ariel on New Years, we chose

to make it a weekend where it does fall on New Years Eve

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_LD-WgLg13X8/Sy0n3Alog2I/AAAAAAAACYk/rqX3YZ6zg3I/s400/a+snowy+cows.jpghttp://funlava.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/New-Years-Eve.jpg

Image/Metaphor

• “Love knows no boundaries”

• Ex: Same-sex couples (sexual orientation); having no walls to the acting space

http://www.mozdex.com/images/gay-couples.jpg

http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/141/6/c/true_love_knows_no_bounds_by_mistrel_fox-d3gu2ce.jpg

Image/Metaphor Cont.

• The unpredictable turns of love provide a constant theme in this play. It brings both extremes into one by uncoupling people and then re-coupling them. This is symbolized by the utilization of doors to prove a barrier between individuals. The metaphor that is demonstrated in this play is that love knows no bounds. Whether it be an actual barrier (having no walls in the living room) or social barriers (the many types of relationships shown by heterogeneous and homogeneous couples), this play shows that nothing can come in between one person and their love for another