UC San Diego

Theatre exists as a moment between an actor and an audience member. A scenic designer knows that her work serves to heighten that moment, but still feels a temptation to view the scenic design as separate from the innately ephemeral aspects of theatre. While the a scenic designer is creating a tangible art installation, she cannot fully contribute to the creative process of the play without accepting that the design is as in flux as any other part of the production right up to opening night. The design is not a set of draftings, or a model, but what the audience experiences while they are watching the performance--this unique theatrical moment.

In "Little Children Dream of God" by Jeff Augustin, seventy-two feet of poly-silk fabric only really defined the eleven separate locations in the story once the actors walked over, around and through the undulating cloth. For "Drums in the Night" by Bertolt Brecht, a wall of satyrical billboards highlighted American love of buying things but only gained urgency when juxtaposed to the apathy shown to returning soldiers. In "A Lie of the Mind" by Sam Shepard, the dangling boxes of mementos that defined the walls were just a clutter of bric-a-brac until the faulty memories of the characters turned them into a physical representation of hopelessly disorganized recollection. The scenic design for "Mr. Burns" by Anne Washburn, was built of scavenged parts, which were merely whimsical until they were given the context of the characters struggling to rebuild a society.