1. THE
DESIGNERS
PART THREE
What does the
design tell us?
Chapter 6

2. What Design Does
• Uniquely creative contribution
• What does it tell us about the
play and the characters?

3. What can we learn about the play and
the characters?
• Time - of day

4. What can we learn about the
play and the characters?
•Time - of year

5. What can we learn about the
play and the characters?
• Time – in history

6. What can we learn about the play & the characters?
Location: Where are we?

7. What can we learn about the play & the characters?
Location: Where are we?
A porch is a porch is a porch!

8. What can we learn about the play & the
characters?
•
Palace?
Or shanty?
2 sets for Sherlock Holmes: Living Room and Basement

9. What can we learn about the play
& the characters?
Ages of the characters:

10. Character’s personality traits
Neat and Tidy
or messy?
Oscar vs Felix in
The Odd Couple

11. The mood of the play
A pink set for Macbeth?
A set in earth tones for a Feydeau
farce?

12. The mood of the play
r
in Her Ea
A Flea )eau
by Feyd
(a farce
• Macbeth

13. The Design gives us a ton of
information about the play.
•We get a sense of the style of the play
•Is it a comedy or a tragedy?
•We get a sense of the time of the play: historical time period,
season, even the time of day
•We get a sense of the characters who inhabit the play
Are they rich or poor, old or young, neatniks or slobs
•We get a sense of where the playwright has placed the play
Are we in Africa…or Iceland!
•And perhaps most importantly, we get a sense of the mood of
the play which suggests how we should feel.