As the play Love and Information was one I had never heard of, I realized that I had to do quite a bit of research about it to fully understand the concept before I implemented my ideas onto it. The first thing that I did was have a small production meeting with the director so I could obtain the script and discuss her image of the play. We both agreed that the play is very abstract and can be taken in numerous directions in terms of set, costumes and lighting.
Before diving into the script I wanted to make myself familiar with the play. It is written by Caryl Churchill who is a British playwright known for pieces like; Top Girls and Cloud Nine. The play is compiled of seven acts in which contain scenes that can run from less than a minute to a few minutes in length. The acts must be performed in order but the scenes can be done in any order the director decides on. The play contains over a hundred character which are non-recurring, nameless and can be double cast. Within the script there are no names or gender given to the characters as well as a lack of stage directions. This makes the play very open for interpretation from the director and/or performers.
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| Love and Information at the Sheffield Crucible |
Another production that I looked into was the one performed at the Sheffield Crucible mostly for their difference in set design. This production has still included the minimalism from the original set but enhanced it by creating more platforms for the actors to perform on as well as LED lights that are able to change colour. By watching the time-lapse that the theatre has put out on YouTube I was able to get inspired and think about my own set and lighting ideas.
Now that I had established a solid idea for the material I had to think about the shape that I wanted to create. To my knowledge, PVC pipes aren't that expensive and fairly easy to work with. Even if I would mess something up, I would be able to go to a DIY store and get a new pipe or new fittings. Another thing that contributed to my choice of PVC pipes is the fact that within the college we have a plumbing department who could help me if needed it, as well as gift them the PVC pipes after the show if we didn't want/need them anymore. From this point onwards I looked into how others had previously built structures out of PVC pipes so I could apply this to my own project. The first thing that I did was go online and searched for 'PVC pipe structures.' The most useful websites were personal blogs about DIY-ing and YouTube video's. Most of these video's and blog posts focussed on building a playhouse for children or greenhouses. Although they were helpful in the way of establishing an idea of how to actually build a structure out of PVC pipes, neither of these were the size that I wanted my structure to be. Though the measurements and structures weren't exactly what I had envisioned, I realized that I would be able to figure these factors out as soon as I had the measurements of the stage/cue-built. Besides watching the video's and reading the blogs, I downloaded some pictures from the blogs and Google to use as a reference for my own structure. Most of these pictures are still in the shape of a greenhouse but I reckoned it would still work for my project. By looking at these pictures you can see two different type of structures; one that is more of a box-like shape which I think would look better in the theatre as the other structure would create a lot of shadows on the stage and the actors. This is something that I wanted to prevent as it looks unprofessional and can be very distracting for the audience and the actors. Besides that, it also looks like little thought has been put into it from a lighting designers point of view. The second structure resembles the look of a house which would make the entirety of the set look a bit less abstract but would make it feel more cosy. This would also take away the opportunity for the audience to have their own interpretation of what the set should resemble. This is something that was very important to me as most of the scenes in the play are very abstract and open for personal interpretation as well. This creates very interesting conversations between what the director's/actors'/audience members interpretation was of certain scenes. Going back to what I have mentioned previously, this house-like structure would create many shadows. There are many ways to work around this but would create a lot of work for me and the rest of the technical team. One of these solutions is to re-rig some of the lights and position them in a way that the projected light wouldn't hit any of the pipes. This, however, would take quite a bit of time as we only have a small amount of people available to do this with me. Another reason why this wouldn't be manageable is due to the timeframe that I got given to set up for the show. Due to the fact that this is an exam period, multiple departments need to use the theatre which means that the breakdown and setup would need to be done within the same couple of hours with a limited amount of people. All these factors contributed to my final idea of the set design.
As shown in the pictures above, this is a 3D- drawing of the bare stage that I created on the website and intend to use for the show. The drawing was creating by taking existing cubes that the website provided and editing them into the right shape and size. Because I wanted to recreate the look of what the stage would look like in person, I took ten squares and arranged them into the U-shape as this is how we would do it with the actual cue-built. After that I took cylinders that the website provided as well and created the legs for the stage. Once I had created the full structure I added light simulators that the website provided as well to make sure that the stage was the same colour as the one that I would use. By doing this I would be able to see the shadows that the structure would make in the theatre setting. The concept that I created with this 3D-drawing would be realized by taking ten of the tall cue-built squares and placing them in this shape in the middle of our theatre space, leaving some space in front of it for the actors to perform some scenes there as well. Something that I did not add in the drawings is the steps that would be put in the centre in front of the walkway, this was something that was decided later to ensure that the actors could come on and off the stage more easily and to add another 'location' for the scenes to take place in. After I had decided on the stage itself I started to play with the structure of the piping. The way that I did this was by taking more cylinders that the website provided and putting them into the structure that I wanted. After I was happy with the structure itself I changed the colour from black to white, as this would be the colour that the actual structure would have. As I have stated previously in this blog, I wanted to create two separate spaces that the director and actors could play with and would look interesting to and audience as well. Besides this I wanted it to look impressive, which in my mind partially equals to height. Another thing that was important in terms of health and safety was the ability for the actors to come on and off the stage easily which meant that the sides shouldn't blocked. By having this the director and actors had the ability to block the scenes coming on and off the stage from every side.
By looking at the pictures you can tell that the original vision for the staging of our production of Love and Information was very symmetrical, simplistic and box-y. A big part of the structural aspect that isn't shown in the pictures is that the PVC pipe structure would also have piping along the bottom like the structures in the pictures that I referenced earlier in the blog. This is a huge part that would keep the structure stable and would prevent it from sliding or completely falling of the stage. My original idea was to tape the bottom piping of the structure to the stage with black or white gaffer tape to prevent it from moving of the stage no matter how much it would be touched by the actors. This is a big part of health and safety as a big structure like this can be dangerous to work with. Something that I really loved about using the 3D-drawing website is the fact that I was able to look at the stage from every angle, this gave me a clear idea of what the stage would look like from different sides of the audience. Another aspect that was very helpful about this website was the option to light the 3D model in different types of lighting. The lights that I mainly used were spotlights but there were many options including, tube lights, directional light and sphere light. By using the lights it gave me a clear idea of how the structure would look like within a lit theatre space. Because I had this feature I could clearly tell that my original idea for the structure would create a lot of shadows on the stage as well as on the actors which would be very distracting for the audience and the actors. There were ways that I would be able to work around this issue for example; re-rigging the lights so they would create very little to no shadows but this was something that I didn't have the time for as the transition between breaking down another show and starting technical rehearsals for this one on was about half a day which I mentioned before. Therefor I decided to change my idea for the staging. The first person I had to inform about these changes was the director. After explaining why and how I would change it she agreed with the new concept and let me get on with it. Something I knew that I really wanted to do was re-design my 3D-drawing as this was my main point of reference. This was easier said than done as I still wanted to keep my initial idea of the two separate 'rooms' as this was something that the director already had in mind when the actors blocked and rehearsed the play. Finally, I came to the decision that I would just lower front and side beams. By doing this it would still resemble the idea of the separate rooms as the staging within these 'rooms' would stay the same. Besides this, the lighting would still contributed creating the feeling of separate areas as well. This did mean that the actors only had a couple of places where they were able to go on and off the stage but the director ensured me that this wouldn't be a problem. Something that I did really wanted to keep was the height that the back had to keep part of the grandeur that the previous staging idea had. As this part of the structure didn't interfere with any of the lights, I decided that there was no issue with keeping it. Besides keeping the height, this piece of the structure created the look of a door which meant that the actors could interact with it as they were performing their scenes.
Now that I had a structure that would work for our theatre, lighting options (as you can see there are still some shadows but none that would go over the faces of the actors) and time-limit, I had to dive into what type of PVC-piping I wanted to use. The first thing that I did was to go back to the blogs and YouTube video's to see what kind of piping they had used. This differed from project to project which meant that it wasn't that much help to me. Therefor I decided just to Google PVC pipes ad hope for the best. When I visited websites to see what kind of piping I wanted to use, I had an eye-opening experience as I didn't know the extend of different kinds of piping that is sold. Luckily enough, there was a section of 'display pipes' which seemed like the right fit for what I was about to use it for. Prior to this I had also looked at clear piping from the same website as my tutor had mentioned this to me. Her idea was to put LED lights into the piping which would make the entirety of the structure light up. This idea was very ambitious and I did think about it but I realized that I realistically would not have enough time nor have the funds to do this. We also discussed how difficult it would be to get the LED lights into the pipes as well as how the lighting strips would look and the result wasn't as spectacular as we originally thought it would be. Though this idea had not been the one I went with, I did linger on the idea of clear piping. It is something that I hadn't seen before and would definitely make an impact on the audience. The website that I landed on had an informative video about the clear piping and how to use it as well as showing the pipes and the fittings. This was helpful as I was able to see what the piping would look like in real life and not just in a picture. The actual piping has much more of a blue sheen than is portrayed in the pictures. This is something that I didn't mind as much and could even create a cool effect underneath certain types of lighting. Though I liked the look, I wasn't necessarily keen on the way that the fittings looked with the clear piping as these are translucent as well. Due to this you could see the end of the piping inside the fitting as shown in the video.
White Furniture Grade PVC Pipe. This is mainly what the structure will consist of. These pipes are only to be used for display purposes. I will cut these pipes to the correct size and put the structure together with fittings.
White Slip Tee. These fittings are used to put together two pipes with only one end of a pipe. I will use these to put together the back of the barrier and the 'doorway.'
White 90-Degree Elbow. This fitting is used to keep two pipes together at a corner. I will use this for the top of the 'doorway' and for the edges near the middle of the stage.
White 3-Way Elbow. This fitting is used to put three pipes together into a corner. I will use these fittings for most of the corners of the structure.
The time-lapse:
One of the first things I did in terms of developing ideas for the staging was going onto Pinterest. Within this website I created a so called 'board' on which you can save your ideas. The first picture I included was the original stage of Love and Information. This set consist of one massive cube of LED lights. This abstract but innovative stage creates and open space that the actors can use but can still be open for interpretation besides the small pieces of the set that are used as well. The small pieces include a couch, a bed and various handheld items. The stage changes rapidly during what are described as 'camera shutter' transitions. The base alway stays the same but because the main set is made out of LED's it can change in colour which can create a many different moods and atmospheres. Now that I had found a basis I could add more to the board and create an image of the vibe that I wanted the staging of our production of Love and Information to have. Something that I searched for a lot within the Pinterest website/app was 'abstract staging' as this was something that I really wanted to convey due to the play being so abstract and because this was something that I had already discussed with the director. The results that I got for 'abstract staging' were varied but could all be put within the same category which is minimalistic. They all had very little decorations that you would normally see within a play, musical or other theatre piece like full sets of furniture and other decorations that would make room feel warm and welcoming. With a lack of this all the sets felt quite cold but as I have mentioned many times before, open for interpretation of the audience. Besides this, most of the designs that I looked at were very symmetrical and consisted of a lot of squares and rectangles. This made the look of the set very clean and crisp as well as slightly neglected in a way due to a lack of 'personal' items that would create an image of the character that would be in that space. When these items are missing, the audience can create their own image of the character and what their personality and their story would be without giving too much away about the character. This is an idea that I really liked because Love and Information has so many characters that are all very different. By creating a neutral set this leaves all options open for the audience to figure out. Something that I considered quite a bit as well was the idea of having different levels. This is mainly because I wanted the play to be visually interesting as well as creating an opportunity for the actors to play around with a more elaborate set than what they were used to. Unfortunately, I scrapped this idea because I knew that it wasn't a realistic idea considering the time frame that I had to work with. Creating a stable elevated platform would cost a lot of time that I just didn't have. Besides this, I had already filled most of my time schedule with the creating of the structure that I had envisioned from the first time I did research about abstract staging. Although the idea of different levels had fallen through, I still had a general image of what I wanted to create which lead me to my next question and task: how am I going to create this structure? The structure needed to be steady as well as keeping the cost of the materials within my given budget. As I was looking at more ideas for my set design I came across a structure made out of PVC pipes. This inspired me which made me look at different structures and tutorials on how to make these types of structures. This shaped my vision for the staging.
My Love and Information Pinterest board: https://nl.pinterest.com/MadelonWarmoltz/love-and-information/
Now that I had established a solid idea for the material I had to think about the shape that I wanted to create. To my knowledge, PVC pipes aren't that expensive and fairly easy to work with. Even if I would mess something up, I would be able to go to a DIY store and get a new pipe or new fittings. Another thing that contributed to my choice of PVC pipes is the fact that within the college we have a plumbing department who could help me if needed it, as well as gift them the PVC pipes after the show if we didn't want/need them anymore. From this point onwards I looked into how others had previously built structures out of PVC pipes so I could apply this to my own project. The first thing that I did was go online and searched for 'PVC pipe structures.' The most useful websites were personal blogs about DIY-ing and YouTube video's. Most of these video's and blog posts focussed on building a playhouse for children or greenhouses. Although they were helpful in the way of establishing an idea of how to actually build a structure out of PVC pipes, neither of these were the size that I wanted my structure to be. Though the measurements and structures weren't exactly what I had envisioned, I realized that I would be able to figure these factors out as soon as I had the measurements of the stage/cue-built. Besides watching the video's and reading the blogs, I downloaded some pictures from the blogs and Google to use as a reference for my own structure. Most of these pictures are still in the shape of a greenhouse but I reckoned it would still work for my project. By looking at these pictures you can see two different type of structures; one that is more of a box-like shape which I think would look better in the theatre as the other structure would create a lot of shadows on the stage and the actors. This is something that I wanted to prevent as it looks unprofessional and can be very distracting for the audience and the actors. Besides that, it also looks like little thought has been put into it from a lighting designers point of view. The second structure resembles the look of a house which would make the entirety of the set look a bit less abstract but would make it feel more cosy. This would also take away the opportunity for the audience to have their own interpretation of what the set should resemble. This is something that was very important to me as most of the scenes in the play are very abstract and open for personal interpretation as well. This creates very interesting conversations between what the director's/actors'/audience members interpretation was of certain scenes. Going back to what I have mentioned previously, this house-like structure would create many shadows. There are many ways to work around this but would create a lot of work for me and the rest of the technical team. One of these solutions is to re-rig some of the lights and position them in a way that the projected light wouldn't hit any of the pipes. This, however, would take quite a bit of time as we only have a small amount of people available to do this with me. Another reason why this wouldn't be manageable is due to the timeframe that I got given to set up for the show. Due to the fact that this is an exam period, multiple departments need to use the theatre which means that the breakdown and setup would need to be done within the same couple of hours with a limited amount of people. All these factors contributed to my final idea of the set design.
Now that I had an idea of what I wanted the structure to look like, I needed to think about the shape of the stage. This was a big factor because as soon as I had a main idea for the stage, I would be able to tape out this shape into the rehearsal space so the actors could start blocking the play with the staging in mind. My initial idea was to create two square raised stages with a walkway in-between so it would create a nice flow transitioning from one scene to another. By having this I would be able to easily put a spot/general wash on either side of the stage as well as in the middle and in front of the stage and switch between these for the different scenes. This would also make teching the show a lot easier as there would be simple, set lighting stages which we could add other lights and effects onto if this is what the director wanted. Either side of the stage would both contain a set that would stay the same during the whole show but could be used in different ways. This would also contribute to making the show flow more as there would be no need for set to be taken on or off of the stage. One side of the stage would have two chairs and a table as some of the scenes were already blocked with these set pieces in mind and the other side would just have a chair to create an interesting dynamic between the actors as well as a variation in height. This setting would also be perfect for some of the monologues that consist in the play. To visualize my ideas of the stage I went online and made a virtual 3D-drawing of the stage and the set. The website that I used to create this is Vectary. This is a free, easy to use website that allows you to create 3D-drawings. This was challenging as I had never done this before, but proved to be very helpful as I now had a visual representation of the staging that I had in my mind. By having this base of the set, I could add on the drawing of the piping to get a visual idea that I could show the director as well as get an idea of how it would react to the lighting in a theatre setting as this is one of the features that the website has as well.
The Vectary website: https://www.vectary.com
The Vectary website: https://www.vectary.com
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As shown in the pictures above, this is a 3D- drawing of the bare stage that I created on the website and intend to use for the show. The drawing was creating by taking existing cubes that the website provided and editing them into the right shape and size. Because I wanted to recreate the look of what the stage would look like in person, I took ten squares and arranged them into the U-shape as this is how we would do it with the actual cue-built. After that I took cylinders that the website provided as well and created the legs for the stage. Once I had created the full structure I added light simulators that the website provided as well to make sure that the stage was the same colour as the one that I would use. By doing this I would be able to see the shadows that the structure would make in the theatre setting. The concept that I created with this 3D-drawing would be realized by taking ten of the tall cue-built squares and placing them in this shape in the middle of our theatre space, leaving some space in front of it for the actors to perform some scenes there as well. Something that I did not add in the drawings is the steps that would be put in the centre in front of the walkway, this was something that was decided later to ensure that the actors could come on and off the stage more easily and to add another 'location' for the scenes to take place in. After I had decided on the stage itself I started to play with the structure of the piping. The way that I did this was by taking more cylinders that the website provided and putting them into the structure that I wanted. After I was happy with the structure itself I changed the colour from black to white, as this would be the colour that the actual structure would have. As I have stated previously in this blog, I wanted to create two separate spaces that the director and actors could play with and would look interesting to and audience as well. Besides this I wanted it to look impressive, which in my mind partially equals to height. Another thing that was important in terms of health and safety was the ability for the actors to come on and off the stage easily which meant that the sides shouldn't blocked. By having this the director and actors had the ability to block the scenes coming on and off the stage from every side.
By looking at the pictures you can tell that the original vision for the staging of our production of Love and Information was very symmetrical, simplistic and box-y. A big part of the structural aspect that isn't shown in the pictures is that the PVC pipe structure would also have piping along the bottom like the structures in the pictures that I referenced earlier in the blog. This is a huge part that would keep the structure stable and would prevent it from sliding or completely falling of the stage. My original idea was to tape the bottom piping of the structure to the stage with black or white gaffer tape to prevent it from moving of the stage no matter how much it would be touched by the actors. This is a big part of health and safety as a big structure like this can be dangerous to work with. Something that I really loved about using the 3D-drawing website is the fact that I was able to look at the stage from every angle, this gave me a clear idea of what the stage would look like from different sides of the audience. Another aspect that was very helpful about this website was the option to light the 3D model in different types of lighting. The lights that I mainly used were spotlights but there were many options including, tube lights, directional light and sphere light. By using the lights it gave me a clear idea of how the structure would look like within a lit theatre space. Because I had this feature I could clearly tell that my original idea for the structure would create a lot of shadows on the stage as well as on the actors which would be very distracting for the audience and the actors. There were ways that I would be able to work around this issue for example; re-rigging the lights so they would create very little to no shadows but this was something that I didn't have the time for as the transition between breaking down another show and starting technical rehearsals for this one on was about half a day which I mentioned before. Therefor I decided to change my idea for the staging. The first person I had to inform about these changes was the director. After explaining why and how I would change it she agreed with the new concept and let me get on with it. Something I knew that I really wanted to do was re-design my 3D-drawing as this was my main point of reference. This was easier said than done as I still wanted to keep my initial idea of the two separate 'rooms' as this was something that the director already had in mind when the actors blocked and rehearsed the play. Finally, I came to the decision that I would just lower front and side beams. By doing this it would still resemble the idea of the separate rooms as the staging within these 'rooms' would stay the same. Besides this, the lighting would still contributed creating the feeling of separate areas as well. This did mean that the actors only had a couple of places where they were able to go on and off the stage but the director ensured me that this wouldn't be a problem. Something that I did really wanted to keep was the height that the back had to keep part of the grandeur that the previous staging idea had. As this part of the structure didn't interfere with any of the lights, I decided that there was no issue with keeping it. Besides keeping the height, this piece of the structure created the look of a door which meant that the actors could interact with it as they were performing their scenes.
The video:
Although I did really like the look of the clear piping, I had a feeling that it wouldn't translate as nice as I would like underneath most of the theatre lights and settings that I had already decided on. Besides clear pipes, the shop also had display pipes in many different colours including: blue, red, yellow, green and black. Though these would look very cool on their own, I thought that they would interfere with some of the lighting ideas that I had already come up with as they would change the colour of the piping for example: a blue light would give the red piping a purple hue. Because of this I decided to go with my original idea of standard, white PVC pipes. These would go with every type of lighting and look very good underneath the LED's that we have in our theatre. This would also keep the stage looking very abstract and industrial which was a big part of my initial concept.
Now that I had established which type of piping I wanted to use, I had to figure out the measurements of the sue-built as well as which types of fittings I would need for this particular project. My tutor already knew what size the que-built was which made it a whole lot easier to figure out the measurements for the piping. The sides of the que-built are all 75 centimeters. With this information I figured out that there were 6 sides of 150 cm, which doubles into 12 as I needed pipes on the stage as well as for the 'barrier.' Besides these sides I needed another piece of piping which was 150 cm long to be the top of the 'doorway.' For the edges I needed 6 pieces of 50 cm as well as two pieces of 200 cm to create the sides of the 'doorway.' To keep it all together I needed 8 3-way elbows, 8 90-degree elbows and 2 slip-tee's (connecters). All of the piping that I wanted to use was ordered from The Plastic Pipe Shop. https://www.plasticpipeshop.co.uk/White-Furniture-PVC-Pipe-and-Fittings_c_2951.html Earlier I had already used one of their video's on clear piping. Besides their very clear website, I also used their YouTube channel a lot as they have very useful video's about their products and how to use them and optimize your results. The link to their YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/PlasticPipeShopTV/videos
Below you will find all the products that I ordered and intended to use.
White Slip Tee. These fittings are used to put together two pipes with only one end of a pipe. I will use these to put together the back of the barrier and the 'doorway.'
After doing this research in multiple areas I believe that I am ready to start working on the show. Doing this research has prepared me for questions that I believe will inevitably be asked due to my ambitious and unconventional plans for the staging. Besides this I feel like I have extended my knowledge about set making and the particular materials that will go into making this set piece. Another part of doing my research that has already prepared me for the weeks to come is the fact that I already had to change my plans. In the theatre world, this is not uncommon and I feel like this has already helped my stage management skills due to the fact that I was able to improvise, adapt and overcome this barrier.
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