Fig. 10: Prolog of The Merchant of Venice at Chichester. Fig. 8: Costume sketch for Agnes in Moliere's The School for Wives. The Creative Imagination of a Scene Designer continued from page 48 This poetic image (see photo, p. 5) touched the hearts and imaginations of the spectators and demonstrated that in true collaboration the boundaries between direction and design can be subtly interwoven. Indeed, the word "designer" may be a misnomer, for in this work the artist is nearer to a visual director than the implied "background decoration" responsibility of a stage designer. However, there needs to be a consistent point of reference in the shaping of this poetry, and very often the elusive quality Fig. 9: Painting of Prolog for The Merchant of Venice. ClO TD&T * SUMMER 1988 111