Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 2006 - 14

Long before
America became
interested in the
European idea of
the dramaturg...our
designers were the
play's real
dramaturgs, and
still remain so. In
the simplest
sense, designers
work on four or five
plays to each one
a director does.
Thus, in their
maturity, they
tend to know a lot
more, in a hands-on
sense, about the
literature, its
style and events,
and its content,
than do the
majority of
directors.

the delight of texture, the layering of sound, and the use of silhouette and movement with cloth.
Most importantly, I learned that visual meaning combines with textual meaning to deliver the
play. All of this, and much more, I learned because of the generosity of the designers I had the opportunity to work with. Of all the truisms we have in the theatre, I think the one that has saved me the most
pain is the fact that good design can save second-rate directing and even questionable text.
Now I have a few questions-from the director's perspective-in no particular order. I'm
sure you have answers to them all.
First, why is it that stitchers, who are mainly female, don't make as much money as carpenters, who are mainly male? And, why aren't costume designers, out of enlightened self-interest as
well as political fairness, insisting on change?
Second, why are lighting designers so often absent from the first design team meeting? If the
answer is financial, why aren't the other designers insisting? While we're on the subject, where are
the sound designers? If the first meeting is actually to share ideas, and not merely to validate those
of the director, are sound and lighting designers in some way less intelligent, or contributive, or
necessary?
It's always seemed odd to me that sound is considered a design field but properties seldom is.
Why would that be? Props is no longer an area where you simply go out and borrow a chair, any
more than sound is simply going to the sound library and get a car horn.
Why is color always the problem? Why are so many set designers so late in communicating
color to costume and lighting designers? Why is the color problem so often upholstery? Why is it
that in tech I so often hear this: "She said it would be green, and that's not green." Why can't we
know about color earlier?
Why do producers so often punish designers who come in under budget by giving them less
the next time? Why isn't the budget revised once the production concept has been defined? Why, in
resident circumstances, when, say, a costume designer comes in under budget, can't costumes
keep the difference to maintain and upgrade equipment?
Why is it universally accepted that when it comes to design, the set designer is first among
equals? Why, on certain productions, couldn't it be the lighting designer, or the costume designer?
I've worked on many productions where the costume designer's sense of color was preeminent but
had to play second fiddle to sets because of tradition? (I've also worked with several color-blind set
designers.)
What is there in the training that results in lighting designers being so shy about discussing the
play's meaning while sound designers never are?
When the director says that the play's style of presentation is not realistic, could a mediator
please be called to assure that the creative team all end up on the same page?
In the tech meeting after a preview is it clearly the best thing for the production that the director can make any judgments he or she wishes in all design areas but the designers can never talk
about the directing?

THEATRE
SPRING

2006

DESIGN

TECHNOLOGY

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 2006