Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2017 - 26

sourced from antique stores/sites or had to be made
new. The set, however, was composed mainly of flats and
a platform and relied heavily on stock materials.
Barnard Thesis Festival (students)
The Arsonists
Director: Jordie Askins
Set: Christina Tang
Costumes: Lacey Bookspan
Props: Julia Brunner
The Lover
Director: Emi Lirman
Set: Waverley Engelman
Costumes: Thea Lewis
Props: Alana Herrnson
Oedipus Rex
Director: Chet King
Set: Gauri Bahuguna
Costumes: Dakota Ceneta
Props: Rachel Winton

NOTES
1. Read Annie Leonard's The Story of Stuff to learn more!
2. Waste Management Inc. has a helpful breakdown on recyclable items on their website.
3. "FSC-certified": Forest Stewardship Council certification ensures products are eco-friendly & come from responsibly managed forests
Graphic Design by Jiin Choi

Chokher Bali
Director: Mahesh Dattani
Set: Neil Patel
Costumes: Deepsikha Chatterjee
Props: Chris Kavanah
Chokher Bali, a novel by Rabindranath Tagore, was
adapted for the stage and translated by Partha Chatterjee. The play is an account of marriage and widowhood
set against the backdrop of the rapidly modernizing
late 19th century Calcutta. Because it is a period piece
set in Bengal, India, props and costumes that could
be sourced from stock were limited. Most of the
saris came directly from India or from members of the
production team who had them in their possession already. Props, due to their specific nature, were either
26

theatre design

& technology

W i n t e r 2 0 1 7

Each spring, the Barnard College Department of
Theatre produces a festival of two to four directing theses that are designed, staffed, and cast entirely by and
with fellow students. The shows perform in repertory,
with limited changeover time between shows and tight
budgets. For the past three years, the department has
experimented with creating a unit set of sorts, with
shared scenic elements and materials. The combination of limited resources, time, and working in repertory
leads to a clearly visible reduction in the purchase of
new materials, in all areas.
This first season of data collection and analysis at
Barnard College brought us some answers, and left us
with many more questions. We discovered, for example,
that one high-priced new purchase can skew an entire
re-use budget. In the case of Bingo, for example, almost
the entire show was re-used, except for several hundred
feet of hemp rope and one large piece of white fabric.
We may be undervaluing our stock items. On a broader
level, our greatest challenges were the logistics of obtaining salvaged building materials in and around New
York City and finding ways to really hold designers accountable for material choices.
We learned a lot from the Senior Thesis Festival, a
mini-season within our larger season that we have often used to experiment. For several years, the Festival
incorporated a sort of "unit set" or else curated a selection of shared elements used in all the shows. What

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