Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2024 - 22

Revised Problem Statement
Goals or learning outcomes gained through this unit:
1. Work in small groups to read a text and discuss its scenic and lighting design needs.
2. Engage in both connotative and denotative visual research to fully understand the requirement
for the scene as described in the text. Assemble materials that a) illustrate
each of the visual ideas from the text (denotative research) and b) express your group's
mood and feeling response to the described space (connotative research).
3. Create a design plan for scenery that responds through research and discussion within
the group to the needs of the text for scenic elements in an end-stage configuration. Design
the placement of the elements to make a given area the primary focus of the scene.
4. Place key lights in a lighting design plan that responds to the text.
5. Adapt the design ideas to the tools that are at hand in the studio. Use the tools, furniture,
props, and lights to set up the planned design.
6. Extend the key light ideas into a theatrical lighting design where the audience is gathered
on one side of the performance (end-stage configuration) by utilizing additional lights to
extend or enhance the key lighting to accommodate the audience's need to see the actor's
expressions while still supporting the prompted lighting design ideas.
Problem Statement:
Break into groups of three or four learners. Read through the given scene together. Identify
and list the needs of the given scene. Create a list of items from the text that require further
denotative or definitional research. Create a list of terms to use for connotative visual
research to illustrate possible feelings or moods of the scene. Work together to find visual
images for these terms. Design a layout for the entire space that prioritizes the poker table
but also considers all the elements described in Williams' text for an audience in an endstage
configuration. Make a schematic (not to scale) design plan (overhead view) showing
the arrangement of furniture, walls, and lighting instruments for an end-stage configuration.
Using the plan, set up the lighting and the scenic elements, adapting the available tools
from the studio. Look at the scene with the key lighting set up. Take turns standing in as
performers in the scene at each acting position around the poker table and in the kitchen
around the poker table. Now, place fill lights in areas in front of the stage space. Consider
how the angle and color of the fill light can support the ideas of the key light while also filling
in shadows. Place the fill light to help the audience see the performer's faces while also
supporting key light ideas. Extinguish all other lights (for instance, classroom lights, work
lights, or daylight) in the space for the setting and presentation of the scene lights. Present
the design to the larger group for discussion and critique.
Scene three, " The Poker Night, " from Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire
There is a picture of Van Gogh's of a billiard-parlor at night. The kitchen now suggests that
sort of lurid nocturnal brilliance, the raw colors of a childhood's spectrum. Over the yellow
linoleum of the kitchen table hangs an electric bulb with a vivid green glass shade. The poker
players-Stanley, Steve, Mitch, and Pablo-wear colored shirts, solid blues, a purple, a redand-white-check,
a light green, and they are men at the peak of their physical manhood, as
coarse and direct and powerful as the primary colors. There are vivid slices of watermelon
on the table, whisky bottles and glasses. The bedroom is relatively dim with only the light that
sills between the portieres and through the wide window on the street. For a moment, there is
absorbed silence as a hand is dealt (Williams, 1953, emphasis in original).
Reflection Questions:
1. Discuss the effectiveness of the lighting design as a communications tool. Does the lighting
effectively convey Williams' text?
2. Discuss the meanings and associations the light acquires within the scene's context.
Does the light's distribution, color, or intensity convey ideas about who has power or
agency in the scene?
3. Look at the scene with and without the fill lights turned on. Discuss the role of the fill light
in enhancing or detracting from Williams' description of the scene.
4. The resulting design for each team is one possible realization of the scene script. Discuss
variability in possible design solutions for a given playscript resulting from the collaborative
problem-solving action of a team of theatre-makers. What are the resulting insights
from these differing solutions?
through research, conceptualization, and
realization of their designs:
Goal: Engage in both connotative and
denotative visual research to fully understand
the requirements for the scene.
Assemble denotative research materials
that illustrate each of the visual ideas
from the text. Then, find connotative research
materials to express the group's
response to the mood and feeling of the
described space.
Problem Statement Addition: Read
through the given scene together. Identify
and list the needs of the given scene.
Create a list of items from the text that
require further denotative or definitional
research. Create a list of terms to use for
connotative visual research to illustrate
possible feelings or moods of the scene.
Work together to find visual images for
these terms.
Analyze the Context: Examine the
problem in terms of its authenticity to
the learners. Authenticity dictates that
the learners' work in the studio should
be directly applicable to their future careers
(Hung 2006). This example is an
authentic problem because it is like other
problems practicing designers must solve
in their future careers. Authenticity in the
context description, the play choice in
this example, should also be considered
alongside the learners' cultures, identities,
and connection to the play. In this
example, a facilitator could replace the
context description with a different playscript
to make it more authentic for a particular
group of learners.
Analyze the Connections: Look at
how this problem connects to the conceptual
framework of the course (Hung
2006). A problem designer should view
each problem as a part of a series of problems
that build on each other, repeating
critical knowledge in new ways. Each
problem should meet learners where they
are in their current problem-solving capacity
(Hung 2006). After learners complete
a group of problems like this, they
could proceed to more open-ended problems,
for instance, using play scripts without
scene-setting descriptors.
Reflection-in-Action
The concept of reflection-in-action is an
essential component of all studio-based
learning (Schön 1985, p. 24), and reflection
is a significant component of all
problem-based learning (Hung 2006).
22 | THEATRE DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY | ISSUE 1, 2024

Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2024