Set and Lighting Design

UNREALIZED PROJECT
DFTT 331: Set Design

Concordia University
Department of Theatre
December 2002

Course Instructor:
ANA CAPPELLUTO

 

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Macbeth

by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

 

"Fair is foul, and foul is fair"

This maquette was for my second-year Set Design class, and really my first shot at tackling a design from a practical point of view. The object was to have technical elements that helped move the storytelling along. I wanted it dark and heavy and claustrophobic.The set has weight to it - even the maquette was solid. Using Concordia's DB Clarke theatre as a model, I incorporated a trap door for the Witches to appear, and a multi-tiered set with many windows and arches that could be opened or shut as the action required. Duncan's murder, for instance, was envisioned in the upper stage left window.

This was also one of my earliest forays into lighting design. I used a cyclorama to create sihouettes of the castle ramparts, and I used diffeent levels and shapes to create shadows. I also used a painted scrim to represent Birnam Wood, with the intention to gradually fade the lighting upstage to reveal the advancing army.

Many of these ideas resurfaced laterwhen I eventually had an opportunity to design a full production of the play - especially the arches and the enclosed feeling.