Symposium unveils the process of production

Author: Eleanor Johnstone


Audio produced by Radio Arts Middlebury.

Theater people love to be hands-on. That is why you will find them hooting like monkeys and making odd faces at one another instead of staring at books for hours on end. Life-of-the-party aside, however, you will find that it takes many skilled hands and studious minds for all these brilliant shenanigans to get in front of an audience. In a move to highlight those who generally apply the highlights, the Middlebury Theater Department's Celebration of Theatrical Design Symposiumon on Setptember 24th shed some light on the work of these creative wing-dwellers.

The light plots and set sketches of plays such as "Into the Woods" and "An Experiment with an Air Pump" mounted on the walls of Seeler Studio Theater are accentuated by leather boots and frilly panties worthy only of M. C. Bill Army. In addition to the display, students within and without the Theater Department had the opportunity to try out a few ideas of their own in professional workshops including mask-making, costume rendering, make-up artistry, lighting design, sound design and scenic painting. Of course, theater is not all fun and games, and the crash-course entitled "How to Take a Meeting" informed students about preparing for and presenting in those treasured job interviews.

Book-ending the Symposium were panel discussions with professionals Tom Meyer '90 (art director), Josh Bradford '93 (light designer), Andy Mitton '01 (writer/composer) and Alexandra Sargent Capps '89 (costume designer). Moderated by Visiting Lecturer in Theatre Dana Yeaton and Associate Technical Director Hallie Zieselman, these alumni fielded questions regarding the motivations, obstacles and ecstasies of work in the theatrical world.

A stroll through Seeler Studio Theater offers a piece-by-piece briefing on the inspiration and creation of past shows on the College's campus. Mannequins sporting costumes from productions such as "Cabaret" and "The Wedding Dress" stand sentinel by displays of animation-worthy costume renderings, light plots with codes more mystifying than those penned by Dan Brown and model sets only a borrower could have built. Overseeing all this, "The Bewitched's" well-known golden penis protrudes from the dark heights while videos of past performances play below. Scattered throughout the room set pieces reminisce amidst fabric swatches and scene plots.

The array of inspiration is striking. As if opening a watch, the display reveals the crucial influence of those who do not appear on stage. In some corners binders filled with notes and sketches are portals into the processes of designers. In others, "mood boards," collages or diagrams with images by great masters, photographs of natural parks, newspaper clippings and anything else that inspired a design provide a glimpse into the genesis of a production's appearance.

Many would think that a designer works within a set of rules - in reality it is a much more varied process. Aaron Gensler '08, a set design major at the College, described the way anything from driving down a certain road to watching actors in rehearsal to flipping through art books contributes to her process.

"Images are really powerful," she said, describing her tendency to use images to communicate with other designers and directors. How many times do we pass judgments on a person based on their outfit, or a campus based on the weather on that one day? We make these judgments faster than we know, and they tell us more than we realize. As Gensler succinctly phrased it, "it's an instinctual thing between people."

Making a round of Seeler brings to mind Meyer's comment that the job of designers is "to tell a story," and, as evidenced by the symposium, this storytelling is very much a collaborative process. Initially, the designers will sit down with the director and discuss the common element - the script. They then project ideas onto the skeletal text, discarding many and keeping a precious golden few. Ensuring the links between these ideas is essential.

The overall success of a production relies on the dynamics between every element - lighting depends on costumes, set design and staging, sound is intertwined with action, and costumers repeatedly make adjustments depending on the activity in a certain scene.

The initial concepts go through many revisions before the curtain rises but, as Senior Lecturer in Costume Design at Vanderbilt University Sargent Capps pointed out, it is this unexpectedness of a production that keeps its members going. Stress is a motivator. At the same time, making sense of the spontaneous demands everyone's commitment.

"It's all about the team," Bradford '93 said. "Everybody's got to buy into that."

Recognizing the work that goes into those Saturday night theatrical excursions contributes to one's understanding of a production. Who would have known that Caravaggio had inspired such-and-such a lighting designer, or that a costumer could design primarily from a favorite texture? The designing brain is constantly churning and picking up ideas from everyday moments, an idea made explicit by Saturday's symposium. Without the hard work, collaboration and attention to detail, our actors would be stuck in movement class, contorting their faces in the shadows.

The theatre design display will remain open to the public in the Seeler Studio Theatre through Oct. 17.