Costume: Berniece and Doaker (sketch)

For a thirty-something-year-old, she sure does get a lot of complements on her looks in this play, so I gave Berniece a feminine touch, regardless that she's not dating. As for Doaker, he's "retired from the world," so I made this fifty-something-year-old seem a lot older than he really is.

Stage Layout Thumbnails

 I took my final bird's-eye-view layout of the stage and turn it into a 2D perspective from the audience. Fun fact: I added a window on the right above the stairs because I felt that the wall was a bit empty. Now it's even more noticeable when the sun comes out!

This is less of a forward perspective from the orchestra and more of a downward (mezzanine) look of the stage. It's much more detailed, with light switches and outlets. The animated man is there for scale. Sadly, no matter how hard I tried, the parlor is drawn a little more stretched out than intended. I also changed my mind about the color of the couch: I think it should be a dull color like the rest of the house. I want all focus on the piano and outfits on characters to draw attention to the characters themselves.

Visual Research (50 images!)

Most of the things in this collage are items from the play surrounding the 1930's (fashion, hairstyles, kitchenware, etc.), but there are some things here that don't show up in the play but are mentioned by the characters, like the train and the truck. Enjoy! I used all of these images for inspiration!

Design Idea Exercise

A. Identify and write down all the dichotomies in the play. Are particular characters associated with these two polar extremes?
           bottom vs top, man vs woman, rich vs poor, religious vs nonreligious, paranormal vs head games, decent vs disrespectable, black vs white

D. List the primary themes of the play (about 5). Then, word-associate off each of the themes (5-10 per theme). Lastly, look at your word lists and see if you can combine some of them into new ideas.

a. One must work with what they have to get where they want to go.

·         murder, stealing, labor, bottom, work, talent, exertion, toil, patience, corrupt, cheating

b. Life goes on, whether one likes it or not.

·         missed, regret, achievements, responsibility, kids, death, birth, heritage, phases

c. There’s always two sides to every story.

·         evil, good, misunderstood, war, violence, teams, rivalry

d. An eye for an eye makes the whole world go blind.

·         bible, corruption, eyes, out-of-hand, chaos, regression

e. Money won’t buy happiness.

·         money, fame, mature, adulthood, humble, modest, family, carpe diem

I’d see a lot of fatigue and poverty in my words, so I’d make the atmosphere old and unkempt.

E. Make a list of all the words that describe how an environment feels.

            gloomy, old, unkempt, dull, colorless, bland, empty, aging, regression

G. Made a list of verbs that answer the following questions: “What is going on?” “What is happening here?”

            betray, rival, mislead, lie, intrude, steal, take, gossip, justify, defend, reason, fight, argue, work, earn, realize, bond, grow, unite, love