Imagine you are in the audience of a grand theatre. The house lights dim, the curtains rise. A calm, serene scene is unveiled: rolling hills, a creek, trees, a big blue sky and a warm sun. You can hear the birds chirping, the sound of water in the creek rushing between stones and trees rustling in the wind. You breathe in. You can smell the grass, the flowers, the freshness of the water. And then, an actor comes on stage, wearing a breathtaking costume. Flowy fabric, shimmering colors. Have you wondered how it all comes together?
Scenic Design is the process of designing, creating and building the scenery for a performance. At Skyline, set design is a collective effort. Both the director, Mrs. Elaine Wagstaffe, who makes executive choices of the design, as well as student scenic designers put in hours outside of school to create and build the sets. Lauren Palmer (sophomore), one of the scenic designers for “Little Women” says, “Without breaks, designing a set for an entire play could take over 24 hours, but at Skyline, we complete the work over 5 days, working about 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Costume Design is the process of designing and creating clothing and accessories for characters in a production. At Skyline we have a student costume designer, Alex Borichewski, who is a senior this year. On average, Alex says, “It takes a couple hours per costume just to conceptualize the design, and then even more time to create renderings (sketches) of the full look”. There are 16 characters in “Little Women,” so costume design for the entire show takes 20 to 30 hours! Alex says seeing her costumes on stage for the first time is very cool, especially when the costumes actually turned out the way she imagined them.
Why is scenic and costume design so important?
Without the audience realizing it, scenic design establishes the mood, time period and gives the audience a 4D experience to make them feel they are part of the play, part of the action. Scenery and costumes give the audience context and strengthens the understanding of the actions of actors enhancing the drama of the drama on stage.
Check out the set, the costumes and the show:
