Lesson 3, Set Design Task

Set Design 

Our task is to make our own set design for Antigone. At first I wasn't sure how exactly I was going to go about doing this- i thought maybe I could set it somewhere exotic like a jungle or a forest and have the audience doing a promenade (like our own performance) but I then had a different idea and that was to do it on a roof top. I wanted the rooftop to be somewhere urban, for example a rooftop looking over the city of Chicago or New York where there are hundreds of tall buildings that stretch across the skyline. I wanted this because the audience would be able to look over a buzzing city which could be represented as a modern version of the city of Thebes. 






I started off by thinking about lighting. I think that lighting is very important because when the audience arrive to the performance the first thing they see is the bright lights that surround the performance. Even the color of lighting can help set the scene and portray main themes of the play. I have decided to place four strong powerful beams on each corner of the rooftop which project out bright colored lights into the sky. The colors should be strong and powerful, for example deep reds, oranges and yellows. Throughout the performance the lights will move about, get brighter, get weaker or cut our completely. This will be  the main use of multimedia within the performance. 



In the middle of the stage there is going to be a raised platform, perhaps just a black block that has two steps leading up to it. This block will be used to demonstrate status- for example Creon will stand on this block when declaring that Antigone will be taken away, etc. The block will also be used for when Antigone hangs herself and when Haemon takes his own life. In total, the block will be used for important moments of key scenes.

The seating around the stage is going to be set up in an amphitheater- style way, where there will be rows of raised seats around the edge of the roof. On the floor there will be a projection across the performance space which will change image from scene to scene. For example, when Antigone is in her cave about to be buried there will be a projection of rocks across the floor. 

The rest of my annotations are written on my plan below: