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The stage is the first thing the audience will see. Before a character speaks, the audience will see their costume. The designers are responsible for the first glimpse an audience gets into the nature of a play. Their work continues its impact in the mood and setting of each scene.

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First Challenges:
Designers have many things to consider when working on a production. The largest is knowing the space they will be performing in. The costuming and set must be specifically tailored to work in the conditions they will be presented in. The arrangement of the seating may causes issues with set pieces.

Team Meetings:
The designers will come together to discuss how the set, costumes, lighting, and sound will go together. They discuss everything about the show - from what they think of it to what they hope the audience takes away from it. They will talk with the director to know more about the style of the production.

The Importance of the Technical Director:
The technical director completes the final and extremely important steps in bringing all aspects of design to life; they turn the sketches, blueprints, etc. into complete sets, lights, and costumes. The technical director is not alone in this endeavor; creating intricate costumes and sets requires many hands. The crew responsible for constructing and sewing can often outnumber the cast of a production.

Rehearsals:
In the final days leading up to the production, technical rehearsals begin. Often, the only people in the audience will be the designers. The first of the tech rehearsals brings together all of the technical elements. The set pieces, lighting and sound equipment, and props are the same as what will be used for the opening night and on. Once all of the technical aspects are practiced to perfection, dress rehearsals begin. The actors will run through the show, with all of the tech elements, in full costume. These rehearsals even include bows to the audience of designers.

Curtain Call:
The designers themselves aren't up on stage to be celebrated for their work. They may not even be present every show, like the lighting and sound operators. Instead, their work is applauded during the curtain call.

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Caring For Makeup, Wigs, and Prosthetics:

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Caring For Makeup, Wigs, and Prosthetics:

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Costume Designers are usually in charge of makeup, wigs, and prosthetic facial features, but they will hire makeup artists to carry out their designs, or to take charge on more complicated work. (Example: Cats the Musical) For wigs, there are specialized wig-makers.

Straight Makeup: Makeup that highlights facial features and makes the actor look more like the character than themselves, while still obtaining their natural look. This makeup is used to also avoid looking washed out while on stage.

Character Makeup: Makeup used to completely transform what the actor looks like (or certain parts).

*Example: High school shows; having a 16 year old play an 80 year old requires heavy character makeup.
Applying the Makeup:
It is common for Actor-training programs to have classes that teach how to create and apply makeup.
Prosthetics:
Plasters are made of the actors face by the makeup designer. Synthetic rubber is then used to create scars, warts, noses, and more. Non-toxic theatrical glue is used to attach these to the actors face.

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Two hours of prosthetic make up application, a photo every two seconds compressed to a 90 second video. Make up artist is Bernadette Schett, Shrek is David Lundqvist, the musical is presented by Wermland Opera in Karlstad, Sweden. Filmed and edited by Julian Bigg

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The Hobbit at The Grand Theatre - time lapse of set build

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The Hobbit Adapted by Glyn Robbins from the book entitled "The Hobbit" by J.R.R. Tolkien. Directed by Susan Ferley The play "The Hobbit" being presented in this production was adapted by Glyn Robbins from the book entitled "The Hobbit" by J.R.R. Tolkien. The play is being presented by permission and under license from Middle-earth Enterprises.

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History:

Ancient Greece: Designers made screens, costumes, and masks to create the characters/environment.

Italian Renaissance: Designers made stages out of two dimensional flats and painted them to manipulate the audience into believing they were 3D. Example: Dungeons/Thrones/Etc.

Contrary (Simple Set):    Bare platforms used for Chinese Opera.                      Instead of complex designs, they'd use simple gestures to communicate the setting with the audience.                                   Examples:

Climbing a tall mountain: Pantomime it with a small stepladder.

Throne: Wooden Stool

Audience was encouraged to see the set with their imagination.

Designers Today:

Sets can be simple or complex.

Limitations: Theatre's Budget + Designer's Imagination.

Also, time + taking into account durability/safety + Structural limits of the theatre itself.

Designers use the words of the playwright/Director's Ideas and transforms those abstract concepts into visual imagery.

Designers tend to have experience in interior design, architecture, art history, and theatrical conventions of various periods. Primarily, Designers must be Artists.

Steps:

They can draft their designs by hand or with a modern Computer Aided Design program.

CAD was originally meant for engineers and architects but was quickly used for theatre sets.

There are advanced programs that let the director walk through a virtual reality set.

Designers who use CAD essentially do the same thing as basic designers.

The Director needs to approve the set before they can move onto painting a color rendering.

Once THAT is approved, the Designer creates blueprints. Floor plans(view from above) and Elevations (Views from front and back) are created.

Drawings must be exactly to scale. Designer has to include the placement of doors, windows, platforms, furniture, light switches, and baseboards.

Self Construction crew builds the set from the Designer's blueprints.

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History of Costuming:
Costumes have been a part of every performance since the inception of theatre. Whether it was masks and robes in Ancient Greek Theatre, or hand me down gowns and suits from Lords and Ladies for Shakespeare's plays, costumes have been an essential part in every show ever performed.
Important Designer Traits:

Visual Artist

Fashion Designer

Historian

Psychoanalyst

Standard Design Elements Every Costumer Follows:

Line, mass, balance, harmony, composition, movement, texture, and color

Costume and Makeup Research:

The designer must research and analyze the script to determine what would be most appropriate for characters to wear. However, the designer must consider factors within the script as well as working alongside the other theatrical designers to create pieces that work with every part of the performance.
Costume Parade: Mock up or official costumes are worn by the actors in front of the director and costumer. The designer and director then cans discuss any changes they'd like to make or things to keep.

Factors Within the Script:

Time period: Have to take into account what the fabrics, patterns, trends, and even sewing techniques of the times were.

Setting: The location, season, and even time of day are just a few examples of how setting affects the costumes.

Characterization: The character must be analyzed in depth to determine why they dress the way they do.
Functionality: The designer must acknowledge what kind of wear and tear the costume will go through.

*Most designers encourage analyzing the text first, so that they can learn who they character is, and what would be most appropriate for them to wear based on their personality or the situations they are put in.

Factors External to the Script (Working with other Designers):

The production concept: The director and company must first agree on if the show will be traditional (and stick to the script), or if it will be a revamped, non traditional performance of a play/ musical. (For example, taking a Shakespeare play and putting the setting on the beach; The Crucible being set in modern day)

How the costumes interact with the set: Are characters meant to blend into the set, or stand out? The designer must use psychoanalytical thought process to determine how the audience will interpret the costume in relation to the set.

How the costumes interact with lighting: The designer must use psychoanalytical thought process to determine how the audience will interpret the costume in relation to the lighting. It will affect the mood of the piece, and ultimately, help develop plot.

The Theatre's Budget: What can the theatre afford? Can they afford to recreate specific styles and techniques used straight from the time period?
*If the designer can not find costumes in thrift or department stores, they will look to:

Costume Rentals: Expensive to rent costumes; The company has to keep in mind rental plus insurance, cleaning, shipping, and the return.

Costume Vault: Larger companies or community shows will have storage that holds costumes from past shows that they can reuse.

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In the early days of Theatre, plays were performed outdoors.  They used the sun as their light source, and theatres were built so the sun would hit the stage in the evening.
About Half a millennium ago, the first indoor venues arose.  They utilized light from candle lit chandeliers.  Designers were starting to come up with new ways to add effects to the light, but these techniques were complicated and had little effect.

--Names To Know--

Sebastiano Serlio (1475-1554)
In 1545 published "Architettura"  in which he discussed how to change the effect of light by putting reflectors behind the light source, and globes of colored water  in front.

Nicola Sabbattini (1574-1654)
Published "Manual for Constructing Theatrical Scenes and Machines" which discussed how lights can be dimmed by lowering tin cylinders over the flame.

In the 1840's, gas lit theatres were becoming the norm.  We began to use gas-powered spotlights.  These utilized jets of oxygen and hydrogen which were ignited by small pieces of lime, hence the saying "being in the limelight."

These theatres were very prone to fire, making them dangerous.  But guess what happened in 1879?  The lightbulb was invented.  This changed the game.

--More Names to Know--

Adolphe Appia (1862-1928)
One of the first well known Master Lighting Designers.  Used shadows, light, and color to create new, unique effects.

Lighting Design was starting to grow, but it was unrecognized as an art form until 1970, when Jo Mielziner won a Tony for Best Lighting Design for his work in "Child's Play."

Lighting Design took a huge leap forward with the invention of computerized lighting.  This allows an entire design to be controlled by a lightboard, aka a Dimmer.  The first Broadway play to utilize a lightboard was the musical "A Chorus Line" in 1975, the designer being Tony Award-winning Tharon Musser.  Computerized lighting gave a designer "consistency and smoothness" said Musser.  "You get the same show every night."  As you can tell, the advancements in technology are only making the game easier.  Today, we can create an entire light show, including exact light levels and fade-in/fade-outs for hundreds of lights.  Then when we're done, we can store it all on a flash drive and shove it in our back pocket until the next show.

Back in the day, lighting designers would make simple renderings of their designs to show the director what their design would look like.  This meant the LD couldn't show the director what their plot would look like until days before the show, once the lights were hung and aimed.  But today, we can use software programs to make real-time lighting simulations, so we can show all the designers what the final result will be.

So all this info is cool and all, but what is the actual role of a Lighting Designer?

The central role of a Lighting Designer is to evoke mood.  All of the knowledge in the world of software, instruments, and circuitry won't achieve this goal.  If you want to be a successful LD, you must also understand art and human emotions.  LD's often study paintings, optics, and other forms of art.  Robert Edmond James once said, "At rare moments, in the long quiet hours of light-rehearsals a strange thing happens.  We are overcome by a realization of the livingness of light.  As we gradually bring a scene out of the shadows, sending long rays slanting across a column, touching an outline with color, animating the scene moment by moment until it seems to breathe, our work becomes an incantation.  We feel the presence of elemental energies."

Lighting designers can create life, but we can also take it away.  Don't aggravate the lighting designer.

Stage lighting can be put into two categories, Motivated and Non-motivated. Motivated light comes from an identifiable source, such as the a candle, a table lamp, or the sun. Non-motivated light reinforces the mood of a scene but doesn't come from an identifiable source. Non-motivated light can be influenced easily, a designer can change the lights direction, balance, and color in order to achieve a desired effect. These effects can establish a scene's mood, space, and environment. For every light cue the audience notices, there are dozens of more subtle changes that affect the audience subconsciously.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLS-Gye3BhM
24:00

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Prop Design: The designer in charge of choosing or creating the items touched (or not touched) by the actor. One of the rarest designers in the theatre; The set designer can usually double as a prop designer.

Set Prop/Hand Props: Items touched by actors. (Furniture, money, umbrellas, pens, etc)

Set Decorations: Items not touched by actors. (Picture frames, a decorative lamp, vases, anything decorative and untouched).

Prepping for a Show:

After attending the design team meetings, they will sketch props or use CAD programs to identify what they want to use.

If the props can not be found in thrift, regular stores, or the theatres prop storage, only then will a prop designer build it.

The designers do the same kind of research required in other areas (like in set, costume, and lighting design). They need to consider what would be most appropriate to use in the time period, social status, location, and much more.

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Sounds and music in the theatre can:

motivate actions onstage and indicate events taking place offstage

establish the time of day, season and weather

locate the action in a specific place

create mood and changes in mood

stimulate audience expectations of what is to come

provide information about the characters

build transitions between scenes

offer shortcuts that rapidly advance the plot or recall past events"

- American Association of Community Theatre

Sound Design has been around for a long time.

In ancient Greece they used tools to imitate wind, rain and thunder.

The Roman's used boulders to imitate distant thunder and sometimes earthquakes. Shakespeare often used trumpets and cannon fire (sometimes it backed fire).

In Japan Kabuki Theatre they used specials mats that amplified their movement.

Requirements  for being a sound designer:

Knowledge of acoustics, electronics, digital music editing program, audio mixing board, signal processing equipment, microphones, effect processors, amplifies, and maybe dabble in some form of music or composing.
https://youtu.be/1lTYPvArbGo