Production Meeting: Set Design

I met with my Art Director Monica Verdouw, Technical Director Craig Burton, and Makeup Designer Sam Brandys at the Garfield Park Arts Center to walk through the space and get a feel for the size and shape of the set for the production. I would have to say the meeting was a great success! We have a pretty clear idea of how the set will sit, and an idea of the construction materials necessary.

The stage will sit unevenly with a large platform either far upstage right or far upstage left. Shorter platforms of about the same dimensions will fan outward to form a shallow spiral. Since the characters will be presented as living statues, we have an initial idea of having pedestals on which they can stand at various points in the show. The podiums will also become other set pieces - chairs, stools, a table, etc. - as necessary. There will be three entrances onto the stage - up stage center onto the largest platform, and stage right and stage left through thin veils supported in arches. The back of the stage will be masked with standard flats reaching from the farthest outside entrances. The plan now is to depict through images the story of the previous two plays (Oedipus the King and Oedipus at Colonus) on the back masking flats on either side of the up stage center entrance.

The company has most of the lumber materials to build the platforms, and the flats were previously used for our production of The Matchmaker. They will be easy to modify to fit the needs of Antigone.

Below are some of Monica's sketches concerning the design of the set - a page of images reflecting a Classical style, a page of images reflecting a Modern style, and a sketch of a first draft of the stage described above.