Marina Nebro: Arts and Culture

Introduction to Theatre Design: An Evaluation

All Queens College and CUNY students are urged to fill out teacher and course evaluation forms towards the end of every semester. They are encouraged to do this with the bribe of $15 worth of Q-Bucks for printing and photocopying. For me, however, I think it’s really important to let my professors know how I enjoyed or disliked a class, and how they might improve in the future. That being said, I thought I’d do a brief public evaluation of the first class I ever stepped foot in my first semester of college – Introduction to Theatre Design with Professor Meghan Healey.

Today in class we went around the room reviewing elements of design and how we’ve applied these elements in projects we’ve completed. The list of my projects went as follows (click on project descriptions to visit previous blog posts):

The Liar by Carlo Goldoni – Mask and Costumes

On the Razzle by Tom Stoppard – Found Artwork, Fashion History Quiz, History Project

The Bacchae by Euripides – Playlist and Sound Cues

Much Ado About Nothing by Shakespeare – Sculpture and Costumes

The Turn of the Screw by Benjamin Britton and Mfawny Pfifer (final project) – Nightmare Box and Set

We were asked to talk about our most favorite and least favorite projects from the semester. For me, both questions are hard to answer because I truly enjoyed every single project and assignment. There wasn’t one project from which I didn’t learn anything. They were all useful and educational in my view. That being said, I had to choose a favorite and a least favorite, so here I go!

My favorite project, though it didn’t entail creating anything visually in terms of costume and didn’t require me to use any artistic talent, I found the history project for On The Razzle to be extremely inspiring. We were asked to find costume and set research for the play that was specific to the ten year period between 1845 and 1855. Even to someone like me, who absolutely loves fashion and history, the task seemed pretty daunting. How in the world was I supposed to compile sufficient research for an entire play based on only a ten year time span? To prepare for this project, Professor Healey presented us with an online lecture podcast about the history of fashion in the 19th century. Is it strange that an educational podcast got me really excited? To test our knowledge, we had a competitive trivia quiz in class. I was on Team Madame X (I chose the name), named after a scandalously famous woman we learned about in the online lesson. It’s not hard to imagine that the Madame X’s won the game, is it? I think the podcast really prepared me for the research that was to come later on. Though this was a challenging project, and not the most creative of our projects, it introduced me to a knew field that might be interesting to consider. I had never, before this class, realized how much historical research must go behind the creation of a costume or prop.

Fashion History Project for On The Razzle (click to see PowerPoint presentation)

My least favorite project, though this doesn’t mean I didn’t like it, it just means that it wasn’t my strong-suit, was the sound design project on Euripides’ The Bacchae. From the start, it was probably the least interesting of all the plays as Greek drama is usually dry. As Professor Healey described it, it is as if the actor goes on stage, points at something, and tells the audience its history. The assignment for this particular play was to create a sound cue sheet of five separate sound cues – this could include background music to long monologues, or short bursts of sound to highlight an action. The problem that I came to was finding perfect music to use. There were things that were similar to what I wanted, as you will see later when I post my playlist and sound cue examples, but would not necessarily fit perfectly if I were to actually put on and produce the play.

Sound Cue Sheet for The Bacchae (click to see explanations of my sound cues; YouTube link to playlist above in project descriptions)

Overall, I’d just really like to thank Professor Meghan Healey for introducing me to such a wonderful art form that, up until now, I’ve been taking for granted. So much goes behind a theatre, film, or television production! I’m really excited to continue my studies in this field in future semesters!

Marina B. Nebro