Planing and the tricky bits!

Part of the design process involves drawing up plans which describe the set from different angles. The ground plan shows the set from above and marks it’s footprint on the stage floor with a solid line and anything suspended above is shown with a broken line; this is the crucial plan to get right as it is drawn over a copy of the actual theatre space and thus we all know that the set will actually fit onto the stage. Only the other day I heard a story about a time when a set failed to fit, being too big. This is obviously very bad news when the construction team only usually have a day to get the set up. Investigations took place and it turned out that the designer had deliberately enlarged the dimensions of the theatre building in order to accommodate their design! Production management tend to view the average designer with some suspicion at the best of times and when you hear of things like that, you have to concede they have good reason!

In addition to the ground plan, I do a set of working drawings which show the various pieces of scenery from the front and the side. The set is quite small for Glengarry, so the job has only taken me a couple of days or so. Thank Goodness! Because doing these drawings is my least favourite part of the job .I managed to get an O’level in maths sometime in the distant past, but I get easily confused where numbers are concerned, although that wonderful invention, the scale ruler, does most of the hard work. In the photo you can see me, back bent, struggling with those little millimetres over my drawing board.

The other photo shows our Production Manager, Michael, with his colleagues, Gareth and Dave, looking over the plans. Fortunately, they don’t pick up any problems so we can proceed. I had wondered if they might have some concerns about the overhanging ceiling of the office, because since the set is on the revolve and turns around at the interval, the ceiling can’t be suspended from above. But Michael has confidence in the ability of the builders who will be contracted to construct the set, so I put out of mind any vague back-up plan I had been considering, in case the ceiling, in its present form, got the thumbs down.

In my next up-date I will report back on our visit to the set builders, when we take the model over to show them the design.