Scenic design

For film and television, see production design.

Set design model by Marcel Jambon for an 1895 Paris production of Giuseppe Verdi's Otello.

Set design for the New Zealand Opera's 2016 production of Mozart's Magic Flute

Scenic design for The 2010 Family Series, by Glenn Davis

A simple red curtain set design for the Oresteia presented by Stairwell Theater, 2019

Scenic design, also known as stage design or set design, is the creation of scenery for theatrical productions including plays and musicals. The term can also be applied to film and television productions, where it can also be referred to as production design. Scenic designers create sets and scenery to support the overall artistic goals of the production. Scenic design is an aspect of scenography, which includes theatrical set design as well as light and sound.

Scenic designer

A scenic designer works collaboratively with the theatre director and other creative team members to establish a visual concept for the production and to design the stage environment. They are responsible for developing a complete set of design drawings that include:

• Basic floor plan showing all stationary scenic elements;
• Composite floor plan showing all moving scenic elements, indicating both their onstage and storage positions;
• Complete floor plan of the stage space incorporating all elements; and
• Front elevations of every scenic element and additional elevations of sections of units as required.

In planning, scenic designers often make multiple scale models and renderings. Models are often made before the final drawings for construction.

These precise drawings help the scenic designer effectively communicate with other production staff, especially the technical director, production manager, charge scenic artist, and prop master.

In Europe and Australia, many scenic designers are also responsible for costume design, lighting design and sound design. They are also commonly referred to as theatre designers, scenographers, or production designers.

Scenic design often involves skills like carpentry, architecture, textual analysis, and budgeting.

Historically done by hand, many modern scenic designers use 3D CAD models to produce these design drawings.

Notable scenic designers

Scenic designer Robert Edmond Jones (1887-1954) drawing at a waist-high table (c. 1920).

Some notable scenic designers, past and present, include: Adolphe Appia, Boris Aronson, Alexandre Benois, Alison Chitty, Antony McDonald, Barry Kay, Caspar Neher, Cyro Del Nero, Aleksandra Ekster, David Gallo, Edward Gordon Craig, Es Devlin, Ezio Frigerio, Christopher Gibbs, Franco Zeffirelli, George Tsypin, Howard Bay, Inigo Jones, Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, Jo Mielziner, John Lee Beatty, Josef Svoboda, Ken Adam, Léon Bakst, Luciano Damiani, Maria Björnson, Ming Cho Lee, Natalia Goncharova, Nathan Altman, Nicholas Georgiadis, Oliver Smith, Ralph Koltai, Emanuele Luzzati, Neil Patel, Robert Wilson, Russell Patterson, Brian Sidney Bembridge, Santo Loquasto, Sean Kenny, Todd Rosenthal, Robin Wagner, Tony Walton, Louis Daguerre, Ralph Funicello, and Roger Kirk.

See also

• Film sculptor
• Scenic painting
• Scenographer
• Scenography
• Set construction
• Stage machinery
• Theatrical scenery

Further reading

• Brockett, Oscar G., Margaret Mitchell, and Linda Hardberger. Making the Scene: A History of Stage Design and Technology in Europe and the United States, Tobin Theatre Arts Fund, distributed by University of Texas Press, 2010. Traces the history of scene design since the ancient Greeks.
• Pecktal, Lynn. Designing and Painting for the Theater, McGraw-Hill, 1995. Details production design processes for theater, opera, and ballet. The foundational text provides a professional picture and comprehensive references to the design process. Well-illustrated with detailed lined drawings and photographs to convey the beauty and craft of scenic and production design.

External links

• Media related to Scenography at Wikimedia Commons.
• Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space Largest scenography event in the world.
• What is Scenography Article illustrating the differences between US and European theatre design practices.