Raised In Captivity Scenic Design and Production

Projects

Raised In Captivity
Scenic Design & Production

Quick Description

From the very start of my work on Nicky Silver's Raised in Captivity, produced and directed by Michael Marceline, I was given complete artistic freedom. I was told the direction that the director was taking, and that other than keeping things within the same view as that direction, that my sets should say their own thing about the piece. The only drawback to this work was the very low budget and lack of build crew, though the cast and production crew did thankfully throw in a hand here and there. The idea for this show really just popped into my head. Graphic Novels. Oftentimes, an artist will limit themselves to force creativity, and in this case I wanted the lines to do the talking. In a graphic novel, when a character is happy or angry or upset, the artist shows this through use of line style. This was my 'artistic limiter', and my scenic concept. Every piece of furniture used was covered in two sheets of white muslin, then lines were painted on to indicate mood. This also served to set a surreal tone, and to "trap" the characters within the world that they had created around themselves. Not only was this a very freeing experience from much of the other design work I'd done before, but it taught me quite a lot about the director - designer collaborative process and how to draw out art, rather than simply doing the necessary.