PTT Program 6 Days 07-09.txt

We're really fortunate to have one of Bob's and my former students here with us today. Daniel Lanier is a theater teacher and a set designer. Welcome, Daniel. Thanks, Marty. What's your objective as a set designer? A set designer needs to support the director's vision of the physical world in which...

We're really fortunate to have one of Bob's and my former students here with us today. Daniel Lanier is a theater teacher and a set designer. Welcome, Daniel. Thanks, Marty. What's your objective as a set designer? A set designer needs to support the director's vision of the physical world in which the characters live. Whether this world exists representationally or presentationally, minimalistically or elaborate, the designer needs to clearly convey as accurately as possible what the end product will look like. The set design needs to help tell the story of the play. After the set designer and director have agreed on conceptual research images and have approved renderings and preliminary sketches, the designer will need to present some sort of three-dimensional representation of the final set. What are some ways that designers present their ideas? Some directors may prefer a three-dimensional model made of foam board, paint, and other craft materials. Some may only require a simple whiteboard model, but the objective is to help the director have a complete understanding of your set design. Hand drawn renderings, physical models, whiteboard models have been the industry standard until recently when 3 d modeling programs have become accessible and affordable. When it comes to 3 d modeling programs for students, I find that SketchUp is the best for communicating the set design to directors and actors. It allows you to take a virtual tour of the acting space. The designer can also share the file using a virtual drive like Dropbox or Google Drive. This definitely comes in handy when working on projects, like when students collaborated on the 2017 Missouri Thespian All State show, Iphigenia. What are some of the advantages for using 3 d modeling rendering program? Advantages of 3 d rendering allows the designer to share designs with the director and other designers digitally, even from different geographical locations. Make changes to practical units, stairs, doors, windows, etc. Make changes to colors in the set without having to redraw the entire rendering, Allow the actors to see what the set is going to look like from all different angles. This can be difficult to fully understand using 2 d renderings and ground plans. SketchUp has a robust library of furniture and architectural features available in their 3 d warehouse. Now, theater encompasses so many historical periods that it is impossible to have every style of furniture, prop, and architectural element. But as you become more proficient, you can build your own digital models. Just be sure not to use any copyrighted images. SketchUp provides a lot of textures or materials. As you become more proficient, you can create your own materials. Here's a picture of the floor from my house I wanted to use on a set. I imported the picture and created a new material. You can also use this for photographs when using projected scenery. Again, be sure not to use any copyrighted images. At the time of this program, the educational version of SketchUp for students and educators is free. If you become more proficient, you may want to upgrade to the professional version. How about using a set design you've done and demonstrate all of these advantages and disadvantages? Let's pretend that I'm an indecisive director who really isn't sure about what I want in a set. And you're a set designer and we're exploring different ideas about the set. Sure. Let me grab my laptop. Can you move the ladder stage left? Of course. Yes, but can you make it go up to the top of the second story? Sure thing. Okay. Now it looks a little empty over there. Can you extend the balustrade? You bet. Now, can you delete the window? Easily. But now we need to move the door to the stage right side. Why not? Can you change the color of the walls to look like parquet floor? Absolutely. You know what, I think I like the way it looked before. Can you go back to the original setting? Anything for you, Marty. You may have a Director who is indecisive and not sure of what they want in a Set. Instead of rebuilding models or starting from scratch doing dozens of renderings, you can present a variety of options to the Director with the click of a keystroke. Be advised, if your design has a lot of elaborate details in your SketchUp model, the size of your SKP file may get extremely large. Once I save 10 models of the same design to illustrate various color options to the Director, the vial size was already so large, multiplied by 10, and it slowed down the performance speed of the program. If you're looking to save multiple SKP files, I recommend an external drive to store your models. Before we start, it should be noted the following tutorial is demonstrated on a PC, and we're using the SketchUp Make 2017 version. At the time of this recording, this version of SketchUp is still available. Other versions may differ. Let's go over the basic tools we will use and their shortcuts. Lines, draws lines, shortcut letter l, shapes. This tool allows you to create common polygons, most often rectangles or circles, shortcut letters r and c, respectively. Select. This tool allows you to select items to modify. Shortcut, spacebar. PushPull. Select surface and extend in a direction perpendicular to its face. Shortcut letter p. Orbit, orbit the camera view about the model, shortcut o. Zoom. Zoom the camera view in or out. On a mouse, use the scroll wheel. On a laptop touchpad, drag 2 fingers toward or away from you. Tape measure. Measure distances in your model. Shortcut, T. Move. Relocate a selected object or component. Shortcut M. Paint Bucket. Apply color or material to an entity in the model, shortcut b. In this section, I will how you can build a digital model of your theater space using a few of the basic tools in SketchUp without having to spend hours measuring every nook and cranny of your theater space. All you need is a digital copy of your theater's ground plan and a tape measure. First, find the precise measurement of the width of your proscenium. If you have a scale hard copy of your theater's ground plan, you can use a scale rule to find this measurement. However, if you want to be as precise as possible, using a tape measure is recommended. This will reduce the margin of error in your final model. In SketchUp, using either the line tool or the rectangle in the shapes tools, Create a quadrilateral that is larger than your actual theater space. Let's really overshoot and create a 200 foot square. Next, take your pointer tool and select the entire square. Right click and select create component. Once you've created your component, right click on the component and select Edit component. This will allow you to modify your theater space. Now we're going to import the ground plan of the theater onto the square we just created. Select the paint bucket icon at the top. To create a new material, find the icon of a cube and a circle with a plus sign in it. When you hover your cursor over the icon, it'll read create materials. Click the icon and a window will appear for you to search and select the file. Select the PDF of your theater's ground plan and select open. In the Create Materials window, give the new material a name and select okay. Using the paint bucket, apply the new material to the square. It may not look like anything happened, but if you zoom in close, you'll see you have painted this square with over 40,000 copies of the floor plan. This means we need to adjust the size of the material. To do this, select the Edit tab in the materials window. Towards the bottom left of the window, there are some arrows and dimensions displayed. We need to increase the dimensions of the material. Since the current size is approximately a foot, let's see what happens if we increase it by 50 times. I know the width of this particular proscenium is exactly 60 feet. We will use this to guide us as we adjust the material. Once we are satisfied with the size, we will use the line tool to trace over the floor plan of the theater. Finally, we've reached my favorite part where we start to see the fruit of our labor, and we make this thing three-dimensional. Let's select our push pull tool and start moving it around. And there you have it, a basic three-dimensional model of your theater space. If you'd like to explore more of the tools and features, check out SketchUp's YouTube channel for tutorials or go to sketchup.com. Now that you have a good idea what a finished set looks like, how to design an interior set, and the needs of the set you're going to design, let's get started. A designer needs to communicate to the director, technical director, carpenters, and other designers what the set will look like. There are several common ways to do this. One way is by doing a rendering or a color perspective drawing of what the set will look like. The rendering for the show we just saw at Saint John's was excellent. The designer, Gene Weber, is an exceptional visual artist and did that rendering using a computer program. Some designers still do renderings by hand, but computer programs have the advantage of being able to change things like the color of the walls or woodwork in the set quickly and easily without having to redo the entire rendering. Some directors like seeing thumbnail sketches in the initial design process. These are tiny, quickly done sketches that can be redrawn or modified quickly while meeting with the designer. Not everybody has natural artistic ability, so another way to communicate with the director is by making a scale model of the set. Models can be very simple or very elaborate. Models take longer to make but have the advantage of giving the director a three-dimensional tool with which to work. Some directors prefer very small models that can be easily carried around. Others prefer larger sized 1 quarter inch or 1 half inch scale models. We'll walk through how to do a larger size 1 half inch scale model. The first thing you need to do, whether you do a rendering or a model, is to make a ground plan. As we said earlier, a ground plan is an overhead view of the set. It's necessary to draw your ground plans in scale or you won't get a good idea of how much space things take up on stage. A scale drawing is a drawing of the set that's reduced using a mathematical formula. The most common scales used in drawing scenery are 1 quarter inch equals 1 foot and 1 half inch equals 1 foot. The reason we use smaller scale models is really easy to understand. When we draw plans for a set, it's really impractical to get a piece of paper as big as your stage and then start drawing the set, So we reduce the size of the drawings to 1 quarter inch on your paper equals 1 foot on stage or 1 half inch on your paper equals 1 foot on stage. Using 1 quarter inch scale, 1 inch on your plans would really be 4 feet on stage. Using 1 half inch scale, 1 inch on your paper would be 2 feet on stage. You can do this one of 2 ways. Either use a ruler and do the math as you go along. For example, in 1 quarter inch scale, 2 inches on your ground plan would be 8 feet on the stage. An easier way to work is to use an architect's rule, which does the math for you. See on the quarter inch scale how the 8 foot mark is really 2 inches? These cost a few dollars, but save an enormous amount of time and are much more accurate than using regular rulers in doing the math. See how inches can be measured with the architect's rule? This line, measuring 1 and 3 eighths inches on the ground plan, is really 5 feet 6 inches on the stage. One thing I'd like to point out here is that we're going to be using a black marker to do our drawings only because it's going to show up better on a television screen. When you do your drawings, always use a pencil so you can make changes and modify the aspects of your design. Let's take another look at the ground plan from the off center show. The proscenium is indicated by the 2 heavy black rectangular shapes. The thrust stage that juts out into the seating area is 17 feet from the proscenium. Notice the dotted center line running from far upstage to the edge of the thrust. We will take many measurements from the centerline, sometimes abbreviated CL. The walls of the set are indicated by the gray shaded long rectangles, and the doors are heavy black lines with dotted lines showing how the doors swing open. An archway or a door frame without the door is indicated by a dotted line in the box. All the props and the set dressing items are clearly labeled, and notice that there are places for the name of the play, the author, the producing group, the director, the designer, the scale of the drawing, and any notes. The lines with arrows on the end of them are called dimension lines, and they tell the length of the section of a set. See how the distance from the proscenium to the back wall of the theater is 19 feet and the width of the thrust stage is 20 feet. And last, notice how the height of the platforms from the stage and auditorium floor is indicated on the ground plan in inches. There are many great computer assisted drafting or CAD programs on the market, But since few theater classes have access to a CAD lab or even drafting tables and equipment, we're going to draw up our plans manually and very simply. If you decide you would like to become a set designer, classes in CAD are absolutely essential. And if you do have access to drafting gear, be sure to use it for this assignment. Up until CAD systems became the standard in theater, designers drew everything on drafting paper. We're going to use a drafting board and drafting paper to show how the process works. Drafting paper is very thin, almost transparent paper that could be layered on the top of other plans, so the designer could see what the earlier plans look like and add to those plans. The designer starts out with a ground plan and with all of the furniture and other set props placed on the copy of the ground plan. He or she then tapes a new sheet of drafting paper on top of that ground plan and does another version without the furniture and other set props, but with a dimension line so the carpenters can see how big everything is and so the stage manager can tape out the set on the floor of the rehearsal space. The lighting designer can then lay another sheet of drafting paper on top of that ground plan and do a light hanging plot for the show. Today, this is still done in layers but done inside computers. Let's go back to the off center set now. After you get the okay from the director on the ground plan, one of the first things you do is get the dimensions of the set and add dimension lines to the walls, doors, windows, platforms, step units, and other major elements of the set. This is the ground plan that goes to the carpenters and doesn't include the set props and furniture. It's pretty easy to do. Most of the time, you'll do a 1 quarter inch ground plan with furniture placement for the director and a 1 half inch ground plan for the carpenters with no set props or furniture. Remember that we're doing this ground plan in 1 quarter inch scale, so it will fit on an 8 and a half by 11 sheet of paper. The first flat, or section of wall stage right is 1 half inch wide or 2 feet in real life. Measure how far the upstage and downstage corners of this flat are from the center line. Put marks there and draw in that section of the wall. Add the dimension line 2 feet to that section of the wall or flat and label it A. The next section of wall are flat on the off center ground plan is a window that is 1 inch wide on the ground plan, So in real life, it's 4 feet wide. Repeat measuring how far the upstage and downstage corners are from the centerline. Mark these spots. Draw the 4 foot section of wall in and label B and add the dimension lines. The next flat, flat C, is just like flat B, except it has a 2 foot wide window stage right. Mark B and C and draw in the windows, a rectangular box with wavy lines that represent curtains and dimension lines. Just keep going around the set with flat D, 4 feet wide, flat E, 2 feet wide, flat F, 2 feet wide, and flat G, a 4 foot wide flat showing which way the door opens. Continue around the set adding dimension lines to flat H, 4 feet wide, flat I, a 4 foot wide fireplace flat, j, 4 feet wide, k 2 feet wide, l 4 feet wide, m 2 feet wide, n, a 4 foot wide archway just like the other door flat, o, 4 feet wide, p, 2 feet wide, q, a 4 foot wide door flat just like the other door flat, and R, 2 feet wide. Always use your centerline as kind of a home base. Next, draw in your platforms and step units using the same process of measuring. The steps are 1 foot deep and 3 foot wide going up to the landing. The landing is 6 feet wide and 3 feet deep with an escape platform behind it that's 8 feet wide and 4 feet deep. Actually, we just worked in reverse to show how scale drawing works. When you design your set, you'll be responsible for how wide the doors are, how many steps there are, how big the landing is, and other aspects of the set. It's common practice to get a list of flats and platforms that your theater already has built, and you'll be expected to use those flats and platforms except for any special pieces of scenery that will need to be built from scratch. After the ground plan is ok'd by the director, the designer then does elevations. Front elevations are what each section of scenery will look like from the audience. They are also used to help make a model of the set if a model is being used. Rear elevations are what the scenery looks like from the back and are used during construction. Painters elevations are full color front elevations given to the scenic artists so they know how to paint the set according to the designer's wishes. Painters elevations are also used to help make a model of the set. Like we said, we're going to do our ground plan in 1 quarter inch scale since many school stages will fit on an 8 and a half by 11 piece of paper using that scale. Remember, 1 quarter inch scale means that 1 quarter inch on your paper equals 1 foot on stage. Your teacher may now give you a blank ground plan of a typical high school stage or may give you a blank ground plan of the stage at your school. You'll use this to draw your 1 quarter inch ground plan for the play you read earlier. We also strongly recommend using 1 quarter inch furniture templates available at most office supply stores to draw in the furniture. These are fairly expensive, so you may have to share them with your classmates. Again, we'll be using a marker to draw these things out on these programs because the marker will show up better on a TV screen. As you're doing your drawings, always use a pencil and have a good eraser handy. Your teacher will now pass out a resource sheet with commonly used symbols used in ground plans. Since we'll be working in 1 quarter inch scale with the ground plans, the sizes of these symbols will be the same on your ground plan as they are on the resource sheet. If your class is working with architect's rules, drafting tables, and other drafting equipment, you will be very precise in your measurements. If you're working with just rulers, pencils, triangles, paper, round off the numbers to the nearest half foot. That is, if a line is 5 16ths or 3 16ths on your ground plan, round that off to 1 quarter inch or 1 foot on your ground plan. Again, if you have architect's rules, your measuring will be much more precise. Look for the 1 quarter inch side on the 3 sided architect's rolls and use that to measure your lines. See the lines labeled 1, 2, 3, 4, etcetera, going up from the inch section? Those are quarter inch marks, but the math has already been done for you. And on your paper, those will be 1 foot marks. If you're using regular rulers and points on your ground plan don't come out exactly on a foot line, round off to the nearest half foot. For example, this line is 7 eighths inch long on the paper and will be 3 feet 6 inches in real life. Again, if your class has access to CAD programs or manual drafting equipment, by all means, use that equipment. Now reread your list of tech requirements from reading the play a few days ago and draw up a ground plan for the play. Remember what we talked about recently. Rake your walls for sight lines. Be careful of where you place furniture. Think about what the exterior of the house might look like. Consider placement of doors and the way they open. Provide some interesting levels and planes for the director. Provide an environment that creates a mood and helps the audience get to know the characters that live there, Be realistic but creative about your facility, your budget, and the technical abilities of your tech crews. By now, you should have a ground plan that has been approved by your teacher. Now, make a copy of your ground plan, leaving out all the furniture and other set props. This is the ground plan that will go to the carpenters. On this ground plan, you need to draw in all the dimension lines. It's really easy, just like we did earlier with the off center ground plan. Just measure the lines on your new ground plan and anytime there's a break in the lines, like a doorway or a corner, start there with a new dimension line. Start stage right, measure the first line and fill in the information on the dimension line, then label that section of wall a. Go to the next flat and repeat. Label that section b and so on. Remember that the measurements on the dimension lines are in feet, not inches. So if your first section of wall is half inch on your ground plan, the dimension line should read 2 feet. Go around your entire set doing this until you have dimension lines for every section of scenery. If you're using a CAD system, these lines and measurements can be easily figured out for you. Now it's time to start doing front elevations. The difference in a ground plan and a front elevation is this. A ground plan is an overhead view of the set, while a front elevation is what the set will look like from the audience. Some directors prefer small models and quarter inch and even 8 inch scale. We're going to start working in half inch scale for our model, since anything smaller is an awfully small scale to work in especially for a first time project. We're going to combine several steps and do the front elevations and the pieces of the model at the same time. Normally, you would do the front elevations on drafting paper and give those elevations to the carpenters, then repeat the process on the foam core or poster board you're using to make your model. Just for this program, we are going to draw our front elevations on the foam core and then cut the pieces out for the model. Now take the material you are going to use for your model and tape it to a drafting board, if you have 1, or the corner of your desk. Be sure to align the poster board up square to the lower left corner. Most interior sets have a constant height for the walls of the set. Just like the walls of a house are the same height than most rooms. The standard ceiling height in newer homes is 8 feet, except for rooms with vaulted ceilings and other higher than normal areas like foyers with stairways. But 8 foot tall walls tend to look too short on many medium to large stages, so we are going to make all our walls 10 feet tall. Ten foot walls also have the advantage that they will allow for stairs and platforms up to 40 inches tall to be used on a set before the actors' heads are seen over the walls. The Off Center Company used 10 foot tall flats for their set we looked at earlier. The 3 theater companies that use the space at Saint John's have a set of 10 foot tall theater flats they share, modify, and use from play to play. Their flats are either 2 feet, 3 feet, or 4 feet wide. We will be using 10 foot tall walls in half inch scale when it comes time to actually build the model of our set. Be ready to use the flats you have on hand in your set. It's actually a good idea to take an inventory of stock flats you already have built, so you can work them into your design. Why build a new flat 3 feet 11 inches wide when you already have a 4 foot wide flat on hand? We're going to practice building a model using the off center set. Draw a horizontal line 10 feet or 5 inches and half inch scale. From the bottom of your poster board all the way across the width of the poster board. This will be the top and bottom of your flats. Now go to the first flat, flat A on your ground plan and look at how wide that flat is. Flat a on the off center ground plan is 2 feet. Make a mark 1 inch from the left side of your poster board on the top line and at the bottom of the poster board. Now, connect a line from those two marks, Label it lightly in pencil and that is section or flat a of your model. Lightly add dimension lines. Now look at Flat B on the off center ground plant. It's a window that is 4 feet wide and has a window seat 18 inches high. Put 2 2 inch marks from the end of a on your poster board, connect your marks, label that lightly in pencil as B. Now draw the bottom of the window in Flat B 18 inches off the stage floor or 3 quarters of an inch on your poster board. Look at your reference sheet and see that for this set, the top of the windows are 9 feet measured from the stage floor. Draw the window in leaving just a narrow edge for the sides of the window. The next flat, flat c, is just like flat b, except it has a 2 foot wide window on the stage right side. Mark c, and draw in the windows. Just keep going around the set with Flat D 4 Foot Wide, flat e, 2 foot wide, flat f, 2 foot wide, flat g, a 4 foot wide door flat where the door opening is 9 feet from the stage floor, the same height as the windows, and 3 feet wide. H, 4 foot wide, I, a 4 foot wide fireplace flat, j, 4 foot wide, k, 2 foot wide, l, 4 foot wide, m 2 foot wide, and a 4 foot wide archway just like the other door flat, except the door is 7 foot 6 inches tall, o, 4 foot wide, p 2 foot wide, q a 4 foot wide door flat just like the last door flat, and r, 2 foot wide. Make sure you lightly labeled each flat with a, b, c, etcetera. Now use either scissors or a mat knife to cut out the top wall and vertical side of the last flat. If you use a mat knife, make sure you have some cardboard under your poster board, so you don't cut up the surface you're working on. And be very careful not to cut yourself. Make sure you cut away from yourself. A metal ruler can help you cut long straight lines. Don't use wooden or plastic rulers. You'll just cut into the ruler and ruin it, and your line won't be straight anyway after the ruler is cut. Now look at your ground plan and see where there are corners or cutouts in the set. The first corner is between b and c. Put 2 marks on the back of your poster board between b and c, and lightly cut the poster board just enough to score it. Now bend it to the angle that's on the ground plan. Go through the rest of the set pieces and repeat. There will be no light cutting between d and e or f and g because those flats are joined in the straight line. On doorway flat g, cut all the way through the poster board on the left side of the door and down the curved section of the right side of the door. The bottom of the door is 2 feet from the bottom of the flat to allow for the 2 foot tall platform and landing. Then just lightly cut the right side of the door on the front side so it can fold upstage in the direction it'll open. Cut the windows and archway all the way out of the wall sections. If you work with foam core for this project, you'll want to use glue on the edges that bend awkwardly and then push straight pins into the foam core at an angle until the glue dries. Now that you have all your walls cut out, it's time to get a piece of scrap paneling, quarter inch thick plywood, or other thin sheet good and cut the material the size of your stage in half inch scale. Remember, this is going to be twice as big as the ground plans you did earlier. Get the dimensions from your earlier ground plan and draw where your proscenium opening is, where the side and back walls of the theater are, where all the curtains touch the floor. Then, using the center line as a reference, draw in where all the walls, stairs and landings and any other part of the set will be on the model. For example, on the off center set, the wall behind the fireplace is 11 feet from the edge of the apron. The stairs start 8 feet from the edge of the apron and they are 2 and a half feet from the center line. Remember that your ground plan is in quarter inch scale and your model is in half inch scale. So the ground plan for your model will be twice the size of your original ground plan. Once you have the half inch ground plan drawn out on your plywood or paneling, set your walls down on the ground plan and they should follow the outline you just drew. Glue them down following the ground plan, and put pieces of tape across the top of the walls to hold them down while the glue dries. Now you need to do the platforms and stair units for your model. The standard height of stairs is between 6 inches to 8 inches. On stage, many theaters use an 8 inch height, so stairs will rise quickly and take up the least amount of space on stage. Anything higher than 8 inches is awkward, especially for people of less than average height. The narrowest stairs usually are 3 feet wide. Although, some stairways, especially in large older houses, may be wider. To make stereo units, just see how many stairs there are in your ground plan. The off center plans have a 12 foot wide 2 step unit coming off the stage onto the thrust and a 3 foot wide 2 step unit in the upright area going on to the landing. All the steps are 8 inches tall. The landing is 3 foot by 3 foot and 24 inches high and the platform with the suit of armor is 3 foot wide by 6 foot long and the outside trellis platform is 4 foot wide by 8 foot long. Here's how to make these pieces. This template is a pattern for a stringer that is 8 inches high and 1 foot deep. For stair units, just count the number of stairs you want to use and cut out the template on the resource sheet. Then trace that pattern on your poster board and cut out 2 stringers for each stair unit. And if the stair unit is really wide, cut out an extra stringer for every 3 or 4 feet in between the end stringers. Then trace and cut the thread or the part you walk on, drawing them to whatever length you want to use. The off center set used 2 3 foot wide treads and 2 12 foot wide treads. After you cut out these treads, Tape the treads to the stringers, and add some tape and thin pieces of poster board to cover where the kickboards would be. Kickboards are the vertical parts of stairs that are between the treads. If you're using foam core, subtract the thickness of the foam core from the height of the stringers. For platforms, 1st draw the top of the platform a little bit away from the edge of the poster board. The platform that met the stairs on the off center set was a 3 foot by 3 foot platform. So draw a square 1 and a half inches by 1 and a half inches. Now look at how high off the stage that platform is. The 3 by 3 platform is 24 inches off the stage floor. So draw 4 2 foot wings off the 3 foot by 3 foot box you just drew. Cut this out and score the edges of the platform so you can fold them in if you're using poster board. Then tape the wings together to make a box and you have the platform at the right height. If you're using foam core, you'll have to cut out the floor, then the sides, allowing for the thickness of the foam core. After you have all the pieces of your set cut out, it's time to start making the furniture. If you want, half inch scale furniture can be bought at hobby stores like for doll houses and train sets. A less expensive way is to make your own furniture. It won't look as professional, but it is cheaper and you can make the furniture into any shape you want. Use the resource sheets with furniture drawings on them by cutting out the items you plan on using, tracing the patterns on poster board, cutting them out with matte knives, and taping them together using masking tape. Here's how to make some common furniture pieces. Furniture is so small, we actually recommend using poster board if you don't use dollhouse furniture or model train furniture. If you decided to do quarter inch scale models, there's a wonderful line of pop out furniture you can buy from theatrical supply houses. A couch or armchair is pretty much the same thing except a couch is longer. Cut out and trace 2 chair ends and a seating area. The seating area will depend on how wide the chair or couch is. Then score and fold the three areas of the seating area and tape the ends of the couch or chair together. You can modify the look of the couch or chair by trimming different areas of the couch to round the back, add legs, or change the look of the arms. The seats of most chairs are usually about 18 to 20 inches off the floor. Tables are just like the platforms we did a minute ago but they're smaller and need to have the legs cut out. Kitchen and dining room tables are usually 32 inches tall and end tables and coffee tables are usually between 18 inches to 24 inches tall. Bookcases can be made by deciding how tall and wide you want them and using the template. Cut out, fold, and tape the body of the bookcase together. Then, cut out as many shelves as you want and glue them into the body at whatever height you want. Pipe cleaners also come in handy when making chairs, hall trees and other set props. Just bend and twist them into whatever shape you want. Aluminum foil makes great mirrors and can even be shaped around a cutout of a set of armor. Using the above techniques as a general guide, just think creatively and apply the basic ideas to build furniture props that are not on the resource sheets. Measure the real thing to get dimensions, then figure out a way to get the props you need for your model set. The next step is to choose your color scheme. Color theory can be a course unto itself. Since we don't have time in this program to go deeply into color theory, we advise that you experiment with colors on a separate piece of poster board. Do research into the period your play takes place and try to work your research into your set design. Get small samples of the paint you have on hand or are going to order for the show and put them in small sealable containers, like little take out mustard and ketchup containers from fast food restaurants. Refer to scene painting text and videos to get ideas for texturing scenery. Some common techniques for texturing scenery are scumbling, dry brushing, sponging, rag rolling, stenciling and marbling. When all the pieces of the set and all the set props are ready and you have your color scheme, then do your painting and texturing of your set props, set pieces, and the stage floor of your model. Make notes about what colors you use so the painters will know where to start when trying to reproduce your colors on the actual scenery. When these color elevations are done on paper, these are referred to as painter's elevations. After all the parts are painted and dry, tape or pin the pieces down to the model of your stage floor. This allows for changes to be made and don't be offended if the director asks you to make some changes. Once he or she starts blocking the show in the taped out rehearsal area, he or she may find problems with the set, the group may run short of money, or the technicians may just run out of time building what you designed. Remember, your job as a set designer is to be part of the collaborative process of creating the best possible environment for the actors, director, and the audience.