Set Designer Guide

Kirsten Olson ‘14

original 2016

This document is being written as part of the Musical Theatre Guild Documentation collection. It covers some of the things a Set Designer should know to do, be aware of, and prepare for. It is, and will always be, an incomplete work in progress. Please add liberally as new wisdom accumulates. Remember that the list of things to do is not exhaustive and the directions may require adjustment for specific circumstances.

Hello fellow (or soon to be fellow) Set Designer. If you are reading this, chances are that you are designing or thinking about designing a set for an MTG show. This guide includes some helpful tips on how to go about doing that. Good luck!

General Tips

Below is a list of things to keep in mind when designing a set. This list is based on things that have gone wrong with past MTG sets. Learn from our failures and don’t repeat our mistakes. (Avenge us!)

Sight lines

One of the most common mistakes that new designers make is that they forget about sight lines. Your set design may look super cool from straight in front of the stage, but what about way off to the left? The right? Are any of your larger set pieces blocking the view of any seats? Alternately, can the people on the end see stuff backstage that they shouldn’t? Keep all of this in mind when making your design.

Levels

Levels are a super cool thing to have and most (if not all) directors and choreographers love having them. Try to incorporate more than one level in your design and instantly the show becomes a lot cooler looking. What can we say? People like climbing on stuff.

Platform Heights

Now that you are all excited about having levels in your set, let’s temper that enthusiasm with a warning. Be careful about how high up you make your platforms. In Kresge, if you make a platform taller than 2 ft downstage, your taller actors are going to run into the lights. Make it too tall upstage, and the people in the back of the theatre won’t be able to see your actors’ heads. Make sure you communicate very clearly with the lighting designer so you two don’t end up trying to put lights and actors in the same place.

Also, any platform 4 ft tall or higher must have some sort of railing on it. (Exact specs vary based on the CAC person at the time.) Note that a platform of 3ft 11in does not need a railing. (There’s a super bitter backstory to my knowledge of that one, trust me.)

The Fire Curtain

In Kresge Little Theater, there is this thing that separates the downstage area from the upstage area. If you are ever in that location, go to where all of the curtains are and look up. See that nasty looking tan curtain? That is the fire curtain. In case of a fire, this curtain comes down automatically, which means that nothing should be under it when it does. The official rule is that nothing that is not easily movable (read: slid by one person) can be under the fire curtain ever. In addition, anything that is under the curtain during the show must be moved out from under the fire curtain as soon as the show is over. (Seeing a theme here?)

In the past couple of years, we have gotten away with putting some pretty large, hard to move things under the fire curtain and CAC was okay with this as long as they were moved after the show. Feel free to take advantage of this, but know that the rule may change at any time. Have a backup plan.

Feasibility

First things first, the Technical Director is your friend. They are the one working very hard to make sure that your pretty set design actually exists on stage. With this in mind, try to have a vague idea of how your set is going to be built. You don’t need to know specific kinds of wood or anything like that, but don’t just hand them a napkin with a bunch of squiggles on it and tell them to build it for you. They will be frustrated and you will not like the outcome.

Schedule

Try to get your set design done as soon as possible. The sets crew cannot start builds or even begin ordering materials until they know what the set is. Even if you are still figuring out some specific components, it is still better to give them a partial design than to wait until the full thing is done.

Drawings

Make a to-scale drawing of your set and label it. I know it sounds hard, but it helps sooooo much in the long run. This drawing can be as fancy or plain as you want it to be. Solidworks, powerpoint or even just a piece of paper, as long as the drawing exists, life is better for everyone involved. Make sure that all of the heights and widths are labeled clearly. Give this drawing to the Technical Director, the Master Carpenter, the Lighting Designer, Master Electrician, Director, Choreographer, and anybody else that you can think of that may want to know what the set looks like. In fact, it is best if you can just send it out to the entirety of the dir staff.

If your design changes, immediately update your drawing/draw a new one and send it out again. Don’t assume that you can just communicate the changes vocally or through email. (Trust me on this. Bad things happen if you do.)

Orchestra placement and acoustic concerns

You will need to account for the orchestra in your set design.  In KLT, the layout of the theater doesn’t leave you much choice– the orchestra is either going behind the set or somehow needs to be incorporated into the set.  In Sala, you have a few options.  Behind the set is still a commonly used option, but you can also place the orchestra to the side (see: Guys and Dolls (2010), Jekyll and Hyde (2011), Little Shop (2010), or every MITGSP show) or work them into the set (see: Rocky Horror (2013), Little Shop (2014), HPT (2012)).

Make sure the orchestra has enough space.  If the show has a 5-piece orchestra, that does NOT mean that you only need to allocate enough space for 5 people sitting in chairs.  Keyboards and drum sets take a lot of space, and many other instruments require elbow room, or are loud such that people don’t want to be seated directly next to them.  Some rough size estimates:

  • Keyboard: 5’ wide, 4’ depth needed
  • Drum set: 6’ diameter circle, plus margin for noise
  • Guitar/bass: Minimum 4’ width needed for elbow room, variable depth needed for pedals and amp.  Be aware if the part calls for multiple instruments, as this eats room fast for these guys.  Acoustic+electric bass will need lots of room.
  • Orchestral percussion: Highly variable, consult with your MD.  Synthing the pitched percussion saves lots of room, but allocate at least a full-size folding table (plus room to stand at it).
  • Strings: About 4’ width needed for bows.  Less room in front needed for violin/viola.
  • Brass: Horns need room to their right, otherwise little elbow room needed.  Give at least 4’ of depth so they’re not playing right into the back of someone’s head.  Trombones need a little extra for their slides.
  • Woodwinds: Varies depending on doubling.  A flute+clarinet Reed 1 book needs little extra room, whereas a low reed book with bari sax and bass clarinet will need significant margins.

Beyond all of that, plan on a little buffer room since it won’t Tetris together perfectly and there will need to be walkways.  Get your MD a set design early so they can start thinking about arrangement.

Beyond just placement, also think about what (if any) masking will go between the orchestra and the stage/audience.  This masking will dampen sound, which may be a good or bad thing.  Some options:

  • Heavy black curtain (common for Sala shows).  Acts as a low-pass filter, meaning that high-pitched instruments get muffled heavily while low-pitched instruments punch through.  If the plan is to put the orchestra behind such a curtain and leave it at that, the orchestra ends up sounding extremely distant and muddy.  This can be counteracted by even basic sound reinforcement; consult with your sound designer.
  • Wood flats (see: Urinetown (2012), Avenue Q (2013), Evil Dead (2010)).  Cuts sound significantly, but without acting like a filter.
  • Wood flats with holes (see: Spring Awakening (2015), Wedding Singer (2013)).  Still manages to cut sound noticeably, especially in KLT.  KLT’s proscenium blocks a lot of sound as-is, it just needs a little help.
  • Nothing (see: Spelling Bee (2015), Grease (2014), Rocky Horror (2013), Guys and Dolls (2010), Jesus Christ Superstar (2010)).  A good option for shows with delicate orchestrations, but gives almost zero control of volume, which will bleed onto the stage.  The director will need to avoid having actors sing too close to the orchestra, or the orchestra sound may be too loud in their mic.  If it’s a heavily orchestrated show, weaker voices may have difficulty singing over the orchestra regardless of physical placement.
  • Scrim (see: Sweeney Todd (2014)).  Basically the same as nothing.

One frequent MD’s opinion: Wood flats are best.  Avoid the heavy curtain unless the SD can mic the orchestra.

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