Role of Scenographer in a Play

Scenography—the creation of the stage space—does not exist as a self-
contained art work. Even though the scenographer may have studied fine art
and be by instinct a painter or a sculptor, scenography is much more than a background painting for the performers, as has often been used in dance. Scenography is always incomplete until the performer steps into the playing space and engages with the audience. Moreover, scenography is the joint statement of the director and the visual artist of their view of the play, opera or dance that is being presented to the audience as a united piece of work. Like any collaboration the end result is only ever as good as the working relationship, and like any other medium it is sometimes more successful than at other times.

The scenographer has a responsibility to do all that is possible to achieve the best understanding of the delicate and complicated process of making a theatre work, involving the director, performers, other visual artists and the technical team. A good collaboration is not a reality unless the scenographer is prepared to go further than simply making a personal statement reflecting his or her artistic
talent, exciting as that may be. To go further scenographically means to work
seriously to observe the director’s methods, the actors in rehearsal, the implications of the text, and to use this knowledge to unlock the visual power of the play.


SPACE Measure to Measure: Playing in the Space

The world view of scenography reveals that space is the first and most important challenge for a scenographer. Space is part of the scenographic vocabulary. We talk about translating and adapting space; creating
suggestive space and linking space with dramatic time. We think of space in action, how we can make it and break it, what we need to create the right space, and how it can be constructed with form and colour to enhance
the human being and the text. Some play games with space, searching for its metaphor and meaning in the quest to define dramatic space. 

TEXT  : The Hidden Story

Language is completely central to theatre, and my commitment has always been to use scenography to enhance and reveal the text and the story behind it. If the disposition or layout of the stage space is eloquent and
beautiful to look at, the audience can hear the play better. Presenting the subject matter, classic or modern, simply and truthfully, making it live and breathe, gives validity to the stage space and engages the audience.
A spectator should leave the theatre moved and impressed by the quality of the play and not simply remember individual performances, stage or production effects, which are merely parts of the whole event.

RESEARCH: Asking Question—Finding Answers

A scenographer is by nature a cultural magpie, delighting in the search for the ephemera of history and sociology. The variety of work that
presents itself is part of the fascination of the subject, and satisfies an inherent and insatiable curiosity that wants to know not only the great events of history but the precise details of how people lived, ate, dressed,
washed, and earned their livelihood. The challenge for the scenographic researcher is to know how to use an individual eye to ferret out the essence of the subject, hunt it down, and then decide whether or not to use it.

COLOUR AND COMPOSITION
The Balancing Act

Colour and composition are the crux of the scenographer’s art. When the text has been researched and the playing space is known, the next challenge for the scenographer is to compose and colour the playing space, with figures and forms creating a visual envelope for the performance. Everything on the stage, fixed or moving, is part of this kinetic composition. The integration of composition with colour enables the artist to draw the spectator’s eye to the focal points of each scene as the performance progresses.

DIRECTION : Finding the Way

The direction of a production makes a vision of the unknown become known
through the collaboration of its creative artists: the director, writer, scenographer, choreographer, and lighting designer. From their different perspectives, they come together to plan the structure of a production that will be brought to life on the stage by the performers. Collaboration is more than an ideal—it is the most important creative force that enables ideas to be discussed and battled for and eventually to be coherently realised.

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