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The Story of The White Set
When we first started out on this long and convoluted journey, and I knew that I would be responsible for designing a set to hold and enhance a show for Bernard Hopkins, I felt a real responsibility to do my absolute best. (understatement!) And I also had to admit very early on that I'm not the best at it. So I went out and enlisted the help of someone whom I think is very good at it: Rodel Manoy. I want to mention him in this article because we owe him a great deal and I feel poorly that what we asked for from him (and what he ultimately delivered as requested), was an error on our part, not his. He created a complete and extremely detailed plan based on exactly what we asked for, and far too late in the process, we discovered that it just wouldn't work. That is in no way a reflection of Rodel or his considerable skills. And being committed to another show and understandably not interested in creating two complete designs for us (The second in an unreasonably short period of time to boot), Rodel then moved on to other projects. We wish him well and know that he'll impress the next production team too.
That set, the -set we now call "The Black Set"- can be viewed over here in all it's stages of development.
In short, after months of work and polishing, we taped out 'The Black Set' on a Thursday night, on the floor of our Farhi Holdings rehearsal space and almost immediately after looking at it, our director, Bernard Hopkins knew we were in trouble and deemed it unusable. He'd been rehearsing with the cast for some time at that point and taken a different direction with how the show was to move and be presented on stage. This "Black Set" design wouldn't accommodate these changes at all. Again, that was Thursday night. On the Sunday night of that week (2.5 days later), we were to start blocking (choreographing the movement of every actor) rehearsals and we absolutely needed a complete and all-new design. Not good.
Knowing that we really did need to start completely from scratch, I began by just sitting with Bernard and discussing the attributes he felt he needed in the most abstract sense. No talk of architectural styles, periods, colours, textures or any of that. Just a very simple conversation about levels, entrances and usable space. The big issue was that we needed to comfortably assemble 16 people without creating a traffic jam. And another element that we both wanted was SCALE. We wanted the space to dwarf the actors like it would if they were actually standing inside the walls of a huge castle. With so many architectural elements (especially stairs -on stage and behind the scenes to allow actors to reach a second level unseen by the audience) there was simply no room left to stand 16 people on r in front of 'The Black Set'. It needed to be much more open. This has been a problem for several recent productions and we didn't want our show to be strangled by a set design that turned out to be an obstacle course.
So... I left our meeting and went home and sketched out something which you can see below.
This sketch isn't pretty and more importantly, it's impossible. It's so out of proportion with the actual performance space at The Palace Theatre, that there is no practical use for any of it's details. But... it represented an important move in a new direction. This was no longer a set that was going to represent a particular time and place. It was an abstract and interpretive design - which I'm really not famous for. I'm not good at that style of design and I'm really uncomfortable working within that style, but... I really had no choice.
Suddenly we were talking about a lot of open space, a lot of entrances and a lot of levels. The levels weren't diverse, in that they weren't stories apart, but there were a lot of options on those broad stairs. It was only 5 feet above the stage floor, so access stairs wouldn't need much room behind the set walls and there was very little that could slow down the movement of our actors.
Once again I sat with Bernard and we talked about this new direction. There were quite a few things that he liked about it, including the broad, graceful stairs and the ability to stand all 8 of our Elemental characters within it without them being in the way. It started to take on a gigantic "art gallery" feel and Bernard encouraged me to keep going. So then I created this next drawing:
![[Untitled]](http://image.wetpaint.com/image/3/PIpaIXi6734ECe4gpMOOEg152838/GW472H481 "[Untitled]")
This is closer to being proportionally correct, but it's still pretty far off. But. This is very close to what we ended up using. The side wall are very tall and their angle is determined by the actual 'sight lines' of The Palace Theatre stage. This means that every seat in the house can see every actor, no matter where they enter from or where they stand. That's important to us, because the slope of floor in the auditorium at The Palace is very modest and seeing everything on the stage, especially things that are low, or right on the floor, can be difficult.
The entire space is one elegant, broad flight of stairs, so there is a ton of options as far as the use of levels is concerned. And having created something that literally uses every square inch of stage within the practical sightlines means that placing 16 people on stage is no longer a problem. There is a lot of room.
Once again, we had a conversation and then I quickly set out to create a crude model. Which I did:
And here it is, complete with paper doll actors. This was pretty effective at illustrating where we were going, but there were still alterations and enhancements to be made.
In this version, there are only 4 entrances, and that was deemed to be insufficient. We needed two more. Also, the low thrust at the bottom of the stairs is the wrong shape and it's too low. But again, this is close.
The top is a 4 foot deep platform 5 feet off the ground with two entrances. There is no rear wall. That watercour-y effect represents the Cyclorama at the palace; a gigantic white sheet that lighting artists can project onto and help create mood and setting details through the use of various colours and lighting effects.
Again, the 8 Elementals can be 'on display' without getting in the way.
It still has the look of a gallery or the gigantic staircases of palaces that may have led down to a ballroom or some sort of large event space.
That set, the -set we now call "The Black Set"- can be viewed over here in all it's stages of development.
In short, after months of work and polishing, we taped out 'The Black Set' on a Thursday night, on the floor of our Farhi Holdings rehearsal space and almost immediately after looking at it, our director, Bernard Hopkins knew we were in trouble and deemed it unusable. He'd been rehearsing with the cast for some time at that point and taken a different direction with how the show was to move and be presented on stage. This "Black Set" design wouldn't accommodate these changes at all. Again, that was Thursday night. On the Sunday night of that week (2.5 days later), we were to start blocking (choreographing the movement of every actor) rehearsals and we absolutely needed a complete and all-new design. Not good.
Knowing that we really did need to start completely from scratch, I began by just sitting with Bernard and discussing the attributes he felt he needed in the most abstract sense. No talk of architectural styles, periods, colours, textures or any of that. Just a very simple conversation about levels, entrances and usable space. The big issue was that we needed to comfortably assemble 16 people without creating a traffic jam. And another element that we both wanted was SCALE. We wanted the space to dwarf the actors like it would if they were actually standing inside the walls of a huge castle. With so many architectural elements (especially stairs -on stage and behind the scenes to allow actors to reach a second level unseen by the audience) there was simply no room left to stand 16 people on r in front of 'The Black Set'. It needed to be much more open. This has been a problem for several recent productions and we didn't want our show to be strangled by a set design that turned out to be an obstacle course.
So... I left our meeting and went home and sketched out something which you can see below.
This sketch isn't pretty and more importantly, it's impossible. It's so out of proportion with the actual performance space at The Palace Theatre, that there is no practical use for any of it's details. But... it represented an important move in a new direction. This was no longer a set that was going to represent a particular time and place. It was an abstract and interpretive design - which I'm really not famous for. I'm not good at that style of design and I'm really uncomfortable working within that style, but... I really had no choice.
Suddenly we were talking about a lot of open space, a lot of entrances and a lot of levels. The levels weren't diverse, in that they weren't stories apart, but there were a lot of options on those broad stairs. It was only 5 feet above the stage floor, so access stairs wouldn't need much room behind the set walls and there was very little that could slow down the movement of our actors.
Once again I sat with Bernard and we talked about this new direction. There were quite a few things that he liked about it, including the broad, graceful stairs and the ability to stand all 8 of our Elemental characters within it without them being in the way. It started to take on a gigantic "art gallery" feel and Bernard encouraged me to keep going. So then I created this next drawing:
This is closer to being proportionally correct, but it's still pretty far off. But. This is very close to what we ended up using. The side wall are very tall and their angle is determined by the actual 'sight lines' of The Palace Theatre stage. This means that every seat in the house can see every actor, no matter where they enter from or where they stand. That's important to us, because the slope of floor in the auditorium at The Palace is very modest and seeing everything on the stage, especially things that are low, or right on the floor, can be difficult.
The entire space is one elegant, broad flight of stairs, so there is a ton of options as far as the use of levels is concerned. And having created something that literally uses every square inch of stage within the practical sightlines means that placing 16 people on stage is no longer a problem. There is a lot of room.
Once again, we had a conversation and then I quickly set out to create a crude model. Which I did:
And here it is, complete with paper doll actors. This was pretty effective at illustrating where we were going, but there were still alterations and enhancements to be made. In this version, there are only 4 entrances, and that was deemed to be insufficient. We needed two more. Also, the low thrust at the bottom of the stairs is the wrong shape and it's too low. But again, this is close.
The top is a 4 foot deep platform 5 feet off the ground with two entrances. There is no rear wall. That watercour-y effect represents the Cyclorama at the palace; a gigantic white sheet that lighting artists can project onto and help create mood and setting details through the use of various colours and lighting effects.
Again, the 8 Elementals can be 'on display' without getting in the way.
It still has the look of a gallery or the gigantic staircases of palaces that may have led down to a ballroom or some sort of large event space.
In the end I wanted to get it right, and despite hating the act of creating paper stairs, I made one more model:
These shots are all of the final model. The thrust at the bottom of the stairs, is still the old one, but the staircase is all new and includes a second landing which allows for two more entrances.
 There you have it. With the three siblings assembled and Bosola watching from the top landing. |  |
 |  |
That final overhead shot gives you a pretty good look at how the stairs are laid out: It starts out 5 feet high with a landing about 14 feet wide and 4 feet deep. Then 4 steps featuring a 6 inch rise and 1.5 feet tread. Then a second landing at 2.5 feet height now about 20 feet wide by 4 feet deep. Then the four final steps also feature the 6 inch rise and a 1.5 foot tread. That brings you right down to the deck of the stage. The thrust will actually be about 5 feet wide and will come right out of the third step, making it 1.5 feet tall, which is about average chair seat height. It will double as a stage-within-a-stage and a seating space and also a bed at one point. (And will feature an ingenious design element thought up by Rob Cousins and Mark Piggot, our scenic artist and set engineer)
That shot also lets you see the proper angle of the outer walls which are exactly the sightline borders for that stage. Again, that means that the instant an actor sets foot on the stage anywhere, everyone in the audience can see them. You can also see that our entrance openings will be shrouded making them look more like tunnels. This helps block the view of the audience so they can't see backstage, but also helps make the walls of our set seem more substantial, like deep castle walls instead of the few inches thick that they actually are. There are 8 daises that our Elementals can stand on built into the steps that are subtle enough they won't get in the way.
And you can clearly see why we refer to this design as "The White Set". Now... will it really be white? Yes. I will admit openly that the only reason the model was made white was because that's what cardstock I had on hand, but after seeing the initial drawings, Bernard liked the idea. Once we began to explore it, we quickly agreed it was an exciting idea and that the use of white could, in fact, be the one missing ingredient that could help bring every other detail together like conceptual glue. So stay tuned, this design has now heavily influenced the look of our mysterious Elemental characters and I'll be updating their pages on our website very soon.
I'm constantly reminded of the final scene in the Film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Do you remember "the white room?". It was pretty, but also really scary looking. Too perfect, too beautiful. Impossible. Other-worldly and all that. This really takes me to that idea. Obviously lighting will absolutely leap off of a white background and any colour in our costumes should stand out in an exciting way as well. We are also encouraged by how incredibly fast the show moves on this space. The stairs are broad and low enough that our actors can absolutely fly across them. The instant an actor sets foot on the set, a scene can begin. There is no time lost winding down a narrow, steep set of stairs. This type of script is not famous for it's speed, but this set design and Bernard's all-new adaptation are both so lean and efficient that the combination absolutely moves like lightning.
We are very, very encouraged.
Thanks for reading folks!
That shot also lets you see the proper angle of the outer walls which are exactly the sightline borders for that stage. Again, that means that the instant an actor sets foot on the stage anywhere, everyone in the audience can see them. You can also see that our entrance openings will be shrouded making them look more like tunnels. This helps block the view of the audience so they can't see backstage, but also helps make the walls of our set seem more substantial, like deep castle walls instead of the few inches thick that they actually are. There are 8 daises that our Elementals can stand on built into the steps that are subtle enough they won't get in the way.
And you can clearly see why we refer to this design as "The White Set". Now... will it really be white? Yes. I will admit openly that the only reason the model was made white was because that's what cardstock I had on hand, but after seeing the initial drawings, Bernard liked the idea. Once we began to explore it, we quickly agreed it was an exciting idea and that the use of white could, in fact, be the one missing ingredient that could help bring every other detail together like conceptual glue. So stay tuned, this design has now heavily influenced the look of our mysterious Elemental characters and I'll be updating their pages on our website very soon.
I'm constantly reminded of the final scene in the Film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Do you remember "the white room?". It was pretty, but also really scary looking. Too perfect, too beautiful. Impossible. Other-worldly and all that. This really takes me to that idea. Obviously lighting will absolutely leap off of a white background and any colour in our costumes should stand out in an exciting way as well. We are also encouraged by how incredibly fast the show moves on this space. The stairs are broad and low enough that our actors can absolutely fly across them. The instant an actor sets foot on the set, a scene can begin. There is no time lost winding down a narrow, steep set of stairs. This type of script is not famous for it's speed, but this set design and Bernard's all-new adaptation are both so lean and efficient that the combination absolutely moves like lightning.
We are very, very encouraged.
Thanks for reading folks!
Jordan Morris
Producer / Designer
The Duchess of Malfi directed by Bernard Hopkins
Producer / Designer
The Duchess of Malfi directed by Bernard Hopkins
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