“Look at that. What do you see?” asks J. Michael Griggs, both the HRDC advisor and technical director of the Loeb, pointing at the flooring of the stage, which has been transformed into a mirrored surface. “Look at that reflection. The thing about that is, when someone wants a high gloss [surface]…we have to make it out of materials that are in pieces. Somewhere there will be a line or seam,” he says. “For this they wanted a perfect glass-smooth reflection. How do you think they did that?”

To achieve this, a pool of glycerin surrounds the main stage, creating a reflecting floor. The result is two stages: the physical one that the audience sees and the reflected one on the liquid. A stage is not always filled so much by placement of many objects, but by the strategic positioning and choices of a select few.

COLLABORATIVE CURATION

“In modern theater it’s the director’s vision…it’s the director’s medium,” Griggs says. The relationship between director and set designer is a complicated one. While the director holds the basis of the creative focus of the play, the set designer’s role is not simply one of a servant to the director in any successful production. Instead, it is a partnership of equals, the set designer being the translator and interpreter for the director.

“It’s definitely a collaboration. I told [the set designer] it has to have a surreal, ‘toon town’ look to it…she’ll come up with a couple of ideas to represent that, and we’ll talk it over,” Susanna B. Wolk ’14 says of the musical she is directing, “Wonderful Town.”

The roles in the production are distinct between the director and set designer, but they work in conjunction to create a greater sum than the parts. “The director wants to bring out the story out of the actors and the words,” Griggs says. “The designer…tries to communicate the story through the visuals.” The director is involved in the emotional response, while the other is concerned with the visual.

“I think about it as a form of curation. While a curator would pick where to set up…the paintings, the set designer sets up the show, which is the medium,” Hays says.

In many ways the physical movement of the actors is dependent on the set. When a director goes through blocking, the process that decides where actors will be when they perform, the location and ability of movement varies greatly depending on how sparse or intricate the set is. A set with levels at different heights that signify multiple locations will pose different challenges than one that is level.