Influencing the way the play is acted out, the set designer decides the arrangement of the set, which can continue or stop the momentum of the play. Props, stage entrances, and stage exits change depending on the genre and mood of a production; the designer must use the set and props effectively, without hindering actors’ movements or distracting the audience from the play itself.

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“We need more set designers…you can’t put on a show without a set designer,” Strauss says. “There are about five to eight set designers [on campus], but there are 25 shows.” As set designers tend to be overshadowed by the director, Harvard’s pre-professional resources in set design are relatively minimal. Griggs further mentions the lack of set design classes at Harvard—there are currently only two focused distinctly on set design, which Griggs teaches—compared to offerings at schools like Boston University, which has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in scene design. With set design relegated mostly to an extracurricular pursuit at Harvard, in some ways, Griggs says, students are put at a disadvantage when applying to Masters of Fine Arts programs, where set designers learn to hone their craft before setting out in the field. “People coming out of here are at a slight disadvantage,” he says. “Here you have to...do as much work as you can handle on stage, but you don’t get as much of that in-depth skill training.”

“Set design has come a long a way since it was first introduced,” Hays says. “New technologies and the rising importance of lighting…. opens up a whole new range of possibilities.” What could be an office or three beige walls can now be something more abstract and interesting. With the rise of the more technical elements, modes of set design other than theater have provided outlets for not just those with MFAs, but also for architects and engineers.

The smallest things, like the display in front of a store, to something grander, like the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics, would all be considered set design. Stages for performances other than plays also become canvases for set designers, though designers might alter their approach slightly outside the theater. Rodriguez notes the difference between theater and a dance show on which she worked. “There’s not really a physical structure...it means building a large prop,” she says. “Nothing is permanent.”

Some popularly televised and viewed events also rely on set design and represent a medium in which set design can evolve. “The Oscars this year were designed by a Broadway set designer, Derek McLane, who is a Harvard grad, so it was very theatrical in its presentation,” Griggs says. In such events, theatrical set design can be brought to a popular audience in an unexpected form. The common thread present between all these different mediums of set design is expressing the creative message.

There is one significant caveat that differentiates theater from its peers, however: Rodriguez notes the transportative nature of theatrical set design that is not always a part of other types of performance. “Other shows don’t aim in the same way to transport the audience…to a new world... [or] to tell a story,” she says.

—Staff writer Neha Mehrotra can be reached at nehamehrotra@college.harvard.edu.