Introduction

By the end of the May I was approved as a set designer for upcoming production at the newly opened creative studio Lamplighter Production.
https://vimeo.com/129911085


I got a first script written by Lamplighter folks. The name of the script was "Needs",and the idea was to combine "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupety and Maslow's Hierarchy of needs. The main character was traveling through different worlds trying to find himself. The production crew wanted to create something modern, use simple materials, and one of the main concept was the media projection.

For 2 weeks I was working on the concept of the show. I suggested to use doors as a main symbol of traveling, combine them, create flats, use different texture, and so on. Doors-flats-walls should be white for projection purposes.(Attached pictures are my digital sketches of the concept)

Research pictures to represent growing trees (projection on doors). I was thinking to make similar pictures, using our photographs:
 



 



As I mentioned, for first 2 weeks we were working on the "NEEDS" project. Then the concept changed and we started all over with the new script and idea.


How to Be a GoodPerson is a new and final idea, that was always changing in terms of production.
At the beginning, guys from Lamplighter wanted to fundraise money to start working on the desirable upcoming show. And they successfully did it!They pledged $8,004 for the entire production. Scenery budget was between $500-$800. This fundraising process took us 2 more weeks of advertisement to find people, who would make this project happen. 

And then, We had 19 days to CREATE, BUILD, ORGANIZE, in one word -bring this project to life.


Creating Process
The idea was to create a futuristic set, with no time in it. I started looking for inspiration board:



 



I wanted to crate module system, that can easy to remove and transform on stage, something that can actors can do. And for the projection purposes I wanted to make a wall with 3d surface, to make projected image transform and look in a way "weird"

I really liked the idea of transparent curtains on stage, that can divide the areas, and projection in this case will go trough the curtains to the walls. This idea was approved by the Lamplighters, and I started looking for materials and working on ground plan and the wall placement. I had to compare two theaters, one in Pittsburgh - "The Maker Theater" and one in Long Island City - "The Cain Theater", to make the set look right in both places.

The theater in Pittsburg was smaller than the one in LIC, I started working with the given ground plan by "The Maker Theater".


Paper model wall placement:



Ground Plan:

Drawing:




Ready to use materials that I suggested to use for the set:

 



Building Process
Lamplighter guys have decides to buy flats from Big NYC - building recycle shop, furniture they found on craigslist. Here my idea started to change. They didn't have enough time to build everything from scratch.


We had to work with whatever we had in a short period of time.


At this point we don't have futuristic set. There is a general living room and a kitchen. Curtains still work with the projection idea.









How to Be a GoodPerson is ready to be opened!!! Lamplighters are going to Pittsburg:

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