Scenography
Designs and coordinates the environment of a performance (set, light, images, sound, costumes and objects) to support those who perform and those who watch.
What problem it addresses
On stage everything is seen at once and changes over time. If space, light and costumes are designed separately, the work loses its meaning.
Principles
One environment
Space, light, sound, costumes and objects are designed together, not one after another.
With the bodies on stage
The design is tested with the performers, who move through it and use it.
From the seats
What matters is what the audience sees and feels from where they sit.
Applications in design
Use it like this
Make a model or rehearse in the real space before building.
Avoid
Decorating the background without thinking about how the bodies on stage will use it.
Don’t fall for it
Look at the stage from different seats, not just from the center.
Connections
Authors and works
- 2009
Joslin McKinney and Philip Butterworth
Describe scenography as the organization of the whole environment of a performance and bring together ideas from 20th- and 21st-century designers, directors and visual artists.
Sources
Secondary sources
- McKinney, J., & Butterworth, P. (2009). The Cambridge introduction to scenography. Cambridge University Press.
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