As sleep is a very personal part of our lives, and usually our issues with sleep are kept a secret, I wanted the set to reflect this. Elements of the set are planned to be hidden in a normal bedroom/ den setting, and only revealed while the show is being performed.
One of these features is a light bulb effect on the white sheet. I wanted to experiment with the idea that certain parts of the sheet could light up, to reveal hidden words or features. The drawing of the light bulb would light up and flicker for dramatic effect in certain scenes. It was created by folding a piece of white fabric multiple times to create layers. The section where I wanted the light to shine through was cut down to one layer. The multiple layers around the shape stopped the light passing through and allowed the bulb shape to appear bright and glowing. I then sewed this extra fabric onto the sheet and practised the effect with a torch behind the bulb area.
Once I was happy with how the light bulb looked, I presented this idea to the company and explained to both Chloe Denby (Technical Designer) and Chloe Mckay (Stage Manager) that the effect could be used by either a profile light on a stand behind the sheet, which could be controlled from the lighting desk, or manually turned on and off with a cast member holding a torch. It was then their decision to pick which method would be most beneficial and effective. The profile light behind the sheet method was picked so that all the cast were available to perform in the space.
The addition of the light bulb correlated with the theme of the drawings through our marketing campaign on posters and flyers, and added a quirky lighting feature to a bedroom themed set.
There was one feature of the set that I focused a lot of time on and subsequently felt most proud of. This was the handmade clock. I knew early on that this was going to represent an alarm clock, but with a hidden feature. The plan was to have shelving hidden inside, behind a cloth, which would be individually lit up to reveal a word. These words would represent each stage in the sleep cycle and would highlight our structure for the show. Our original idea for showing each transition to a different stage of the sleep cycle would have been expressed through a sound effect for each stage. However, Emelia (the Director) and Ellie (our Dramaturg) felt the approach was too obvious. I then decided to see if the set could do the job of telling the audience which stage of sleep we were in, instead of the sound effects.
A stencil was created with a cloth placed over it so that the words were hidden and only appeared during transitions when lit from behind. The fairy lights inside were put into compartments which were separated by shelves to stop the light invading into the different sections, making sure each individual word can light up at separate times and are different colours (which fit in with the colour scheme for the costumes and dream catchers). Red lights were used for REM to correlate with the lighting of the scene. Red is a bright and stimulating colour, which links to REM as it is the most active, easiest to wake up from, and the last stage of the sleep cycle.
The clock was made large so that the words could be seen in the performance space, but small enough to still be easily transported to and from rehearsals, which has helped Emma to become accustomed to this piece of the set.
This was my favourite part of the set to make, and I am pleased with the final product. I think it added a fun and quirky way to aid the show in teaching the audience about sleep and fitted with how we are as a company.
(Mason, 2018)
A.M
Works Cited:
Mason, A. (2018) Clock designs [image].
Mason, A. (2018) Clock stencil with lights [image].
Mason, A. (2018) Finished Clock [ video].
McConnell, H. (2018) Light bulb effect [image].