Designer's Life - First Drafts

When the audience sees the sleekly finished design - of a set, building, pastry, or sneaker design - they never realize just how horrid the very first version was.  The awful early scribble.

Well, just to give you an idea, here are a couple nasty first drafts of a plan for The Vibrator Play... which will look nothing like this!

My first(ish) idea: well, that didn't work.  See the stair at center stage?  Doesn't fit.  Can't get up or down fast enough to get out of the way of, among other things, actor entrances or an existing building stair and ramp.  Plus lots of other problems.

Second(ish) try... fumbling attempts to move that stair.

The biggest difficulty for me yesterday in getting a working plan was the stage's exit ramp, which obtrudes deep into stage left.  With its necessary landing/entry area, it eats up a chunk of prime space in Kitchen Dog's black box theater.  That big arrow on the left?  The audience entrance - right through the set!  This is a tricky - though exciting - space.  And I think I've now got it licked.  Come to the show to see my sleight-of-hand plan solution!