Set Designer's Weekend

Weekends off?

Ha!

I'm having fun this wonderfully gently rainy day... but I'm not off duty.

Saturday, I spent several hours sketching on the floor plan for the set for The Beauty Queen of Leenane.  It'd gone sticky on me - the vernacular architecture of this corner of Ireland (which I love) not meshing well with the seating configuration of the performance space at the MAC, or with the director's needs for blocking.  I made some progress, but it remained sticky.

So I switched to research instead.  Research is useful, but sometimes far too much more fun than other urgent, but harder parts of set design.  It can become goofing-off-with-camouflage.  However, I did find a couple good sources for Irish ephemera, which will help in set dressing.

This morning, Sunday, I woke up with my plan problems all unstuck.

The subconscious is a handy design tool, I tell ya!

Public domain photo courtesy of publicdomainpictures.net

That, or maybe today's almost Irish "soft" weather has finally put me in tune with Connemara?

Anyway, that epiphany meant another couple hours at the drafting board today.  Then, in about an hour, I need to leave for a run-through of a completely different show.  I'm eager to see The Mystery of Irma Vep on its feet - should be great fun!  But, since there's a production meeting afterwards, today is definitely a work day, not a day of rest.

I could use a nap though...

Earlier POST on the helpfulness of sleep in design.