Set Design Archive

Here is a collection of earlier blog posts on
Theater Set Design, arranged by design phase or topic:

(Posts repeat under multiple topics.  Just to confuse you, several early blog posts were titled "Set Designer's Day")
2D and 3D

ALICE THROUGH THE PROSCENIUM (my how-to scenic design book)
Snippet Central (excerpts)
Book Time!
Pulp-o-mizer!
Kindle Editions
Siege - Days 23 and 24
Siege - Days 31, 32, 33, and 34

ALICE THROUGH THE PROSCENIUM 2nd EDITION

AENORIIA NOVELS (The Adventures of Korrin & Tira)


APPRENTICESHIP 

ARCHITECTURE

Map Art

ARTS FUNDING (and Supporting Theatre)
Million Muppet March
Woohoo! Arts Funding
Starting the New Year Right
Kickstarter is Kickin'!
Put Us in the Dog House!
Woohoo! NEA Grant to Kitchen Dog
Put Us in the Dog House
Update on the Dog House Challenge
New Year's, New Fun Stuff to Do
Producing on Broadway
A New Dog House!
Inauguration Day
Please Write Your Senator...
Up is Down, Black is White
Theater for All!
Dogged
Threats
Two Things

AUDIENCE REACTION
Gappiness in Blogging

AWARDS
Shout-Out!
Nice News
Critics' Forum Awards
Embarrassing Post
Vicarious Tony Thrill
The Pritzker Prize and Fairness
Pen Award Winner!
Successful Smearing
Your Own Awards
Please Forgive a Little Back-Patting
News Break
I Needed the Laugh
Big Tony

AXONOMETRIC DRAWING
Starting Construction Drawings
First Steps...

BAMBOO (real)
Not a Review: Fly!

BIOS
Writing the Bio
Most Impressive Bio

BLOCKING
So Much Going On
Theatrical Sketches (Stanislavski)

BOOKS (as set dressing)
Finishing Touches
News Break

BOOKS (as, you know, books)
A Past How-To on Set Building

BOOKS (as books by me)
Book Illustration

BRAINSTORMING
Paper Rules!

BRICK (faux)
Set Designer's Day (Brick)
Theater Design Catch-Up Day!
Siege - Days 31, 32, 33, and 34

BROADWAY (On and Off)
Matilda on Broadway
Back From NYC (Matilda)
Vicarious Tony Thrill (Matilda)

BUDGETS and LIMITATIONS
Ruth Photo
Embarrassing Post
Not a Review: The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity
Not a Review: The Odd Couple
Scenic Masterclass Speaker: Anna Louizos

BUILD
Build
Today's Lesson
Ha!
Set Designer's Day (Tree)
Set Designer's Day (Brick)
Fall in the Pool
Frequency Build
Weeding
Set Designer's Weekend
Low or High Tech
High and Low Tech - Part II
Too Tired to Write Much
Sign How-To
A Grab Bag
Painting Slats
Back to the Land of the Living...
Simultaneity
Progress Pic
This n' That
Tweaky, Tweaky
Load-In
Short Builds
Cursed Carpentry
Just Floatin' Along
Sitting and Looking
Greening the Stage
Crunch-Time (#2 a recurring theme!)
Scenic Zoology
Hair Cuts for Radio and Other Weird Things
Craftsmanship
Loading In and Up
Dogged
Progress
How'd That Turn Out?
Fall Behind... Busy Winter and Spring Ahead

CAD (Computer Aided Drawing and Design also computer games and AI)
Monsterpiece Theater
A Peek into the Past
Eat Cake!
Catch Up
Paper Rules!
More Coolo NASA Travel Posters (computer-built postcards)

Possibly the Most Covid Day Yet... But in a Good Way
Collaboration
Schematic Design Meeting
Gettin' Along with Folks
Collaboration
Translation
Car Time
Urgent Messages
Remote Color Selection
Furniture Pull
Variations
Colleagues
Fun Stuff and Colleagues
How to Pick Stage Furniture
Production Meeting Weirdness
Show T-Shirts
Coffee Klatch
Community
Scenic Masterclass Speaker: Donald Holder
The Pritzker Prize and Fairness
Runnin' Crazy, Or, Scenic Design as a Profession
Set Design From Scratch
What a Month!
Red (tape, rage) and... Blue
Design Contracts

COLOR
Fun with Hardware Stores
Silverizing
Alive on Stage!
Chip It!
Remote Color Selection
Set Designer's Life (flamingo)
Painted Model
Line Drawing
Color Schemes
(What to) Coloring Book
Art Museum Visits (Romare Bearden)
Color Junkie
A Set Design from Scratch
A French Trend
Gummy Bears for Lunch
Scenic Painting Examples
Color War!
Color Wheel
Color Names
Tech: Lighting Color Fun

CONSTRUCTION DRAWINGS
Cool Vids About Theater Set and Architecture Design
Well, That was... Exciting?
Siege - Day 1 (For the start of a stay-at-home diary)
Siege - Day 17

COSTUMES
A Past How-To on Set Building
Set Designer / Fashionista
Threats
Tech: Lighting Color Fun

CREATIVITY (also see INSPIRATION)
Hare Brain v Tortoise Brain
Recharging
Creativity n' Cool
Inspirational Photos
Set Designer's Weekend
To Do
Obsessed
Reading Play Scripts
More Quotage
Paper Rules!

CRITICS & REVIEWS & PRESS
Critics
First Review is In
Criticism in Context
Gotta Laugh
Reviews
"Becky" Review
Set Designer's Day, the Press, and Treasure Hunting
Good Reviews
On Reviewers
Pictures in the Paper
Wodehouse World
Importance of Critics
David Mamet on Designers
Conversations
Quote of the Day
A Bit More Charlie
Hair Cuts for Radio and Other Weird Things
That Radio Thing
Women in Theater
Presidents' Day
Threats

CYCS (or cycloramas)
Scenic Masterclass Speaker: Donald Holder
Tech: Lighting Color Fun

DALLAS & FORT WORTH THEATER
New Venue
A Golden Age
Dallas Theater is Varied
Rule of Three
The Ghost in the Theater (Frank Lloyd Wright)
Eras End (Kitchen Dog Theater, the MAC)
Goodbye Old Blue (Kitchen Dog Theater)
Passing (Rose Pearson, Circle Theatre)
A New Dog House! (Kitchen Dog Theater)
Dogged (Wylie Theater & Kitchen Dog)
Big Tony
Old Fashioned Drops (Wolf Studio)

DEADLINES
Deadlines
Crunch Time
Crunch-Time (#2 a recurring theme!)

DECISION-MAKING
Anticipation
Ha!
First Steps...

DESIGN (also see Schematic Design)
Close to the Bone

DESIGNERS
Ephemera (Melziner's Death of a Salesman)
Renderings (Wade Giampa)
Design, Reuse, Adaptation, and Proper Credit (Bob Lavallee)
Cornelius Parker, You Rascal You (Bob Lavallee & Cornelius Parker)
Women in Theatre
Big Tony (Wade Giampa)
Cool (Raymond Loewy)
Siege - Day 25 (Rube Goldberg)

DESIGN METHODS
Oops - It's Been How Long?
Snippet Central (from Alice Through the Proscenium's "Design Methods" chapter)

DESIGN PROCESS (reading through strike, also see ALICE and STEP-BY-STEP SET DESIGN)
How to Start a Set Design
I Wish...
Set Design From Scratch
First Steps...
Scenic Painting - Backdrops
Happy Moments

DIRECTORS
Big Tony

DISASTER
Today's Lesson (Start the New Year Right)
Four Things for a Designer to Remember
Flooded!

DRAWING (also see CONSTRUCTION DRAWINGS and CAD)

DROPS
Old Fashioned Drops

EDITING
Editing

EFFECTS (AKA Special Effects)
Living Playwrights

EMOTIONS
Complicated Emotions

ENTS

EVIL SET DESIGN
The Ghost's Afoot!

FAILURE
Film Fest?
Death of a Frog

FAME / FAMOUS SCENIC DESIGNERS & PLAYWRIGHTS
Well, That was... Exciting?
Design Quotes
Scouting Locations

FINISHING
Finishing and Reading the Omens
Simultaneity

FIRE DAMAGE (faux)
Punch Lists and Tech

FIREPLACE (faux)
Faux Stone
Scenic Zoology
Siege - Days 31, 32, 33, and 34

FIRST READ-THROUGH
First Read-Through

FLOORS
This n' That (floor tile)
Back to Black
Scenic Painting - Backdrops

FOAM
Set Designer's Day (Brick)
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike AND Stone
A French Trend
Production Photo

FOLIAGE/PLANTS (see ENVIRONMENTAL SETS)

FOUNTAIN (see WATER)

FREELANCING  (also HEALTH, WEALTH, FAMILY-LIFE, and SELF-EMPLOYMENT)
Sidelined
The Arts and the Holidays
Theatrical Sleep Cycle
Distractions
One of the Perks of Freelancing
Good Advice
Yeesh
Runnin' Crazy, Or, Scenic Design as a Profession
Until...
Gummy Bears for Lunch
Getting Political
Design Contracts
Arts and Healthcare

FREE SPEECH (and politicking)
A Bit More Charlie
Inauguration Day
RESIST
Please Write Your Senator...
Fit for Empire
Presidents' Day
Threats
Death of a Frog
Arts and Healthcare

FURNITURE (also see SET DRESSING)
Pulling Furniture
Return of the Dreaded Sofa
At Home (At Home, by Bill Bryson)
Weather
Homework
Furniture Pull
The Thrill of the Find
Fight Call and Farcical Design
How to Pick Stage Furniture
Ha!
Art Museum Visits
Sometimes the Wheels Fall Off
Eras End
Deep Breath
End of the Rainbow (+ piano)
REALLY Haulin' Stuff (refrigerator)

What's Up? 


GAMES (Also See MINECRAFT)
Siege - Day 1 (D&D)
Siege - Day 2 (D&D)
Siege - Day 4 (Minecraft)

GARDENS (see ENVIRONMENTAL SETS)

GEOMETRY
Back to the Land of the Living...

GHOSTS
The Ghost in the Theater

GIFTS (for designers and theater types)
Holiday Gifts

GOVERNMENTAL
Red (tape, rage) and... Blue

GREEN THEATER (see SUSTAINABILITY and RECYCLING)

HABITS
Importance of Habit

HAULING (and TRAVEL)
Scheduling
Weather
Lugging Stuff
Driving Hazards
Runny Aroundy Day
Loading Up
Auto Repair as Archeology
Runnin' Crazy, Or, Scenic Design as a Profession
Enjoy the Lulls
Gummy Bears for Lunch
REALLY Haulin' Stuff
Loading In and Up

HUMAN PERCEPTION
Magically Confusing the Audience

HYPNOSIS SHOW

ILLUSTRATIONS

IMPROVING
It Takes a While

IMPROVISATION
Free-wheeling

INCORPORATING LIGHTING AND SOUND
Scenic Master Class Speaker: Rob Howell

INSPIRATION
Inspiration
Art Break
Dreaming Up Ideas
Inspirational Photos
Minimalism
Up on the Roof
Obsessed
Architectural Stories
A French Trend

INTERNS
Interns and Apprentices
Intern-y

INTERRUPTIONS
Theater Interrupted
Good Reviews!
Book Sale and Status Update
White Christmas
Distractions
Craftsmanship

KITCHEN SETS
In Brief...
Kitchens
Opening Night

LIFTS (Stage Lifts)
Back to Work

LIGHTING
Surfin'
Ruth Photo
Short Builds
Kitchens (protection)
Scenic Masterclass Speaker: Donald Holder
David Mamet on Designers
Back to Work
Paint 'n Light
Craftsmanship
Tech: Lighting Color Fun

LISTS
Monday Mornings

LiveDesign SCENIC MASTER CLASS 2013
Back From NYC
Vicarious Tony Thrill
Scenic Master Class Speaker: Rob Howell
Rule of Three
Scenic Masterclass Speaker: David Gallo and Ben Heller
Scenic Masterclass Speaker: Anna Louizos
Greening the Stage

LOAD-IN
Load-In
Loading In and Up

LOCATIONS
Scouting Locations

MAGIC
Magically Confusing the Audience

MAPS
Siege - Day 1

MARBLEIZING

MASTERCLASS
Well, That was... Exciting?

MEASUREMENTS
Four Things for a Designer to Remember

MEETINGS
Meetings
Theatrical Sleep Cycle
Holiday Prep
Paper Rules!
Siege - Days 14&15

METALS
A Grab Bag

MINECRAFT (what? you were expecting theater?  Design is Design.)
Catch-Up Post (Illias)
Here's a First
Project, Service, or Ego?
David Mamet on Designers

MUSICALS
Music and Set Design
What a Month!

NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS - NEA (see Arts Funding)

NOTES (see Rehearsal Reports)

OFF-BROADWAY
Siege - Day 9
Siege - Days 12 & 13

ORGANIZATION
Thawing Out
Studio Organization
Into the New Year
Holidays Approaching the Studio
Enjoy the Lulls

OPENING
Approaching Opening
Set Designer's Day - Rest
Opening for Collapse
Reminder: The Whipping Man
Towards Opening...
Opening and Other Up-Dates
Book Sale and Status Update
A Valentine's Present
Sometimes the Wheels Fall Off
Gummy Bears for Lunch

PAINT ELEVATIONS (Also see Scenic Painting)
Paint Elevations
Watercolor Sketching
Painted Model
Hair Cuts for Radio and Other Weird Things
Scenic Painting - Backdrops

PAPER
Back to the Land of the Living...

PERFECTIONISM
Perfection
Minimalism
Craftsmanship

PERIOD PIECES
Surfin'
How to Start a Set Design

PHOTOCOPIES and PRINT / GRAPHICS
End of the Rainbow
Hair Cuts for Radio and Other Weird Things

PHOTOGRAPHY & VIDS (see also CONSTRUCTION and SET PHOTOS)
Black and White
Model Photography
A Day for Set Photos
Surfin'
Inspirational Photos
Ruth Photo
The Fun of Research
The Trend in Photography
What a Month!
Hair Cuts for Radio and Other Weird Things

PLANTS/FOLIAGE (see ENVIRONMENTAL SETS)

PLAYWRIGHTS (and Writing)
Honestly
Living Playwrights
US Versions of UK Stories
Attention Aspiring Playwrights!
Play Writing
Reading Play Scripts
Reading Script Submittals
Characters
Woohoo! NEA Grant to Kitchen Dog
Kitchen Dog's PUP FEST Today

POETRY
Siege - Days 19 and 20

POLITICS
The Political Power of (Set) Design
Threats
Arts and Healthcare
Two Things
That Bard... At It Again

PRACTICALS
Practicals (general and Coke machine)

PRINTS and PRINTING
NY Public Library Archives and My Stuff Too... (I and You, Natural Shocks, and The Last Truck
Set Models (Irma Vep)
Quick! Catch It On Stage (Que Sera, Giant Monster)
Tschotskies (I'll Pray for You So Hard, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Radient Vermin)
Inspiration (Man of la Mancha)
Documenting the Work (Traveling Lady)
Black and White (Death is No Small Change)
Alive on Stage (The Frequency of Death) B&W
Charles Dickens (Edwin Drood)
Reminder:  (The Whipping Man)
Surfin' (In the Next Room and Charm)
Furniture Pull (In the Next Room: the Vibrator Play)
Pictures in the Paper (Boeing, Boeing and Ruth)
First Peek at The Divine Sister (The Divine Sister)
Ruth Photo (Ruth)
Dallas Critics' Forum Awards (Ruth)
Alternate Versions (Boeing, Boeing)
I Wish... (Beauty Queen of Leenane)
Interns and Apprentices (Lawrence and Hollowman)
Minimalism (Hamlet)
Starting Construction Drawings (Incorruptible)
Intern-y (The Glass Menagerie)
In Brief... (Miracle on South Division Street)
Kitchens (Exit, Pursued by a Bear, Miracle on S. Division St., The Rabbit Hole, Drawer Boy, Dinner with Friends, Bright Ideas)
Reset the Net (Too Many Cooks)
The American Room (Se Llama Cristina)
Pen Award Winner! (Se Llama Cristina)
Successful Smearing (Detroit)
Set Dressing (Thinner Than Water)
Gappiness in Blocking (The Goat: or Who's Sylvia?)
A Day for Set Photos (The Diary of Anne Frank)
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike AND Stone
Please Forgive a Little Back-Patting (Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike)
Set Dressing
Creating the Romeo and Juliet Set
A French Trend (Lovers & Executioners)
Production Photo (Lovers & Executioners)
Paint n' Light (The Dumb Waiter)
News Break (The Explorers Club)
What a Month! (The Addams Family)
Scenic Zoology  (The Importance of Being Earnest)
End of the Rainbow (End of the Rainbow)
That Radio Thing (Wait Until Dark and others)
Scenic Painting - Backdrops (The Winter's Tale)
REALLY Haulin' Stuff (Feathers and Teeth)
Scenic Painting Examples (various)
Craftsmanship (Silent Sky)
Loading In and Up (Trevor)
Progress (Native Gardens)
How'd That Turn Out? (Native Gardens)
Theater Design Catch-Up Day! (Rasheeda Speaking, King o' the Moon, Ciao, and Whatta Ya Think?!)
Siege Days 10 & 11 (A Wolf at the Door, Alabaster, Ironbound, Enchanted April, The Spitfire Grill, The Sugarbean Sisters, The Traveling Lady, All My Sons, Native Gardens, Humble Boy)
Siege - Days 31, 32, 33, and 34 (In the Next Room: the Vibrator Play)
Stonewalling (Vanya and Sonja and Masha and Spike and The Beauty Queen of Leenan and In the Next Room and Incorruptible)
Volume of Internet Stuff (The Volume of Smoke)
Story Telling (Murrow)
Catch Up Post (Beyond the Yellow Wallpaper, Sherlock Holmes, Matilda)
Happy Moments (Herbbits, Wizaeds, and borks, Oh My!)
Old Fashioned Drops (To the Breeches!)

What's Up? (Sherlock Holmes series)

Did I Promise to Post More Often? (The Phantom of the Opera)

Fall Behind... Busy Winter and Spring Ahead (The Phantom of the Opera melodrama)

STAGE MACHINERY
Scenic Masterclass Speaker: David Gallo and Ben Heller

STEP-BY-STEP SET DESIGN (Romeo and Juliet)
First Steps (sketches)
A Set Design from Scratch (schematic design and inspirational photo)
R&J Construction Drawings (duh)
Process Pics (onstage construction photos)
A Valentine's Present (opening)
Creating the Romeo and Juliet Set (finished and production photos)


STRIKE
Strike
Car Load of Strike
Another Strike
Striking
Back to Black
Design, Reuse, Adaptation, and Proper Credit

STUDIO
Office Environment
Aaaand Spring Cleaning
External Factors
Reorganizing the Studio
Holidays Approaching the Studio
Studio Organization
Picasso's Studio
Imperfect Studios
Up on the Roof
Scenic Masterclass Speaker: David Gallo and Ben Heller
Greening the Stage
Test Scan
That Radio Thing
Siege - Day 3

SUPERSTITION
The Ghost in the Theater
Stupid Superstition

SUSTAINABILITY (see also RECYCLING)
Greening the Stage
Green Research

TASTE
Taste for Designers
High Brow? or Low Brow?

TAXES
Set Designer's Life
Taxes
Taxes!
Yeesh
Siege - Day 8
Siege - Days 12 & 13

TAXIDERMY
Art as Set Dressing
Dressing a Boar
Runny Aroundy Day
News Break
Scenic Zoology

TD (Technical Director / Builder / Carpenter)
Just Floatin' Along
Starting Construction Drawings
That Radio Thing

THEATER POSTER
Quick! Catch It On Stage

TEACHING
Set Design Workshop Today

TECH (the theater definition)
Tech Weekend and Scenic Painting
Film Fest Wedged into Tech
Speed Teching
Dry Tech
Tech, Notes, and the Punch-List
Punch Lists and Tech
First Steps...
Tech: Lighting Color Fun

TECHNOLOGY
Low or High Tech
High and Low Tech - Part II
Test Scan

TEXT (The)
Characters

THEATER ARCHITECTURE & FACILITIES
Architecture Rant (Dallas Theater Center)
Back to Work (light grids & lifts)
Goodbye Old Blue (Kitchen Dog Theater)
A New Dog House! (Kitchen Dog Theater)

THEATER ORGANIZATIONS (NNPN, TCG, etc.)
Rule of Three
Greening the Stage (Broadway Green Alliance)

TILE (faux and real)
Scenic Zoology
Been Busy (ceramic tile patterns)
Scenic Painting Examples

TRANSIENCE
Ephemera
"It's Like Sand-Painting Isn't It?"
Building in Sand

TRAVELING (also see HAULING)
Life Interrupts Set Design
Runnin' Crazy, Or, Scenic Design as a Profession
Test Scan

TREES
Set Designer's Day (Tree)
Scenic Painting - Backdrops
Design, Reuse, Adaptation, and Proper Credit
Cornelius Parker, You Rascal You

VOCABULARY
Thawing Out
Weather
High and Low Tech Part II
Load-In
Crunch-Time (#2 a recurring theme!)
Flooded!

WOMEN
Women in Tech
Women in Theatre

WOOD (or wood-look)
Painting Slats
Time Flies
Craftsmanship
Tech: Lighting Color Fun (slats & bamboo)

WOOD SHINGLES (See STEP-BY-STEP SET DESIGN)

WORKING FROM HOME
Siege - Day 6
Siege - Day 7

WORLD PREMIERS

WRITING
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