Good Advice

I just stumbled across this post "11 Things to Know Before Starting Architecture School" - full of great advice!

My personal favorite is the admonition to actually get sleep.  Very important, sleep.  It made all the difference in my own college career - my grades rose amazingly as soon as I swore off pulling all-nighters.  One of my prof.s used to say, "A project designed at 2:00 a.m. should only be critiqued at 2:00 a.m."... and then he refused to show up at that hour.  Seriously, what looks like a good idea when you're all sleep-deprived is usually not a good idea.  The companion advice is: Don't Draw Drunk.

Friends Don't Let Friends Draw Drunk - and wouldn't that make a great bumper sticker?

The applications of this architectural wisdom to theater is pretty obvious.

The Nightmare by Henry Fuseli (public domain pic).  What the painter MEANT to call this work, 

obviously, was The 2:00 a.m. Design Idea.  Equally obviously, the swooning character is the sleepy designer.

So get your sleep.

Yes, the deadline is unforgiving, but you'll be so much more efficient and make so many fewer bone-headed mistakes (especially with dangerous tools) that any hours "lost" to sleep will repay themselves many-fold.  I promise.

Dreaming Up Ideas

This is going to sound incredibly dorky, but my latest design came to me in a dream.

It's not unusual for an artist, designer, or other problem-solver to go to bed thinking about an issue - then wake with the answer.  The subconscious mind keeps working, scrabbling away underground.

Sometimes, frankly, it seems as if the ol' subconscious keeps all the good stuff buried - hidden from you - until an idea feels like a little fresh air and strolls upwards to the light of day.  Often that's when you're busy but mentally idling - driving, washing dishes, showering, walking, or in those moments between sleeping and waking.  Then, if you're not too busy to notice and if you move slowly, not to scare it, you can spot a shy new idea in the underbrush.  And catch it!

Public domain image

Set Designer's Day - Rest

Last night, finally, though I spent a good few hours at the theater during the day, finishing up, I did NOT have to return at 11:00 p.m. for Notes after rehearsal.  And I didn't need to get up to an alarm this morning.  So I finally caught up on sleep.  Ten hours!

Sleep deprivation can be a problem in theater generally: actors have day jobs, then rehearse or perform at night; the same for running crew and board ops; producers ditto; while carpenters and painters work long hours during the Build, usually starting early; and prop designers or costumers just flat have so much to do that they skip sleep...

Theater set designers have the problem of starting early, to look in on and coordinate with builders and painters, but also spending hours finding, creating, or modifying set dressing, then staying up late to watch rehearsals or pop in afterwards for notes.  Some theaters, some of the time, ease this by sending out set notes as emails, but at others (and part of the time anywhere) the designer just needs to physically be there for discussion.

By the time Opening arrives, everyone involved in a production is getting a little punchy.

Crib * Molineaux - public domain image, messed with