Masters of stage design (2) -- The aesthetics of stage design

Today the topic of the post is "the aesthetics of stage design". How the Mesters think about that. 


Let's start from KAPPA SENO. In last post I talked about his apparatus which he used for "wow" audiences and he really proud of them. I think for Seno, the aesthetic of stage design is how to overcome every problem and try his best to wow audiences. He said that is a "trickery". He's good at using apparatus and different material to trick audiences. For example, when he built stage for "The Snow Country" because first of all they didn't have plenty of budget. Secondly the theatre was not big. Thirdly, Seno had to consider about changing scenes. In the end, he created a train station which looked so real but actually some part of the station was just painting slides.

One of other examples is "stained glass", because of the same reasons, (I think the money is always not enough...) Seno decided to use plastic slides to make them and then the outcome was terrific! Even the expert of stained glass couldn't find out in fact it's not stained glass. Seno said that when the expert saw the "stained glass" he made, the expert was a little bit mad... but which means he was successfully tricked everyone! 

Seno was enjoy tricking audiences, but I think it's not a trickery because drama is not real as well. He just try his best to make a dream for audiences. 

And how about MING CHO LEE? I assume that compared to Seno, he's a thinker.  I mentioned in last post, he said that design should from inside to outside. He always ask himself these four questions. 

1. What have you designed? 

2. Any important thing in the story impacts your design? 

3. Nowadays, anything happened in the society impacts your design? 

4. Why you designed it? Did your mind change to cause your design? 

For Ming, the aesthetics of stage design is "what do you think". Not only building something to audience, you should put the feelings in the design. Once in a interview, Ming said that "I know lots of new designers care about their own style of the design more than the dramas and the scripts. I believe that it's nothing about new and old of the forms, but about the life you depict." 

Ming let me start to think the meaning of the design. It's a hard question. because people is always limited by the objects people can see and then forget the meaning behind it. 

In conclusion, Seno taught me how to use material flexibly and Ming taught me think. 

I have to say read their books is really interesting! I will keep reading to explore every master's secret. What I'm reading now is "The Dramatic Imagination" by Robert Edmond Jones.