Concepts / Designs

Here are some concepts I worked on for A Midsummer Nights Dream, although they never really went past concepts.

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Above are ideas I had for the mechanicals' play about 2 weeks ago, Thisbe wearing a stereotypical princess hat, the moon wearing a round cheese hat, the wall wearing a bunch of papers to look like bricks. I also had the idea of having a makeshift curtain made out of a door and shower curtain, but the door ended up getting used for the one act.

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Here was a concept for a tree as a centerpiece which I made for an assignment in my Tech 1 class; I really liked the mangrove tree idea, but the tree didn't pan out. I will say I did really enjoy the final product for the giant rock, it was so pretty, especially with the fairy lights in the interior and the bottles hanging behind it.

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Initial Ideas / Research

My areas of focus will be set, costume, and possibly sound design, centered around the rude mechanicals' play.

My experience in these areas have been that I am familiar with construction, as I have taken several years of engineering courses, I am familiar with working with clothing and costumes as I have made costumes for both Halloween and as a hobby for a long time, and I am familiar with the use of sound design because I have been in music courses like Band and Music Theory for years (and written some of my own music) as well as having researched sound design for film.

I want to work with this scene in particular because I want the comedy to be visual as much as it is auditory, and I think I will enjoy working with this scene.

I think that this will challenge me creatively and improve my skills in crafting costumes (sewing, most specifically) as well as experience in using sound in conjunction with other elements of storytelling.

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Me and my sister watched the most recent globe theater production of midsummer night’s dream (on Youtube) and I really liked how they did it there, with a mini dysfunctional curtain, a raised platform, and a wicker basket wall.

2013 Globe Theater production of AMND

I’d also like to mess around with the costumes. I like how they did the wall in the production below, and I like the idea of the royalty being down in the audience below, maybe in in the front row or scattered throughout,

1991 production of AMND

Having them in the audience without mics even might make it more interactive for the audience, maybe moving the lights around to point at them when they speak.

One thing I want to pull off is the foot getting stuck joke (that the globe theater does), so a raised platform would be good in order to have the foot break through the floor. The thrust stage idea that Dr. Power had might work for this as well, to make the ridicule from the Duke and his wife make more sense because of the history with the thrust stage. A small, poorly made thrust stage would accentuate the humor of the scene (since I wrote this, a decently sized thrust stage has already been made, I will have to come up with another idea for the stuck foot joke, or do something else instead).

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