Scenehouse: An Intro to Designing for Live Performance

Scenehouse Intro is aimed at recent graduates and practitioners from a wide range of related disciplines who want to find out if designing for live performance is the career path for them.

Individuals often come to design for performance, or Scenography to use another name, having already developed a complimentary skill set in another area. Typical applicant professions may include: architects, actors, animators, textile designers, interior designers, graphic artists, fine artists, writers and directors. Other applicants may be coming to us directly from a first degree in a related field.

We will explore the role of the designer in different modes of production such as devised work, and we will also discuss the challenges and possibilities of designing for differing types of venue and audience. The relationship between set, lighting, costume and sound design will also be considered, with input from practicing professionals.

Ultimately the course is constructed to replicate the practical and creative path theatre designers take to arrive at finished Set and Costume Designs. Learning is based on a linked series of practical hands-on exercises ending in a 2-day studio period in which each participant works out their own design solution to a given text in the form of a model and/or set of costume designs.

Please believe that it not essential to be able to draw and paint! There are many other techniques you can apply.

During the week there be talks and Q&A sessions with professional theatre practitioners from linked specialist areas.

The course is lead by Sarah Paulley, Lecturer in Sceneography at Queen Margaret University Edinburgh.
Co –teaching with Will Holt, graduate of Glasgow School of Art and now a London based designer specialising in designing for opera and dance.