Edexcel GCSE Drama: Designing Drama

Creating a location (place) Location is a key starting point for most set designs. A set designer must be able to design both interior and exterior locations. The following tasks will help you to explore these in more detail. Interior spaces TASK 1.2 1 Look around the room you are in and notice its shape and features. 2 Now imagine it as a theatre set. 3 In a group, discuss what elements you should keep in order to maintain the room’s meaning as, for example, a classroom or drama studio. 4 Then share ideas on how you could re-create the space for staging a drama in the round . Think about your audience, furniture, scenery, lighting fixtures and flooring. Exterior settings TASK 1.3 This scene from The Woman in Black uses back projection to place the character outside a mansion. 1 Imagine that you have been asked to create a set design for the same location, but without the use of projection. This means that you would have to place constructions , stage furniture and/or props on the stage. You could also consider a painted backdrop. You have a small budget of £100–200. Use a chart like this to note down items that you could include. Location set design: Mansion exterior Scenery (flats, backdrops, etc.) Furniture Props Plant pots. 2 Next, imagine that a set designer has a budget of several £1000s and is designing the same exterior location, for an end-on stage configuration. The designer has provided this sketch Work with a partner to give oral feedback to the designer. • What do you like about the set design? Why? • How could it be improved? 3 Now you are the set designer in a school production of the same scene from A Woman in Black . It is an end-on stage configuration. Draw and label your own design. Painted backdrop of mansion façade Free-standing wooden gate Garden planter with olive tree Path (brick-pattern lino) Chapter 1 Practical Guide to Set Design 17