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Pablo Picasso once said, "An idea is a point of departure and no more. As soon as you elaborate it, it becomes transformed by thought."
Mamet gives us some very powerful ideas to depart from in Race. A controversial piece in many regards, Race plays on some very clear and delicate lines - yet Mamet includes little detail about many important scenic factors that are often explicitly defined, or at least implied, by other playwrights. Instead, we are left to interpret the dominant themes and subtext in the words of these extremely complex characters, and build our own understanding of who they are, where they work, and what kind of environment they surround themselves in.
In other words, Mamet leaves us with some incredibly bold "points of departure," and leaves it up to us as purveyors of his work to "elaborate" them and "transform" them by our individual and unique thoughts. As a designer whose job it is to sculpt an empty stage into the world of a play like Race, with such a limited scope provided by the author, this is both very exciting and somewhat daunting.
With a blank slate, an open mind, and little direct guidance from the author, the first thing I did after reading the play was have a nice, long chat with the director, Kristen Coury, to see what her initial thoughts on the show were. Early on in the process, we were less interested in specific details about scenery and physical stage design, and more interested in general thoughts about the characters and plot.
For example, we needed to identify what kind of people Jack, Henry, Charles, and Susan really were. Where did they grow up? Did they work or schmooze their way up? On the weekends do they go fishing or do they go golfing? And of course, where are they now? Do they live in a condo or a mansion? Drive a sports car or a minivan? Do they work in a sky-rise or a basement?
Over some time and several discussions, we were able to identify some important traits for these characters, and some overall themes for the plot - both of which would soon begin to define the world of Race. These characteristics allowed me to work under more specific areas of focus, so the guided research phase could begin. At this point, hundreds of images were collected from many books, magazines, and anthologies. Some of these were realistically scenic, and some were more evocative paintings and drawings simply implying various emotions, colors, and concepts. Kristen and I began to sort through them all, trying to find specific images that seemed like they might somehow relate to the characters of the play.
As our pile of images began to shrink to a reasonable size, I began to digitally collage portions of various research images together to start to suggest different scenic ideas. Again Kristen and I reviewed these, and isolated particular portions of each collage that seemed like they might have a place in the world of Race. Eventually, this process repeated itself, and these collages started to turn into sketches, which turned into conceptual renderings, which eventually were finalized and turned into a computer aided drafting (CAD) package that could be physically built. Finally, these drawings were turned into an accurate virtual 3D model, which could be used to properly share the actual look and feel of the scenery with Kristen, the production team, and the actors.
Designing shows like Race require some flexibility in process and workflow. In this case, we felt that gaining an understanding into the character's lives, thoughts, and backgrounds would best represent the scenic environment. This gave us a firm ground to build upon, which ultimately led to the final design for the show.
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