PRODUCTION DESIGN - Scenery and Lighting Page
Still Life with Iris
by Steven Dietz
Zona
Gale
Theatre
Portage
Center for the Arts
Portage, WI
September 2007
Costume Construction with Barb Church
Stage Carpentry/Props Master
Directed by Dr. Xan S. Johnson
The Bolt Bender struggles with a lightning bolt while the Thunder Bottlers, Iris, and others look on in the world of Nocturno.
Iris is confronted by Mr. Matternot, who is going to take her to Great Island, home of the Goods.
Iris takes out her button, and a memory is sparked. We used black lighting and UV paint in Nocturno as well as during Iris's memories, as seen here.
At the Island of the Great Goods, Mr. Matternot begins to question the actions of the Goods.
Annabel Lee helps Iris and the occupants of the Tunnel of the Unwanted to find their way.
Iris drinks a perfect drop in front of the perfect chair.
Mom becomes Ms. Overlook and is put to work for the Goods.
Production
Notes:
(From Dramatics Publishing Company: This piece is the first play for young audiences to receive the Kennedy Center's Fund for New American Plays Award. Still Life with Iris is a fantastical adventure which centers on a little girl's search for the simplest of things: home. Iris lives with her mom in the land of Nocturno—a magical place in which the workers make, by night, all of the things we see in the world by day. Also, in Nocturno, memories do not reside in people's minds but instead are kept in their coats (called 'Past Coats'). The rulers of Nocturno, the Great Goods, are determined to have the "best" of everything on their island—and therefore take Iris away from her home and bring her to Great Island to be their daughter. To ease the pain of this separation, they remove her Past Coat, leaving her with no memory of her home or her family. All that remains of Iris' past is a single button from her coat. Using the button as a clue, Iris joins with friends she meets on her journey—Annabel Lee (a young woman from the sea) and Mozart (the composer, age 11)—and frees herself from the Great Goods. She returns to Nocturno, having found her past, and her home.
Scenery:
Not having the inclination, space or budget to create large illusions for this piece, we proceeded on a much more modest line. Guided by the idea that Iris was searching for home, looking for guides, the idea of maps and methods of finding one's self guided the research in creating a unit set. When I came across the ancient astronomical observatories, Jantar Mantar, I found both a symbol for home and a visual allusion to Iris. This, combined with the radiating circles - her various paths - which, especially in the overhead circles (best documented in the memory picture above, there were additional circles which were connected to the central circle tha then radiated out above the audience), also found a connection to her memory (neurons). The central circle rotated to allow pieces on and off as well as provide different angles for the unit. The other major element was the use of UV paint on the scenery and costuming (though what we used on the costumes did not document well - it was quite subtle). While we did not intend to create full-on black light moments, the use of black light in Nocturno, though combined with regular lighting, allowed for the UV paint to glow in the corner of the audience's eyes, and create a look that was slightly magical. Lastly, as the show is about the "Still Life," we created two paintings on either side of the stage, also accented with UV paint, to accompany the 3-D still life that was being manipulated on the stage.
The next design aspect came from the director's desire to have the entire set feel like an installation art piece. We looked especially at the work of Judy Pfaff and Christo (additional resource at Artsy).You can see the influence of Judy Pfaff (albeit on a much simpler scale) in the circular art pieces hanging/standing around the stage and the influence of Christo in the chair and the costuming of the Goods. (see the Costume Page for Still Life for more details on the costumes).
Lighting:
While working in the Zona Gale Theatre always presents a limitation on lighting, I try not to make apologies for not being able to do what the design concepts might require to complete and just discuss the intentions. But it's hard, because the images in my head frequently are tempered by dimmer and instrumentation limitations. That being said...the show largely became about the costuming and scenery, so the lighting here was much more accentual in this production. Nocturno was a wash of blues and violets (GAM has some great deep blue, indigos and violets) that allowed for the previously mentioned black light to function in the shadows. When we leave the world of Nocturno to Great Island, the world is lit almost too harshly, almost too completely. Apart from that, there were numerous "moments" to create in isolation and trying to accentuate the difference in the organic, cool feel of Nocturno and the stringent, artificial, excessive warmth of Great Island.
Costuming:
Visit the Costume Page for Still Life for more details on the costumes.
