Course Goals and Objectives

This course serves as an introduction into the language and interpretation of theatrical design through an exploration of design elements and principles as they relate to scenic, costume & lighting design. Everyone who works in the theatre needs to have a basic foundation in each of the various areas so that when you are working with other directors, designers, stage managers, technicians, and actors, everyone can speak the same language and be sensitive to each other’s responsibilities and talents. At the end of this course, students should have:

• Learned the fundamental principles and philosophies used by designers in the theatrical design process
• Learned to apply course material in the exploration of methods used by designers (to improve critical thinking and creative problem solving)
• Gained a strong sense of design terminology, processes, and methods
• Gained a familiarity with the elements and principles of design
• Developed creative capacities through exploration of how the design process works to support the ideas, themes, issues and values expressed in dramatic literature
• Respect for and increased understanding of the contributions of designers to a theatrical production

Sunday, September 8, 2013

September 10 and 12

Last week we spent time talking about shape and form.  Shape is the name given to 2 dimensional objects that are defined by a line.  Form is the name for the 3 dimensional objects that shape represents. In general shape and form is separated into two categories; geometric and natural.  Natural forms are often referred to as organic.
Geometric shapes consist of straight lines that are easily defined by mathematics and are frequently but not always symmetric in nature.

Organic shapes are often free form in nature, with no straight lines or mathematic features, often free-form in nature.
We also began to discuss color last week.  Some visual artists who used color to convey emotion, define space and generally test the scope and breadth of visual dynamics were:

Mark Rothko

Helen Frankenthaler

Morris Louis

and
Ellsworth Kelly

Each of these artists used color as the dominant feature in their artwork.  None were figurative, meaning they didn't paint figures or even identifiable forms.  Instead, the color became the artwork.  For Thursday's class, I would like you to create an abstract watercolor that conveys mood.  If you would like, you can use a dramatic work as the origin of your mood piece.  For instance, you can select a scene from a play with which you are familiar, and depict the mood of that scene as a watercolor abstraction of mood.  The goal is to associate color, hue, tone, tint, and value with definable moods.  The expectation is that you will be able to describe the scene, explain the prevailing mood, and then explain how your color rendering relates to that.

We will be reviewing color theory in class, addressing watercolor technique and visiting the Adobe Kuler website.  http://kuler.adobe.com

This site addresses color theory for web designers, but contains some very useful explanations of the rules of color:
http://webdesign.tutsplus.com/articles/design-theory/an-introduction-to-color-theory-for-web-designers/

Due Thursday--Color Wheel assignment, mood watercolor, 1 example each of symmetry and balance.

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