Theatre Designers' Collections

If you are a designer of any sort, you once had a file cabinet full of images. Shown is one of three file drawers of my "tear files." For most designers of all kinds, visual ideas rarely spring full blown to mind and we often need a stimulus. One of the things we once did, and I'm sure many continue to do, is collect images on paper to stimulate one's creative efforts. We still subscribe to magazines in paper.

In the case of a theatre scenic designer, you have a given subject. If you are at all methodical, you jot down a handful of image ideas as you re-read the play and a preliminary list of requirements. You reflect on discussions you have had with the director - the goals, themes, interpretation, and the feel and spirit of the show on stage. Directors' own requirements may be evolving, so this goes with you to every design and production meeting.

I discovered in discussions with architects and engineers regarding upgrading facilities, they carefully maintain "the requirements list," which they use to drive their design work. I jumped on that wonderfully rational approach and adopted it for all of my design work. I had it at every meeting and made certain it was current. ("So now you need to be able to do this and not that?") It lay beside my sketch pad and at the top of the drafting table. (Pencil work precedes CAD in the design phase.)

At some point, you have to begin thinking about the look of the show. And you have to enable the director's work by giving them a "machine" for the play.

Blind alleys and random effort are a waste of time. That means writing on a sheet of paper all of the current known requirements of the play and the director, and keeping it updated. This is your requirements list. You can bounce around possibilities, sketch outrageous responses and imagery, but you have to get a sense of what matters and what the director needs to be able to do.

Next, or perhaps before, I go on the hunt for things that will "trip your trigger." Colors, images, architecture, places, creative efforts of others. That's what the tear file is for.

Today, one can load hundreds of Google and Pinterest images on a topic search, and spend a couple hours ploughing through the collections. It's helpful for the stimulation of possibilities but it is limited by your search terms. It also tends to shortchange illustration, which is closest to what we do.

My practice was to avoid other stage designs, particularly of the same show. It's a creativity fettish; I want to solve the problems of the show myself, with the director.

For several decades I collected design resources - art books, illustration annuals, and tear files. I have files labeled for periods, countries, cities, illustration style, furniture, etc.

We still take magazines on paper in our house. Among them such visual resources as Smithsonian Magazine. Image collections on paper are probably an analog relic, I surmise.