Every great design has its beginnings in a great idea, whether your medium of choice is scenery, costume, lighting, sound, or projections. Unmasking Theatre Design shows you how to cultivate creative thinking skills through every step of theatre design - from the first play reading to the finished design presentation. This book reveals how creative designers think in order to create unique and appropriate works for individual productions, and will teach you how to comprehend the nature of the design task at hand, gather inspiration, generate potential ideas for a new design, and develop a finished look through renderings and models. The exercises presented in this book demystify the design process by providing you with specific actions that will help you get on track toward fully-formed designs. Revealing the inner workings of the design process, both theoretically and practically, Unmasking Theatre Design will jumpstart the creative processes of designers at all levels, from student to professionals, as you construct new production designs.
Introduction
Part One: Theatre and Design
Chapter 1: The Nature of Theatre
Chapter 2: The Designer's Goal
Chapter 3: Two Key Elements of Any Design
Chapter 4: The Designer's Expressive Tools
Part Two: Deconstructing the Creative Process
Chapter 5: Thinking About Thinking
Chapter 6: Idea Generation
Chapter 7: Defining the Creative Process
Part Three: Putting Theory into Practice
Chapter 8: Creative Process/Design Process
Chapter 9: Fallacies about the Design Process
Chapter 10: Essential Activities for the Designer
Part Four: Unpacking the Design Process
Chapter 11: Comprehend the Nature of the Design Problem
A. Play Reading
B. Embrace the Production Limitations
Chapter 12: Gather Inspiration
A. Play Analysis
B. Visual Research
Chapter 13: Invent Solutions
A. [Good] Design Ideas
B. [Good] Design Expressions
Chapter 14: Develop the Work
Chapter 15: Present the [Best] Solution
Chapter 16: When You Get Stuck
Chapter 17: Dracula, a Case Study of a Complete Design Process
Part Five: Putting it All Together
Chapter 18: Collaboration
Chapter 19: Personal Factors
Chapter 20: Designers of Dreams
Appendix: Supplemental Exercises and Information
A. More Play Reading Exercises
B. More Play Analysis Exercises
C. More Design Expression Exercises
D. More Development Exercises
E. More Presenting the [Best] Solution Exercises
F. More Courage, Commitment and Focus Exercises
G. More Introvert/Extrovert Exercises
H. Design Conferences Unpacked
Suggested Reading
Software Resources
End Notes
Production Credits
