The project may just be a
class assignment, but Linda Pisano, assistant professor of theatre, says
the students in her "Theatrical Design II" course are getting
valuable on-the-job training.
"The major benefit to
this assignment is the opportunity the students have to collaborate and
work in a situation that is very close to real life," she said.
Nine students in the course
submitted scenic designs for an annual fashion show organized by a "Textile
and Clothing" class in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences.
The scenic design course is team taught by Pisano and Robert Sunderman,
assistant professor of theatre.
"It's an interesting
and somewhat competitive project where the students design according to
the scenic committees concept," Pisano said.
The student designers started
the project back in late January. The final designs, which are based around
the fashion show's theme of "Transmission," were presented to
the fashion show coordinators on Thursday, March 8.
Prior to working on the scenic
designs, the students received some basic instructions from the fashion
show directors including the desire to have a huge industrial fan hanging
upstage.
Because of those instructions,
the scenic designs had an industrial feel to them. Some designs incorporated
streetlights, brick walls, trashcans. One student designer even compared
her design to an abandoned warehouse.
"We allowed the student
designers to interrupt their own way," Pisano said. "They had
access not only to the original concept that the fashion show organizers
had, but they could also call them with additional questions."
Initially the designers were
not given a budget to work with.
"We didn't want to stifle
their creative juices," Pisano said. "It's better to design
more than is needed and take some away than vice versa."
Based on the March 8 presentations,
the fashion show coordinators will chose one or more designs for the show.
The students in the "Theatrical Design II" course will then
work with the designer and Brian Swanson, ISU Theatre's technical director,
to construct the scenic design for the April fashion show to be held in
Fisher Theater.
That's when budget realities
will set in.
Pisano said the experience
of taking the original concept and scaling it down to a final product
is also beneficial to the students.
"The students will have
to make modifications in the final design according to what the (fashion
show) directors want," she said."There's a difficult balance
between being really creative and working on the design with someone else.
"Most of these designs
however will be within the budget that the fashion show has set."
