Sweeney Todd Set Design ideas...

[benjamin_barker]

Posted: 3/26/07 at 2:08pm

I'm (hopefully) directing a production of Sweeney Todd at my university... in preparation for it, I was wondering if anyone had seen community theatre/college productions and how they went about the greater challenges of set design/scenery... particularly Sweeney's chair and its links to the bakehouse.

I have a few ideas, but I'd love to go for the most entertaining (and not too minimalist) idea, without - obviously - having to construct a huge set ala professional productions.

I'd really appreciate any ideas/pictures!

Thanks

[morosco]

Posted: 3/26/07 at 2:38pm

I heard about a production where Sweeney's unfortunate customers were put onto a meat hook and shoved offstage via an overhead track instead of the traditional trapdoor under the barber's chair.

[lightguy06222]

Posted: 3/26/07 at 3:16pm

what university?

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 3/26/07 at 3:24pm

Morosco-
I heard a similar one, but they went over the audience...or maybe I misheard...the audience sounded really cool though.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 3/26/07 at 3:57pm

[morosco]

Posted: 3/26/07 at 4:21pm

lol Has MTI released a Sweeney Todd Jr?

[benjamin_barker]

Posted: 3/26/07 at 5:36pm

Those pictures are great!

And, lightguy06222, it's for Australian National University (ANU). It's an inter-college production, and I'm hoping it'll be pretty big, but I figured I'd check out just how easy a set I could get away with...

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 3/26/07 at 5:54pm

You could do it incredibly easily with just a simple box made of brick walls and a few pieces of furniture and perhaps a few simple cloth drops to *suggest* the locales. But for something like that to work, your lighting designer is going to have to think *waaaaaay* outside the norm: lots of uplighting for the ensemble scenes, and perhaps a few straight down ones for the pie shoppe to isolate people in the space.

[Link Larkin Wanabe]

Posted: 3/26/07 at 5:55pm

Do yourself a favour and ask around the theatre department of your University to see if there are any good aspiring Set Designers. It is always much better, and more satisfying, to work with a designer to come up with your own design solutions rather than steal from other people's. Collaboration with a designer is usually one of the first aspects a director deals with and those conversations can guide the rest of the show. By just borrowing from other designs, it sets the tone for the rest of the production of borrowed moments, and nobody wants to see that. :)

That is not to say that some of those images aren't stunning.

BrodyFosse: Where did you get that second to last image in your post? do you have a link?

Akiva

[ABSteel]

Posted: 3/26/07 at 6:03pm

Link, it looks like this is the link: http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~abirdzel/

[BDrischBDemented]

Posted: 3/26/07 at 6:08pm

That industrial pipe one looks fantastic!

[Link Larkin Wanabe]

Posted: 3/26/07 at 6:18pm

ABS,

Thanks!

Akiva

[ABSteel]

Posted: 3/26/07 at 6:25pm

For future reference, if you want to see the pic's link, right click and select "properties". I small pop up will appear and give you its location.

Do you ever get tired of writing your name?

[Link Larkin Wanabe]

Posted: 3/26/07 at 6:39pm

Cool, I didn't know that!

And no...I don't.

Akiva

[kyle.]

Posted: 3/26/07 at 6:46pm

Do you ever get tired of pretending to be Link Larkin?

[Link Larkin Wanabe]

Posted: 3/26/07 at 6:53pm

No...hah...and when did this thread become about me?

Akiva