5: The Designers

The Roles of Designers

Of all the theatrical roles, the designer may first appear to be the most superfluous. We cannot imagine a play without a story to tell, without someone or a group of individuals directing that story, or without performers performing it. Yet, we somehow can imagine that story being told without costumes, an elaborate set, lighting or sound design. We forget that while theatre may exist without designers, productions are not possible without design. The actors’ clothes are their costumes, the performance space is the set, whatever light illuminates the performance is the lighting design, and whatever sounds are available for the audience to hear form the sound design. The choice not to design these elements is itself a design decision. As lighting designer Joshua Langman writes, “design is structural,” not decorative (Langman 2022, xvii). Like playwrights, designers are both artists and craftspeople. Unlike painters or novelists, their artwork does not exist on its own; rather, it serves the story being told. Langman reminds us, “there is no such thing as design for design’s sake” (xvii). Just as playwrights create blueprints for action, theatrical designers create worlds in which action can take place. Set designer Wilson Chin, interviewed later in this chapter, refers to this world-building process as “creating an envelope” to hold the story.

How do designers create these containers for action? They follow an active design process. This process begins with understanding the story of the play. As lighting designer Marcus Doshi, also interviewed later in this chapter, reminds us, “If you understand the story, everything else takes care of itself.” Doshi explains his design philosophy and process as a “make, look, evaluate, and adapt” loop. He first makes something based on intuition, which is the accumulation of years of experience—his early interest in theatrical design, his graduate study, his knowledge of what “works” and what does not. Then, he looks at what he has made. In this step, he considers the spectators who will eventually view the production. He evaluates his design based on the question, “How do I want this moment to land with the audience?” Then, he adapts his design to better suit the moment before beginning the loop again. This process is specific to Doshi’s practice, but all theatrical designers follow a similar system of creation, though they may conceive of it differently. From the outside, theatrical design processes may seem obtuse, almost magical. Indeed, Wilson Chin tells us “So much of design is getting to that moment of eureka!”—the moment of insight where the design appears to the designer fully formed. But getting to that epiphany requires practices rooted in concrete aesthetic principles, in years of study and experience. In the case that inspiration doesn’t strike, designers rely on their artistic processes to pull them through. Doshi refers to this challenge as being creative on command.

The key to the apparent magic trick operating behind design is the collaborative nature of theatrical design process. Rather than serving as a finishing touch applied to a finished production like rouge, theatrical design is an integral part of the production process from the very beginning. Designers do not work in isolation. Their ideas emerge through sustained dialogue with directors, playwrights, performers, and fellow designers. Long before rehearsals with the actors begin, designers participate in production meetings, analyze the script, and engage in conceptual discussions that establish a shared vocabulary for the work. The director unifies but does not dictate design decisions. Through sketches, models, renderings, sound samples, and light plots, designers externalize ideas so they can be tested, challenged, and refined by the group. These exchanges ensure that design choices respond to collective questions: What story are we telling? What world does this play require? How should the audience experience this story? As rehearsals progress, designers adjust their work in response to new interpretations, practical constraints, and evolving performances. Theatrical design is a living practice integral to the production process—one that thrives on conversation, collaboration, and a commitment to serving the production.