Step by Step: The Taming of the Shrew

In fall of 2008, I was given the opportunity to work with the SJSU RTVF department on a revamped version of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. Padua became 1930s Hollywood a la Busby Berkeley, Kate and Bianca became budding actress daughters of well-to-do producer Baptista Mignola of Mignola Monumental Pictures, and Petruchio became a rough-around-the-edges, up-and-coming western movie star. Not only did I get to work with the director, production director, technical director, shop carpenter, lighting designer, shop carpenter, costume and prop departments to execute the set design, but also got to work with the film department to shoot a short 4-minute film to set-up the premise of the setting. This was the first time I'd worked in theatre.

The project first started off with discussions with the director about what he wanted in terms of levels, entryways, and his overall vision. Because Baptista Mignola would have been an ostentatious producer that wants to be cutting edge, we thought his mansion would reflect the sleekness and grandeur of Busby Berkeley musical productions and Art Deco movements of that era. Petruchio's ranch in Verona would be the quintessential opposite--rugged, dusty, run-down and rustic.

With these themes in mind, I started a few rough sketches for placement and ultimately built a 3D model in Sketchup as well as a smaller scale white model so that the various lead designers and directors could use it as a talking point.

Some rough sketches:

SketchUp model:

The SketchUp model was really helpful in figuring out things spatially. The electrics needed a certain amount of space for their lighting instruments and there were also sight lines from the audience's viewpoint to be aware of when designing. The set carpenter could also move the SketchUp file into Vectorworks to determine the dimensions to actually build our beautiful (but challenging) floating, curving, elliptical staircase.

White model (a physical model made of foam board and paper):

I was particularly proud of the rotating doors and the podium. The two faces of the doors were to have two different treatments for Petruchio's ranch and Baptista's mansion. The podium would be a fixture in the Baptista mansion but a small alcove with characterizing set dressing for Petruchio's ranch. Ultimately, much of the design was altered to fit the constraints of the budget and time.

The big elements were placed, and then the smaller design decisions needed to be made. What was each side of those doors supposed to look like? How many inches thick? How many feet tall? How would they be dressed? What colors? Do you want a 1/2 inch overhang on the trim of the rotating podium or 3/4 because that would affect the overall size of the inside of the podium? Etc etc. Much of this was decided through sketched out ideas and meetings and scrawled ideas on any piece of paper nearby:

Coming from an illustration/animation background where we could draw and create everything the way we wanted it to look, I was really impressed by the resourcefulness of theatre. If you wanted something to look a certain way, you had to either buy it, borrow it or re-appropriate something you already have:

We can't forget the not-so-small task of actually building and painting the set. Our humble beginnings:

Because of limited time, several things needed to happen all in short order... frequently overlapping. We used white organza to act as a sort of scrim. It would be white and opaque when lit a certain way for Baptista's mansion and function like a wall. When we got to Petruchio's ranch, the scrim would become transparent and open to suggest the great outdoors. I wanted the whole set to be a larger metaphor for Kate's personal journey. In Baptista's mansion, before meeting Petruchio, her world would be more confined and hemmed in with the opaque walls of the mansion. At Petruchio's ranch, she finds herself in a foreign and open environment that is very rough and tumble. By the time she returns to Padua, she is a new Kate of confidence rather than reactionary against her environment. I wanted the environment to reflect these changes within her and scrim seemed to be a good solution.

However, to achieve that we needed about 70 yards of organza and multiple curved pipes to be suspended across the theatre. The starry night sky that helped designate whenever the story was held outdoors had to be curved to follow the curving walls of the mansion:

Yes. The elliptical, spiralling, widening stairs had to be built one step at a time, stacked, bolted together, then painted over:

Meanwhile, the floor pattern was being painted whenever there was a stretch of time that it could dry before more people came on to the stage to build things, rehearse, set lights, etc. Basically, things were getting painted as they were being built:

At times, it seem impossible, but somehow it all came together with the magic of theatre....

Lucentio and Tranio arrive in Padua.

Baptista Mignola of Mignola Monumental Pictures holds a private screening at his mansion introducing up-and-coming stars.

Lucentio and Tranio crash Baptista's private screening and Lucentio falls in love with Bianca at first sight.

Lucentio disguises himself as a tutor to be near Bianca. Bianca has an interesting idea of what studious attire means.

Note the texture and glitter on the podium. We had to scrape the texture in by hand with a trowel and blew glitter onto white paint while it was still wet. It looked beautiful and sparkled rotating and transforming into and out of Petruchio's ranch set.