Your task is to convey location, mood, background, and theme without a single word—before a story even begins. How is that done? Explore how set designers merge art and engineering to communicate everything an audience needs to know without being told, and everything a director wants to happen without an actor speaking.
This interdisciplinary workshop shows students how performance arts and engineering are interwoven as they explore the creative design process. Students consider what a set needs to communicate and what engineering elements make that possible.
Sounds easy? Come try it out using familiar stories, director constraints, and theatrical limitations, and experience how theatre design combines art and engineering.
Faculty Developer: Dr. Simon Marland, Theatre & Dance
What students do:
Students start by exploring theatre sets and talking about what messages are conveyed instantly, what engineering elements are part of it and what other elements are important considerations in sets. Once they identify these key elements in other sets, they are given a challenge to design their own shadowbox set based on a story and secret constraint.
Background knowledge:
What students learn:
- The design process (plan, build, test, iterate) in a creative context
- How to communicates mood, setting, and theme without words
- The connections between engineering and theatrical design
- Using design constraints to guide creative problem-solving
- Spatial thinking and visual storytelling skills
- Build in 3D considering materials, structure, and stability
- Design careers at the intersection of engineering and art
Connection to research:
Information for teachers:
