Props and Set Pieces

These are sketches of the props and set pieces that will hopefully enhance the theme and style of the piece.

I have also added them in response to the narrative.  

In my final design for my model box I have excluded these items as I feel they are too cumbersome for the set and would be an aesthetic distraction from the intense themes of the play. The pot could still be included but as a prop instead. 

Mood Board

This plastic pot that once held cupcake cases is a cost effective way
to create the base for my sewing basket. I will glue wool around the edges of it and in the inside to create a woven effect. I will then use card strips with my wood texture paper glued on to them to create a handle. I will then use fine liner or 'Copic' pens to add detail.

 

This brown paper will be used to create a smooth clean layer on the bed, sides of the platforms, cupboard and the doors panels. It acts as a layer between the construction and the paint so I can layer on the paint smoothly. I found this paper in Morrisons for 50p.

 

I am going to use these book covers as the top of my platforms as they are sturdy and with help me achieve a  clean surface to paint on. I also going to use more book covers for the bed base.I found very cheep on (1)Gum Tree in a box of 100 books for £22. This book is the perfect shape for the bed base. I am using this book because it fits into the theme of the play  and the over all style I am trying to create with my set. My play is set in rural Spain in or around the year 1934. This is a very simple time where ideals were simple and people used theatre and story telling as an escape. The poet who wrote this play was very passionate about theatre and writing as a form of escapism or trying to communicate a political agenda. I am using this book as the bed base as it lays a foundation for the main protagonist. She wants a child to be conceived here however it cannot thus being a fantasy in her head (a story).

I am going to use the spines of the book as decoration to further the fanciful theme I am trying to show through the set. 

These strips of cardboard are going to be used to reinforce the platforms and any of the units I am going to build along side this.

I am going to use a range of autumn colours to paint my set as these colours have connotations of comfort and warmth. I am trying to create a certain dream like mood with my set design that engages the audience into a entranced and comforting atmosphere. I also feel that this paint will work well with the lighting I am going to use in my lighting design as the o/w and warm straw colours will bounce of the painted surfaces to add to the mood I am trying to create for the audience. 

As my play has certain religious themes I am going to include a statuette of Madre Santa which is the Spanish translation of "The Holy Mother of God". The society Yerma was born into believes that she does not fulfil her 'duties' as a woman if she does not have a child. I believe that Yerma wants to be seen in her image and feels that she must have a child.  She eventually surrenders to a pagan woman and commits murder in the end of the play which is sinful. I am putting this statuette in the play as an enigma for the auidence so they try and understand where Yermas roots are and how important and culturally significant the ending is. Especially in terms of womens rights and independant thought.

Act 3 : Final Scene

Pagan Woman:  But you've got a pair of legs to walk out of your house?!

Yerma: To walk out?

Pagan  Woman: When I saw you on the pilgrimage, my heart turned over. Women come here to find another man, and the saint works the miracle. My son is sitting behind the shrine, waiting. My house needs a woman. Join up with him and we'll all three live together. My son has good blood in his veins. Like me. You'll find the smell of babies still there. if you come to my house. Your bed of ashes will turn to bread and salt for your little ones. Go On! Never mind what people say. As for your husband, we've got the guts and the weapons to stop him even crossing the road."

 

I would also like to mod- rock and reproduce this candle pot for an urn. I am adding in this prop because Yerma being a woman in the mid 1900's in Spain would have had to travel to get water from the local river or olives from an olive grove. 

I am using a very thin materiel for Yermas bed covers that is golden. Gold is seen as a rich and powerful colour. I feel that this translates how powerful she feels emotionally.

I am going to paint these skewers black for the bed posts. 

I will use a glue gun and glue to stick together any of the set pieces to the base as it forms a secure and discreet seal.  

As a moodboard is very delicate I am going to use a paper that I found in Paperchase that has to look of wood instead of actual wood as I would still like to look and effect the wood has for the flooring and the tops of the platforms but not the weight of it or the difficulty I would have of cutting very small pieces from it. 

Flowers have a very fanciful, graceful and 'womanly touch' in Spain. They promote health and good prosperity in your home. As well as fertility and rebirth. I will decorate my set and the accidence space with these  flowers to further my translation of the plays themes. 

I am going to use ripped up old books to decorate the edges of the flooring of my set. I am doing this to again translate how fanciful the play is. I also feel that Lorcas plays always have something that is unusual and dramatic about the sets to remind the audience that it is a work of fiction that has important cultural and emotional statements to make, however subtle they are. 

I am also going to use watercolours to tint the pages with brown and yelllow stains to add a sense of history and layers to the set. I believe that this effect can translate the time and setting of the play to the auidence but they are still able to recieve the messages the play has. It will not date the text. 

Additional Links

(1) Gumtree is a social media sell and swap sites that allows users to put up their own goods for sale.  You can be local or far away. I used pay pal to buy these books.

Notes

 Synopsis

Yerma is a play by the Spanish dramatist Federico García Lorca. It was written in 1934 and first performed that same year. Lorca describes the play as "a tragic poem." The play tells the story of a childless woman living in rural Spain
 Although critics speculate that Yerma kills her husband in the end because he is a frugal, economically driven man who has no desire to have children, the play is indeterminate on this issue. She kills him at a hermitage, a religious place with the possibility of fertility. However he has already shown no desire to have children, so there is no evidence that he would have changed his mind at the festival.


Act 1 : Scene 1
"When the curtain rises, Yerma is asleep with a sewing basket at her feet. The stage is bathed in a strage dreamlike light."

Even though it is not suggested in the play directions that there is a bed. I have decided to include a bed as she is constantly 'dreaming' and hoping for a child. Also in this scene she is supposed to be asleep.

After researching Spanish homes in the 1930s I have decided I would like to have vines and flowers from the seats and all around the stage to en capture the audience into the style and setting of the play.

I would like to use the sections and walk ways for the audience as walkways for the actors. This engages the audience into the performance and makes them feel part of the experience.
I am going to there for decorate and paint these areas to match the stage and further the intent.
As you can see in this seating plan from the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester there are many walk ways  that the actors could use to surprise and engage the audience. If I were to do this professionally I would work with the director to achieve this.

As I am wanting Yermas sewing basket to be a main prop piece that is always on stage no matter where she is I would like there to be baby clothes she is making in the basket. I would like this because there are many references to her wanting a child and the sewing basket.
A1: Scene 1
" The husband leaves, and Yerma moves towards her sewing, passes her hand over her belly, raises her arms in a graceful yawn and sits down to sew. "


Act 2: Scene 1
 "The rushing stream where the village woman do their washing. The Washerwomen are ranged on various levels."
I am going to include various platforms on different levels. This is done to fill the stage entirely so that it frames the space. Each woman will be on a different level. I will use a wood like materiel to create these with cardboard and glue. I am going to use wood to add to the naturalistic style and theme I am trying to create.

The play also mentions a stream in the very beginning of act two. I do not want to create a stream as I feel that this will distract from the audiences perception of the characters and their emotions. I would work with the sound designer and lighting designer to create an audio and lighting(visual) style.

 Act 2: Scene 2

"Yerma's house. It is growing dark. Jaun is seated. The two sisters are standing."

Even though this part of the play mentions that Jaun in supposed to be seated. As we have a bed and lower platforms they could double for seating.

 As I am setting the play inside rather than outside of Yermas house. (Which is where the play is usually set in previous adaptations.) However I feel that because the play is about internal emotions and turmoil that the play should be set inside the house.
"The two sisters appear in the doorway."
I am their for creating a door way with a working door for when people enter in through to say things to Yerma. I am going to leave the back of the empty so that light can shine through the door way to suggest day and night.

Scale Drawings

These are some set pieces I may include in my set, I have drawn them to the Ratio of  1:75.

3D Design

2D Design

This is a birds eye view of my set. The aim of this is to enhance the carpenter, director and set painters ability to translate my vision to real life.  As a Set Designer I will have worked from a design brief that will have come from artistic director or director. If possible the writer will also have had some input in to the final decision.