Scenic Design for IU Theatre & Drama's Suddenly Last Summer

Department of Theatre & Drama: Season 1999-2000
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Suddenly Last Summer

Designing the Scenery
Notes on the Scenic Design for Suddenly Last Summer

In the IU Department of Theatre and Drama production calendar, the major design work for the first fall production takes place in the spring, before the end of the semester. Here are notes related to the development of the scenic design for our October 1999 production of Tennessee Williams's Suddenly Last Summer.

First Meeting, March 25, 1999

Wes Peters, the head of the scenic design program, is the designer for this show. He passes out a conceptual ground plan and shares his research and preliminary renderings. This is a meeting to share ideas and get reactions from the director and other designers. At this point the set may be be flanked in darkness with one area being pristine white. Wes wants to use a traditional Victorian, Southern house, and he shares images of New Orleans houses that, he feels, represent his design ideas.

The set will represent Sebastian's garden at the back of the house, and Wes wants to use plants to create a haunting look to the environment--a steamy, hazy look that is out of harmony with the formality of the house itself.

Second Meeting, April 8

In this stage of the set's development, Wes and Howard had worked out a design that would allow the house almost to disappear behind garden walls. The windows in the house would be smaller than the first versions of the setting. Backing the set at stage right is a patch of sky; the remainder of the backing is very dark and black.

Preliminary details are decided on here: the furniture will consist of a large chair, stage right, and two chairs and a table stage left. We'll use natural mulch for the ground around the sides of the set itself. The walls will be dark and mouldy: the garden, since Sebastian's death, will have been untended. It has been left to go wild.

Third meeting, April 22

The design has solidified here, and Wes shares a ground plan, section views, and perspective drawings with the rest of the production team. The furniture will be unpainted wicker and will include a setee (stage left), a sofa, 3 side chairs (armed or side) and 1 side table (all stage right). Large planters will help frame the picture and hide the proscenium doors.

Here is Wes Peters's rendering of the set for Suddenly Last Summer (33KB).

Here is a photograph (68KB) from the IU production of Suddenly Last Summer, showing the finished set.