One of the designers' most important tasks is ensuring the director's needs are met through the development of lighting, costume, and set design. The task is made more interesting when the designers are preparing for a director's final production at a theatre. Robert A. Shakespeare designed the lighting and Fred M. Duer the setting for Howard Jensen's final IU production, The Cherry Orchard. Duer and Shakespeare collaborated with Jensen for months, the two designers offering suggestions, sharing ideas, and creating a set of designs that were both organic and complementary; each designer gave the other elements and features to use and exploit, creating an enviornment for The Cherry Orchard that is theatrically useful, beautiful, and synergistic. We thank them for sharing their work with us below. The comments are taken from the design conferences that defined the world of the production.
One of Fred M. Duer's primary inspirations for The Cherry Orchard sets were the paintings of Magritte. Duer was impressed by the artist's use of space, textures, and the elements of the surreal that Magritte incorporated in his work.
Duer wanted each act to resonate with audiences in a different way, reflecting the changing moods of the play: Act 1 evoked emotion; Act 2, atmosphere; Act 3, hostility; and Act 4 created a feeling of closure.
Duer designed a raked stage that curves upstage, leading to a city scape, which is placed behind a black scrim and revealed in the final act, when the audience will see the city advancing and intruding into the world of nature that the estate has long preserved.
Below are set designs by Fred M. Duer for our production of The Cherry Orchard. When you click on a small image, a larger image will appear.
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| Set- Act 1 | Set- Act 2 | Set- Act 3 | Set- Act4 |
Robert A. Shakespeare took inspiration for his designs from the year he spent living in Finland. He recalled living through 2 A.M. sunrises and the stress that they might bring about, both psychological and biological, and he used this experience to shape and inform the lighting design for the early morning arrival in Act 1 of The Cherry Orchard.
Shakespeare defined Act 1 as an act about clarity, creating a progression from candlelight to sunlight flooding into the windows during sunrise, reflecting the joy of returning home.
Act 2's lighting design supports a romantic atmosphere, which was created by depicting shifts from late afternoon to sunset to night. By the end of the act, the audience will see night fall and faint images of the moon.
Act 3 of The Cherry Orchard returns to the candle light of the house. Additionally, there is a chandelier described offstage, and Rob has designed a plot that will emphasize this intrusion of light from the adjacent ballroom into the playing space.
Shakespeare designed the final act of the play to depict the cold reality of both a Russian October and a world where life is fading away and bleak. The design uses cool white light filtering through the playing space. The progression of the act is paralleled by slowly fading instruments to symbolize the feeling of emptiness and death that conclude the play.
Below are lighting designs by Robert A. Shakespeare for our production of The Cherry Orchard, depicting the design for Act 1's sunrise and the early part of Act 2, when the sun is setting, and the latter part of Act 2, when evening has taken over the world of the play. When you click on a small image, a larger image will appear.
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| Lighting- Act 1 | Lighting- Early Act 2 | Lighting- Late Act 2 |