ABSTRACT
The dominating presence onstage for any production you direct is not the actors, the script or the score. In reality, the one omnipresent element is the visual experience – primarily the scenic, costume and lighting designs. So, working with the respective designers to express the world of your musical cohesively and with a clear relationship to your interpretation is one of the most important steps toward the show’s success. Once you’ve clarified your ideas about the show, you can bring your design collaborators on board. The central designers you’ll always work with are the scenic designer, costume designer and lighting designer. You’ll probably also work with a sound designer (or at least a sound engineer) and possibly with a projection designer (whose work includes collaboration with both the scenic and lighting designers). In this chapter we’ll focus on the design process for the first three. We’ll spend some time exploring a process to work with each of them, finding out what you can expect in the relevant design dialogue.
