ABSTRACT
A scenographer is by nature a cultural magpie, delighting in the search for the ephemera of history and sociology. The challenge for the scenographic researcher is to know how to use an individual eye to ferret out the essence of the subject, hunt it down and then decide whether or not to use it. Historical research opens windows onto the world of the play that may not be described in the text, but which nevertheless motivates and affects the characters’ behaviour. Creative research is much more than photocopying black and white pictures out of books, although museum libraries, bookshops, galleries and the Internet are good and obvious starting points. Research sharpens the senses to see and recognize when something can be useful and appropriate. Visual research also reveals the most important icon – the scale of the ordinary mortal to the architecture.
