ABSTRACT
A play can happen without scenery, but there is always at least one performer to be considered, and that performer has to wear something. A scenographer has to earn, develop and maintain the trust of the performers, who, night after night, have to go out onto the empty dark stage, and with total confidence recreate the vision for a half-seen audience. There are two principal aspects: working with the performer to help him or her create the role, and working with the director to help place the performer dynamically and actively in the stage space. The use of a group of performers as a chorus of comment or dissent, occupying the arena and confronting the audience, is a device as powerful as it was in the ancient Greek theatre, and is often used in opera. Naturally, performers feel extremely vulnerable when they are looking at their near-naked selves in a harshly lit mirror.
