Scenic design is the creation of theatrical

Theatre

Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...

, as well as film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

 or television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 scenery

Theatrical scenery

Theatrical scenery is that which is used as a setting for a theatrical production. Scenery may be just about anything, from a single chair to an elaborately re-created street, no matter how large or how small, whether or not the item was custom-made or is, in fact, the genuine item, appropriated...

. Scenic designers have traditionally come from a variety of artistic backgrounds, but nowadays, generally speaking, they are trained professionals, often with M.F.A.

Master of Fine Arts

A Master of Fine Arts is a graduate degree typically requiring 2–3 years of postgraduate study beyond the bachelor's degree , although the term of study will vary by country or by university. The MFA is usually awarded in visual arts, creative writing, filmmaking, dance, or theatre/performing arts...

 degrees in theatre arts.

The stage

The "stage picture" is the "look" or physical appearance of the stage for a play, whether in rehearsal or performance

Performance

A performance, in performing arts, generally comprises an event in which a performer or group of performers behave in a particular way for another group of people, the audience. Choral music and ballet are examples. Usually the performers participate in rehearsals beforehand. Afterwards audience...

. It reflects the way that the stage

Stage (theatre)

In theatre or performance arts, the stage is a designated space for the performance productions. The stage serves as a space for actors or performers and a focal point for the members of the audience...

 is composed

Composition (visual arts)

In the visual arts – in particular painting, graphic design, photography and sculpture – composition is the placement or arrangement of visual elements or ingredients in a work of art or a photograph, as distinct from the subject of a work...

 artistically in regard to props

Theatrical property

A theatrical property, commonly referred to as a prop, is an object used on stage by actors to further the plot or story line of a theatrical production. Smaller props are referred to as "hand props". Larger props may also be set decoration, such as a chair or table. The difference between a set...

, actor

Actor

An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

s, shapes and colours. The stage picture should express good principles of design

Design

Design as a noun informally refers to a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system while “to design” refers to making this plan...

 and use of space. It should be visually appealing for the audience

Audience

An audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art, literature , theatre, music or academics in any medium...

 or should express the show's concept.

Responsibility

The scenic designer is responsible for collaborating with the theatre director and other members of the production design team to create an environment for the production and then communicating the details of this environment to the technical director

Technical director

The Technical Director or Technical Manager is usually a senior technical person within a software company, film studio, theatrical company or television studio...

, production manager, charge scenic artist and propmaster

Property master

The property master is an artistic and organizational employee in a film, television or theatrical production who is responsible for purchasing, acquiring and/or manufacturing any props needed for a production...

. Scenic designers are responsible for creating scale model

Scale model

A scale model is a physical model, a representation or copy of an object that is larger or smaller than the actual size of the object, which seeks to maintain the relative proportions of the physical size of the original object. Very often the scale model is used as a guide to making the object in...

s of the scenery, renderings

Artistic rendering

Rendering in visual art and technical drawing means the process of creating, shading, and texturing of an image, especially a photorealistic one. It can also be used to describe the quality of execution of that process...

, paint elevations and scale construction drawings as part of their communication with other production staff.

Training

In Europe and Australia scenic designers take a more holistic approach to theatrical design and will often be responsible not only for scenic design but costume, lighting and sound and are referred to as theatre designers or scenographers or production designers.

Like their American cousins, European theatre designers and scenographers are generally trained with Bachelor of Arts

Bachelor of Arts

A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 degrees in theatre design, scenography

Scenography

-Usage:Whilst also aligned with the professional practice of the scenographer, it is important to distinguish the individual elements that comprise the 'design' of a performance event from the term 'scenography' which is as an artistic perspective concerning the visual, experiential and spatial...

 or performance design.
Notable scenic designers, past and present, include:
Adolphe Appia

Adolphe Appia

Adolphe Appia , son of Red Cross co-founder Louis Appia, was a Swiss architect and theorist of stage lighting and décor.Appia is best known for his many scenic designs for Wagner’s operas...

, Aleksandra Ekster

Aleksandra Ekster

Aleksandra Aleksandrovna Ekster was a Russian-French painter and designer.-Biography:-Childhood:...

, Alexandre Benois

Alexandre Benois

Alexandre Nikolayevich Benois , an influential artist, art critic, historian, preservationist, and founding member of Mir iskusstva , an art movement and magazine...

, Alison Chitty

Alison Chitty

Alison Chitty OBE is an Olivier Award winning production designer and set and costume designer, known for her collaborations with Mike Leigh, Francesca Zambello and Sir Peter Hall. She is also the Director of the Motley Theatre Design Course, a successor to Motley Theatre Design Group...

, Antony McDonald, Barry Kay

Barry Kay

Barry Kay , who studied arts at the Académie Julian in Paris, was a stage and costume designer of international renown...

, Boris Aronson

Boris Aronson

Boris Aronson was an American scenic designer for Broadway and Yiddish theatre. He won the Tony Award for Scenic Design six times in his career.-Biography:...

, Cyro Del Nero

Cyro Del Nero

Cyro Del Nero was an Brazilian scenographer and set designer. Del Nero worked in the theater, television and film industries for more than 50 years. He was also a professor of theatrical costume and stage design at the University of São Paulo.Del Nero was born in Brás, a district in Sao Paulo...

, Daniil Lider, David Borovsky, David Gallo

David Gallo

David Gallo is an American scenic designer and projection designer for Broadway, off-Broadway, regional, and international theatre venues...

, Edward Gordon Craig

Edward Gordon Craig

Edward Henry Gordon Craig , sometimes known as Gordon Craig, was an English modernist theatre practitioner; he worked as an actor, director and scenic designer, as well as developing an influential body of theoretical writings...

, Es Devlin, Ezio Frigerio, Franco Colavecchia, Franco Zeffirelli

Franco Zeffirelli

Franco Zeffirelli KBE is an Italian director and producer of films and television. He is also a director and designer of operas and a former senator for the Italian center-right Forza Italia party....

, George Tsypin

George Tsypin

George Tsypin is an American sculptor, architect and stage designer .-Early life and education:...

, Howard Bay

Howard Bay (designer)

Howard Bay was an American scenic, lighting and costume designer for stage, opera and film. He won the Tony Award for Best Scenic Design twice.-Career:...

, Inigo Jones

Inigo Jones

Inigo Jones is the first significant British architect of the modern period, and the first to bring Italianate Renaissance architecture to England...

, Jean-Pierre Ponnelle

Jean-Pierre Ponnelle

Jean-Pierre Ponnelle was a noted French opera director.-Biography:Ponnelle was born in Paris. He studied philosophy, art, and history there and, in 1952, began his career in Germany as a theatre designer for Hans Werner Henze's opera Boulevard Solitude...

, Jo Mielziner

Jo Mielziner

Joseph "Jo" Mielziner was an American theatrical scenic, and lighting designer born in Paris, France. He is "the most successful set designer of the Golden era of Broadway", and worked on both stage plays and musicals.-Career:He was the son of artist Leo Mielziner, Sr...

, Josef Svoboda

Josef Svoboda

Josef Svoboda was a Czech artist and scenic designer.Svoboda was born in Čáslav, Czechoslovakia . He began his training as an architect at the Central School of Housing in Prague. At the end of World War II he became interested in theatre and design...

, Ken Adam

Ken Adam

Sir Kenneth Adam, OBE, born Klaus Hugo Adam , is a motion picture production designer most famous for his set designs for the James Bond films of the 1960s and 1970s.-Childhood in Germany:...

, Léon Bakst

Léon Bakst

Léon Samoilovitch Bakst was a Russian painter and scene- and costume designer. He was a member of the Sergei Diaghilev circle and the Ballets Russes, for which he designed exotic, richly coloured sets and costumes...

, Luciano Damiani

Luciano Damiani

Luciano Damiani was an Italian stage and costume designer, who worked both for theatre and opera productions.- Theatre and opera productions :...

, Maria Björnson

Maria Björnson

Maria Björnson was an acclaimed theatre stage designer, born in Paris to Norwegian and Romanian parents....

, Ming Cho Lee

Ming Cho Lee

Ming Cho Lee is a Chinese-born American theatrical set designer and a longtime professor at the Yale School of Drama....

, Motley

Motley Theatre Design Group

Motley was the name of the theatre design firm made up of three English designers, sisters Margaret Harris and Sophie Harris , and Elizabeth Montgomery Wilmot . The name derives from the word 'Motley' as used by Shakespeare...

, Natalia Goncharova

Natalia Goncharova

Natalia Sergeevna Goncharova was a Russian avant-garde artist , painter, costume designer, writer, illustrator, and set designer. Her great-aunt was Natalia Pushkina, wife of the poet Alexander Pushkin.-Life and work:...

, Nathan Altman

Nathan Altman

Nathan Isaevich Altman was a Jewish, Russian and Soviet avant-garde artist, Cubist painter, stage designer and book illustrator who was born, grew up and began his art studies in Ukraine, Russian Empire.-Early life:He was born in Vinnytsia, Russian Empire to a family of Russian...

, Nicholas Georgiadis

Nicholas Georgiadis

Nicholas Georgiadis CBE was a painter, stage and costume designer, renowned for his work in ballet, particularly in collaboration with Kenneth MacMillan.- Early life :...

, Paul Brown, Oliver Smith

Oliver Smith (designer)

Oliver Smith was an American scenic designer.Born in Waupun, Wisconsin, Smith attended Penn State, after which he moved to New York City and began to form friendships that blossomed into working relationships with such talents as Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins, Carson McCullers, and Agnes de...

, Ralph Koltai, Neil Patel

Neil Patel

Neil Patel is a prolific award winning American scenic designer. He has designed productions for theater, opera and dance...

, Robert Brill, Robert Wilson

Robert Wilson (director)

Robert Wilson is an American avant-garde stage director and playwright who has been called "[America]'s — or even the world's — foremost vanguard 'theater artist'". Over the course of his wide-ranging career, he has also worked as a choreographer, performer, painter, sculptor, video...

, Russell Patterson

Russell Patterson

Russell Patterson was a celebrated and prolific American cartoonist, illustrator and scenic designer. Patterson’s art deco magazine illustrations helped promote the idea of the 1920s and 1930s fashion style known as the flapper.Patterson was born in Omaha, Nebraska...

, Brian Sidney Bembridge

Brian Sidney Bembridge

Brian Sidney Bembridge is an American scenic and lighting designer for theater and film. His work has been seen on stages throughout the country and internationally on screen. Mr. Bembridge has also taught and lectured at several universities...

, Santo Loquasto

Santo Loquasto

Santo Richard Loquasto is a Sicilian-Italian-American production designer, scenic designer and costume designer for stage, film, and dance. He is a descendant of Libertino lo Guasto of Serradifalco, Caltanissetta, Sicily. Indy race car driver Al Loquasto was his first cousin...

, Sean Kenny

Sean Kenny (theatre designer)

Sean Kenny was an Irish theatre and film scenic designer, costume designer, lighting designer and director.- Projects :This list is incomplete:* 1957 The Shadow of a Gunman...

, Todd Rosenthal

Todd Rosenthal

Todd Rosenthal is an American scenic designer. He won the 2007 Tony Award for Best Scenic Design and the 2008 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Set Design for Steppenwolf Theatre Company's August: Osage County....

, Robin Wagner

Robin Wagner (designer)

Robin Wagner is an American scenic designer.Born Robin Samuel Anton Wagner in San Francisco, he attended art school and started his career in theatres in that city with designs for Don Pasquale, Amahl and the Night Visitors, Tea and Sympathy, and Waiting for Godot, among others...

, Tony Walton

Tony Walton

Tony Walton is an English set and costume designer.Walton was born in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England, United Kingdom. He began his career in 1957 with the stage design for Noel Coward's Broadway production of Conversation Piece. Throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s he designed for the New...

, and Vadym Meller

Vadym Meller

Vadym Meller or Vadim Meller, was a Ukrainian-Russian Soviet painter, avant-garde Cubist and Constructivist artist, theatrical designer, book illustrator, and architect...

.

Further reading

• Making the Scene: A History of Stage Design and Technology in Europe and the United States by Oscar G. Brockett, Margaret Mitchell, and Linda Hardberger (Tobin Theatre Arts Fund, distributed by University of Texas Press; 2010) 365 pages; traces the history of scene design since the ancient Greeks.

External links

• Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space - the largest scenography event in the world - presenting contemporary work in a variety of performance design disciplines and genres - costume, stage, light, sound design, and theatre architecture for dance, opera, drama, site specific, multi-media performances, and performance art, etc. June 16–26, 2011, Prague, CZ
• Master's Degree in Scenography and Contemporary Cities in Barcelona
• Society of British Theatre Designers Theatre Design
• What is Scenography Article illustrating the differences between US and European theatre design practices

• Stagelink Production and Set Designer Directory
• Josef Svoboda Article on www.scenography.co.uk
• Theatre Set and Costume Design Archive at the University of Bristol Theatre Collection, University of Bristol
  University of Bristol
  The University of Bristol is a public research university located in Bristol, United Kingdom. One of the so-called "red brick" universities, it received its Royal Charter in 1909, although its predecessor institution, University College, Bristol, had been in existence since 1876.The University is...