Julius Caesar
Set designer
This particular project was one that I took part in at university. All of the students on my course were assigned a play/production to create a set design for, and then the tutors/directors would choose their favourite and that one would get built for the university's performance of said play by the students on the acting course. Needless to say, mine didn't win. I think it was due to the fact that building my set would have cost an extortionate amount of money, money that the university just didn't have (or at least that's what I've been telling myself). However, I'm still very proud of this particular set design and more importantly the 1:25 scale model box that I created of it.
For this set, I wanted to mimic the crumbling of Caesar's character throughout the play by creating a derelict, dilapidated set that mirrored his story of demise. I wanted most if not all of the set to be coloured in the same stone shades, to make use of some great lighting design that would accentuate each crack and crevice in the set. Having my mother's home so close to Bath, Somerset was fantastic as I was able to take a trip into town and photograph all of the Roman architecture as inspiration for my own design. After a little more research, sketching up of initial ideas and some advice from my tutor on how I could achieve the look I wanted, I started to construct my model box. For the base of the main set piece, I ended up hacking at a block of stone for several hours to create the bottom five steps, after that I used foam board and mount board to finish the rest of the stairs, and to achieve the window/wall set piece. Below are a few progress pictures of this particular set piece.
After this set piece was completed, I added another smaller set piece to be placed on SL. It was a Roman-style archway with a stone bench underneath. The idea for this set piece was that many different characters could sit under the archway and whisper their secrets and have their many conversations of treason, betrayal, love and war, since this was a overpowering running theme in the play.
