As the writers began to develop the script, it was discovered that trying to do a kitchen and record store set would be implausible considering the difficulty posed firstly due to the amount of detail required by the record store, as well as trying to justify having both sets both financially and from a story-line perspective. This led to the thought that the characters may use the record store as a home, as no customers are ever present and all the characters story-line’s revolve around this one location. It was ultimately decided that we would be add features to the record store that reflected that which you would find in your home, such as the chalk board which the characters used for shopping lists/personal messages and the washing line which had pieces of the characters costumes on that they would then remove throughout the play. We also placed a sofa and a blow-up chair, to represent the times, to further add to the ‘homely’ feel of the set and give the appearance that the characters spend a lot of time relaxing in the record store as well.
We decided to use the catwalk to connect the record store to the outside world, as the record store is identified as a key point for the characters within the story-line, and the outside world which to the characters is a scary and mysterious place, with only a few characters left the store. The catwalk is also the only thing that connects the record store to the “impending doom” (Briggs, 2017, 17) of the construction down the theoretical road, that adds to the scariness of the outside world to the characters. In order to display the impending construction, we decided to dress the alcove where the audience enters so that they are aware that construction is happening, but just like the characters, they do not know where or when it will happen. On the catwalk I also wanted to place vinyl box’s to show the divide between when the characters left and entered the record store, and if possible to have a door which the characters would use to show the audience when they left the scene. However, once we got into the space, we realized this was not feasible as it would block some audience members view and would not leave enough room for the actors to walk on the catwalk.
From watching 90’s movies set in record stores, such as Empire Records and High Fidelity, I realized that they contained listening stations which customers could listen to the vinyls before they purchased them. I thought this would fit well within the record store set as well as within the story as once I told the writers they worked it into the story for comedic effect. I took inspiration from Set Designers who had worked on farces, such as Robert Jones, who is “keen to not make [the set] a joke itself” (Johnson, 2002, 16) as the play is already funny. I wanted to do the same, root the set in reality as to not distract the audience from the action happening onstage.
Record Store Vinyl Bin (Pinterest)
From the beginning, I knew I wanted vinyl box’s, such as from the picture above, but wasn’t able to locate any which were within budget and the required style. One group member thankfully offered to construct these boxes from scratch with the help of a skilled carpenter. I provided the measurements for each box, and a rough description and they were able to produce fantastic results as well as going above and beyond to create a shop-front counter for the record store set.
Bespoke Vinyl Box’s (Kick a Pigeon Theatre, 2017)
Works Cited
Briggs, J. (2017) Record ’97. Lincoln: University of Lincoln
Johnson, D. (2002) Farce of Nature Designing Three Very Different (And Very Sturdy) Sets for Noises Off. Entertainment Design, 36 (3)
Kick a Pigeon Theatre (2017) Record ’97. [image] Lincoln Performing Arts Centre: Kick a Pigeon Theatre.
Pinterest Record Store Ideas[blog]. Available from: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/327003622921022534/ accessed 15 March 2017