The Set-saving Hairpin
A Night at the Opera: The Monkey King Subdues the
The Set-saving Hairpin
aaronyap
A Night at the Opera: The Monkey King Subdues the White Bone Demon opened yesterday, which meant my set and lighting design for this production is close to being finished. Speaking of the set design, most part of the plot took place on stage during a Chinese opera performance, so it is literally a play within a play. To reinforce that idea, my original set design had this cloth portal aimed to look like a stylised representation of a classical Chinese opera stage, complete with Chinese beams, pillars, and panels consisting of the characters “Generals Out” and “Primeres In”.
However, during the spacing rehearsal on Thursday, the production team realised that the pillars created sightlines issues, as well as making the stage smaller, and wanted to scrap the portal. To me, however, this portal is the only set piece on stage that can bring out the notion of a play within a play, and I do not want to cancel it unless absolutely necessary. After much consideration, I thought of “trimming” the pillars so that it would be floating high up, so that they will not hinder performance on the ground. My plan is to flip the excess lengths of the pillars over the flybar, hence shortening the pillars without damaging them (since all the soft goods were rented). However, I did not know exactly how make the adjustments secure enough to not fall off by accident. Fortunately, the tech crew came out with a brilliant idea of pinning the extra fabric together with hair pins.
With this hack, my set was “saved” from elimination, and to be honest, I think they look good too!
Other posts
Walking on Tightrope: Projection Design for “Zhuang Yuan Yu Qi Gai”
I just finished the lighting and projection design for Re
Walking on Tightrope: Projection Design for “Zhuang Yuan Yu Qi Gai”
aaronyap
I just finished the lighting and projection design for Re Xin Opera Association’s first full-length Shaoxing Yue opera show, Zhuang Yuan Yu Qi Gai (roughly translates as “The Scholar and the Beggar”), on 12th June. When I was first approached to design for the show, I questioned myself how to design a “meaningful” LED backdrop system (this questioning process had actually started since The Butterfly Lovers earlier this year).
As a play with a high moral message, designing it the traditional way (creating realistic backdrops as if the LED wall is an extension of the real world), it would be too decorative in nature and passive. After much consideration, I adopted a more graphic design approach, using elements of traditional Chinese book and ink painting art as the set’s key visual. The resultant design consists of visuals in different styles of traditional Chinese fan paintings and traditional book art, which serves to provide a deeper connotation that compliment the storyline, and at the same time giving the performance space a sense of antiquity.
The only problem I faced was that I wasn’t sure if this approach would be something that can go down well with the audience, for it is something unseen before locally, especially so in Chinese opera. Hence it was virtually like walking on a tightrope. Thankfully, the final result was satisfying for me, and the response I received were generally positive.
