Unmasking Theatre Design: A Designer's Guide to Finding Inspiration and Cultivating Creativity

<p>Every great design has its beginnings in a great idea, whether your medium of choice is scenery, costume, lighting, sound, or projections. <i>Unmasking Theatre Design</i> shows you how to cultivate creative thinking skills through every step of theatre design - from the first play reading to the finished design presentation. This book reveals<i> how</i> creative designers think in order to create unique and appropriate works for individual productions, and will teach you how to comprehend the nature of the design task at hand, gather inspiration, generate potential ideas for a new design, and develop a finished look through renderings and models. The exercises presented in this book demystify the design process by providing you with specific actions that will help you get on track toward fully-formed designs. Revealing the inner workings of the design process, both theoretically and practically, <i>Unmasking Theatre Design</i> will jumpstart the creative processes of designers at all levels, from student to professionals, as you construct new production designs.</p> <p>Introduction </p><p>Part One: Theatre and Design</p><p>Chapter 1: The Nature of Theatre</p><p>Chapter 2: The Designer’s Goal</p><p>Chapter 3: Two Key Elements of Any Design</p><p>Chapter 4: The Designer's Expressive Tools</p><p>Part Two: Deconstructing the Creative Process</p><p>Chapter 5: Thinking About Thinking</p><p>Chapter 6: Idea Generation</p><p>Chapter 7: Defining the Creative Process </p><p>Part Three: Putting Theory into Practice</p><p>Chapter 8: Creative Process/Design Process</p><p>Chapter 9: Fallacies about the Design Process</p><p>Chapter 10: Essential Activities for the Designer</p><p>Part Four: Unpacking the Design Process</p><p>Chapter 11: Comprehend the Nature of the Design Problem</p><p>A. Play Reading</p><p>B. Embrace the Production Limitations</p><p>Chapter 12: Gather Inspiration</p><p>A. Play Analysis</p><p>B. Visual Research</p><p>Chapter 13: Invent Solutions</p><p>A. [Good] Design Ideas</p><p>B. [Good] Design Expressions</p><p>Chapter 14: Develop the Work</p><p>Chapter 15: Present the [Best] Solution</p><p>Chapter 16: When You Get Stuck</p><p>Chapter 17: <i>Dracula, </i>a Case Study of a Complete Design Process</p><p>Part Five: Putting it All Together</p><p>Chapter 18: Collaboration </p><p>Chapter 19: Personal Factors</p><p>Chapter 20: Designers of Dreams</p><p>Appendix: Supplemental Exercises and Information</p><p>A. More Play Reading Exercises</p><p>B. More Play Analysis Exercises</p><p>C. More Design Expression Exercises</p><p>D. More Development Exercises</p><p>E. More Presenting the [Best] Solution Exercises</p><p>F. More Courage, Commitment and Focus Exercises</p><p>G. More Introvert/Extrovert Exercises</p><p>H. Design Conferences Unpacked</p><p>Suggested Reading</p><p>Software Resources</p><p>End Notes</p><p>Production Credits </p>