Quick questions on Design elements: set, costume, lighting, sound: HSC Drama

Major Australian designers of recent decades include Robert Cousins (set, including major Sydney Theatre Company productions), Stephen Curtis (set and costume), Tess Schofield (costume), Damien Cooper (lighting), Steve Francis and Max Lyandvert (sound). Each has a substantial body of work across the major companies.

Belvoir's Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (2011) used a detailed period Carlton lounge. Belvoir's Medea (2012) used a single white room. The Sydney Theatre Company's Long Day's Journey into Night (2018) used a fully naturalist drawing room.

A set that obstructs sightlines for some of the audience. A set that the cast cannot actually use (impossible exits, dangerous geometry). A set so visually busy that the actors cannot read against it.

Lighting is rigged in the few days before technical rehearsals. The lighting plot (a scale plan) shows every lantern's position, type, focus point and gel. The cue sheet sequences the changes.

Director and all designers meet across pre-production to align on the directorial concept and the production's overall identity.

A palette decided for set is reflected in costume; a lighting choice is supported by a sound decision; a costume change happens in a lighting state that frames it.

The week before opening, all four elements come together with the cast for the first time. Adjustments are made in real time.

Dress rehearsals are partly about integration: noticing what is not yet working between elements and refining.