Four Locations, Eleven Quick Changes and an Accessible Route in a Black Box
You are designing set and lighting for a 70-minute promenade-style production in a black-box studio with 80 seats on two sides and a central playing strip 7m by 3m. The ceiling is 3.2m; the fire officer has banned haze and open flame. The budget is €900 for set and lighting combined. The play moves through four locations: a kitchen, a hospital corridor, a beach, and a courtroom. There are six actors and 11 quick changes, some in under 20 seconds. One actor uses a walking frame and needs a clear, level route from the dressing room to the central strip. The venue has 12 dimmable LED profiles, 6 LED wash units, and no follow spot.
1. Propose a design concept that solves the four locations without a realistic box set. Show how the set, lighting and stage business work together.
Read the worked answer
Concept: a skeletal frame with four 'stations' along the central strip, not four rooms.
- Set: two steel frames that can be turned by the cast, one hospital curtain on a track, a solid bench, and a shallow sand tray. The frames carry no walls; they carry hooks, a rail and a shelf. A kitchen is made by hanging a cloth and a single practical lamp on the frame. The hospital corridor is the curtain and a line of floor tape. The beach is the sand tray and a low side light. The courtroom is the bench turned and a flat top light. The cast makes the changes in view, as part of the promenade rhythm.
- Lighting: use the 12 profiles to create four distinct states rather than four realistic pictures. Kitchen: warm, low, one pool on the bench. Corridor: cool sidelight from both booms, no face light, long shadows. Beach: warm low side and a slow fade, with the wash units at the floor edge. Courtroom: flat, even top light and high side light, no warmth. The absence of haze means beams will not read; so I would rely on colour temperature, angle and intensity, not visible shafts.
- Stage business: a change of location is marked by a sound cue and a company action - the curtain pulled, the bench turned, the sand tray opened. The audience reads the action, not the scenery. That is cheaper and faster than a box set.
2. How would you solve the 11 quick changes and the accessible route within the same budget and floor plan?
Read the worked answer
The two problems are linked because both need clear, marked routes.
Quick changes:
- Design a base costume for each actor with magnetic or hook-and-loop closures, so a change is a pull and a press, not a button and a zip.
- Pre-set two costume rails at opposite entrances, not one central rail. Each rail has the next two changes in order, labelled by actor and scene.
- Use two dressers, not six. Their job is to hold the rail, take the discarded costume and check the next one. Actors do not hunt for pieces.
- Rehearse the changes as choreography, with timings. If a change cannot be done in 20 seconds by the actor and one dresser, redesign it now, not in the dress rehearsal.
Accessible route:
- Keep a 1.2m-wide clear route from the dressing room to the central strip, marked with white tape and lit by a low wash at 30% throughout.
- No cables across the route. Tape and mat every cable, or route them overhead.
- The walking frame needs a level threshold. If there is a lip at the studio door, add a rubber ramp and test it with the actor before the tech.
- The actor's quick changes should be placed at the nearest entrance, not treated as an exception. Access is part of the design, not an add-on.
3. Justify how the lighting can create location and support the actor with a walking frame safely. Address the fire officer's ban on haze and the absence of a follow spot.
Read the worked answer
Without haze or a follow spot, the lighting must work through angle, colour and contrast rather than visible beams or a moving special.
Safety first: keep the accessible route lit at a low level at all times, and never put a lighting state in which the route disappears. Use the LED wash units at the floor edge to wash the route, not to create a dramatic floor pool that the actor might read as an obstacle. All floor units must be cable-taped and matted, and none should sit inside the 1.2m route.
Location through light:
- Kitchen: one warm profile at a steep angle onto the bench, with the rest of the strip in low blue. The actor's face is lit from the side, not the front.
- Corridor: two cool profiles from opposite booms, creating a cross-light. No warm light. The walking frame casts a long shadow, which is useful - it makes the corridor feel institutional.
- Beach: warm low side from the floor wash units, a slow fade to a narrow pool. No haze needed; the change in colour temperature does the work.
- Courtroom: flat top light from the profiles at a high angle, plus even side light. The absence of shadow makes the space feel bureaucratic and exposed.
Supporting the actor: agree the floor pattern in advance and mark the route with small glow-tape dots that are invisible to the audience but visible to the performer. Cue the location changes so that the actor is never asked to move in darkness. The lighting should make the route feel like part of the world, not a safety strip.