The scenery must fit the requirements of the script.

• Is the play inside, outside or both?
• Where is the action taking place: a home, a castle, a garden?
• What are the needs of the show?
• Do actors need to make entrances or exits through a door?
• Is there a lot of physical movement in the play that needs a large, open area?
• Are there scene changes where sets have to be designed to change quickly and easily?
• What is the mood of the play?
• Warm and inviting?
• Cold and frightening?
• Happy or sad?

Setting the stage
Flat: an oblong wooden frame with canvas stretched over it and nailed on. Flats are painted and joined together to make walls onstage.

Ground rows: flats lain on their sides to make low scenery. Sometimes ground rows are made of plywood.

Box set: flats used to make three sides of a room. The audience looks at the set from the open fourth side.

Backdrop: a painted cloth hung across the stage as scenery. Usually backdrops can be raised and lowered by ropes and pulleys from the space above the stage.

Set models
Set designers often make scale models of their sets. This gives the director, technicians and actors a chance to see what it will look like. That way everyone has a chance to discuss any problems or difficulties the actors might have with it before the real thing is built.

Costumes need to fit in with the color and style of the set.

Looking at a model, the lighting designer can plan where lamps should be placed.

The ground plan
The ground plan is a view of the scenery from above the stage.

Elevation
The elevation drawing shows how the scenery will look to the audience.

Scenic model
A designer prepares a model of the set to see how it will look 3-dimensionally.

The carpenters use the ground plan, elevation and model to build the scenery.