A set design from 'Miss Annie'. - Contributed

Peter Abrikian, Gleaner Writer

The theatre is a world of illusion. Fantasies foreseen in the minds of playwrights, directors and designers, come to lifefor the audience.

They begin a show with a willing suspension of disbelief, and expectation to be transported to another time or place.

The task of transportation falls squarely on the shoulders of the design team. It is up to them to create the world in which the play's events transpire.

In an effort to better understand more about set design in particular, The Gleaner met with Michael Lorde, award-winning set and costume designer, and asked him to illustrate for us the process behind the illusion, which begins with a thorough reading, rereading and rereading again of the script.

Research

"I read the script several times before I begin to do any form of sketches," Lorde says. Next he does research and immerses himself in inspirational materials which might be related to the script.

For example, for this year's pantomime HOWZATT! - a show not set in a single location, but rather, a non-specific place in the Caribbean at large - he sought the work of Caribbean artists; in particular painters, impressionists and abstract artists.

This segues into a series of sketches which are by no means drawn to scale or in intimate detail. Rather, a general feel of what the set might look like is acquired. At this point, there are several meetings with the rest of the team. Director, playwright, costume designer, and lighting designer are all consulted. Their input is garnered and once again, Mr. Lorde returns to the drawing board.

Of course, the detail work is next. Lorde uses a cad program (VectorWorks) to draw his designs to scale. When construction drawings are finished, and he has turned over his designs to the team who will do the manual labour, the bulk of his work is done. After construction is complete he does return to the scene to do some painting and texturing himself but this too, is a shared task.

Memorable sets and moments

photos Michael Lorde

With a general understanding of the design process achieved, The Gleaner went on to ask Mr. Lorde to name a few of the more memorable sets and moments from his design career. Here are his worst and his favourites.

"You asked about one of the worst moments for me as a designer. Well," Lorde reflected, "we took Miss Annie (the 2002/2003 LTM pantomime) to Toronto and had the set shipped. But it was shipped to Haifa, Israel instead of Halifax, Canada . We didn't get the set until two hours before the show was supposed to go up. According to the rules of that theatre, we couldn't unload anything from the container so close to show time. So that audience saw the show with an entirely different set than the Jamaican audience."

His favourite sets? Combolo and Miss Annie. Combolo, he also classed as his most difficult. This was largely due to the challenge of the opening scene which involved a sailing vessel circa the 1500s and a great expanse of ocean. Not only was his achievement in this realm astonishing ( The Gleaner had the pleasure of viewing a video clip of his work), but his genius was recognised in the form of an Actor Boy award.

Michael Lorde is a senior architect at Marvin D. Goodman and Associates. He also lectures part time in the Caribbean School of Architecture at UTech. Designing sets and costumes is a hobby. He has won six Actor Boy awards for his work.