Behind the Scenes: Design in Theatrical Storytelling
Artistic Director Charles McMahon and the MOLLY SWEENEY design team share insights into the filmed play’s design
Designing for the theater in its own type of storytelling that works to both support the words and create a world outside of them. For Lantern Theater Company’s newly filmed production of Molly Sweeney by Brian Friel — streaming January 22 through March 7, 2021 — that task meant building an exterior world for a very interior play. Here, Lantern Artistic Director Charles McMahon, Scenic Designer Nick Embree, Lighting Designer Janet Embree, and Costume Designer Leigh Ivory Clark Paradise discuss the design process.
Charles McMahon, Artistic Director: In approaching the set design for our production of Molly Sweeney, there were some very specific challenges that scenic designer Nick Embree and director Peter DeLaurier needed to address. One was to create enough visual variety in the frame to keep the audience engaged, and another is to be able to underscore or reinforce the various stages of the characters’ emotional journeys.
The main action of the story is internal, in that it takes place in the memories of the characters. Imagine a house with many distinct rooms, and the house itself is called memory. It would be possible to place Molly Sweeney in any room, just as it is possible for a friend to sit in your living room and tell you the epic story of traveling around the globe. If your friend is a good storyteller, you will quickly forget the trappings of your living room and without much effort you will create a series of landscapes in your imagination that the story suggests. In this circumstance, it is crucial that nothing visible in the room clash with or overwhelm the delicate act of imagination. This is not so much a problem in your own house, because we are used to ignoring the things we see every day and focusing on the exceptional. In the film of a play, however, what you see in the frame immediately becomes a dominant image. But as storytellers, we want you to be able to shift very quickly between one imaginary environment to another.
Our goal in telling the story of Molly Sweeney was to create a background that was itself distinct and emotionally resonant — but one that did not suggest a mood or locale that would clash with the images of those events that the characters’ stories must evoke. In other words, we needed to create a simple frame that would allow you the audience to create a picture in your own imagination, but a frame that would also be able to change swiftly and subtly when the narrative changed direction.
We decided to base the dominant image on forms in nature, since these forms can give us a clear sense of place while not constraining us with regard to the type of action that can take place in them. Artificial spaces can be formal, casual, slovenly, oppressive, inspiring, cozy, antiseptic, etc., but they cannot be all of these things at once. Natural forms are less constrained in their emotional implications and can therefore create a background that can be both concrete and abstract, adaptable to a wider range of dramatic moments.
Nick Embree, Scenic Designer: We knew from our first design conversation with Peter DeLaurier that he wanted to provide some visual stimulus in the monologues that make up the play. I suggested a textured abstract surface which could provide a bit of visual interest and variety on its own, and would allow different types of lighting effects. Steep angles across the texture would accentuate the texture with bright highlights and deep shadows, while front-angle light would tend to unify and smooth it visually.
Charles McMahon: The main inspiration for the set came from the Cliffs of Moher, a rugged coastal formation in County Clare in Ireland. By folding and puckering muslin fabric we were able to achieve the texture you see, and depending on the angle of the light, either fill the background with deep shadows or to give it a more even tone. The natural texture of the cliffs combining with the movement of shadow from changing angle of the sun, as well the red shift in hue as it sets over the Atlantic, achieve something similar in nature. There is a section of the cliffs that bends inward almost like a bandshell with a rugged crown on top, and our set is quite close to that in shape. When you see the action from a more sideways angle it is as if you are on the coast looking at another person in the bay, half framed by rocky outcropping, and the other half of the image stretching out to a vast and unknowable ocean. If the camera looks straight in, it is similar to the perspective of a boat approaching a person sitting on the shore.
Nick Embree: We needed a way to hide the bottom of the cyclorama and to place instruments to light it from below, so I came up with the idea of a curved wall in front of the textured cyclorama. Peter DeLaurier shared a picture of his parents sitting on a rock-slab bench on a trip to Ireland, and we decided to match that bench.
Charles McMahon: The stone benches in the scenic design are a mix of natural form and human artifice — very similar to the kind of masonry one would see in Donegal — but they are small, low, and darkly lit, so the influence of human handiwork is still in the picture but not able to dominate.
Another feature of the set that I think supports the action well is the concavity of the shape. Psychologically it suggests a small, protected space where a delicate action can unfold: a cave, inside an egg, the interior of a human skull, an eyeball with a field of retinal tissue in the back… who knows? Nature abounds in circular forms, and they can have deep suggestive power, while allowing for great narrative flexibility.
As always in theater, the lighting design works together with the scenic and costume design. From a practical standpoint of filming a play we decided to employ a cyclorama, which is essentially a large reflective surface, usually light-colored fabric, that can allow a lighting designer to change the dominant background color of the set from one scene to the next, or even to subtly and imperceptibly change the heat and tone of a scene while it is happening, in order to accent key dramatic passages.
Janet Embree, Lighting Designer: As the set was painted in a light but neutral palette, lights were used to highlight the emotional arc of each character. I used a base lighting look to accentuate what I felt was an overarching tone for each character, and then shifted the look when appropriate for the arc of the character.
Charles McMahon: Janet selected a deep blue for Molly Sweeney, warm earth tones for Frank Sweeney, and a burgundy for Mr. Rice. The lighting was adjusted as the atmosphere of each monologue changed. For instance, the colors of her family’s garden are slowly introduced during Molly’s first monologue and return for final monologue. A golden glow is visible as Mr. Rice reminisced about his time in Cairo. Sometimes when a monologue goes particularly dark in feeling, the lighting design follows. Occasionally, you will see a clear white pattern on the cyclorama over the base color to brighten a particularly happy moment.
Janet Embree: Because of Covid, we never actually had the actors on stage at the same time (very unusual!). As the play is written, the characters never interact with each other directly, but they do share the same emotional space. So, in order to keep the idea that the characters are all dynamically in the space together, we wanted to glow the actors who aren’t speaking, to show that they are all connected. This was quite challenging, as we were filming and lighting the actors in a scenario that never actually happened.
Leigh Ivory Clark Paradise, Costume Designer: I used the text and what the characters said about each other and about themselves to get an understanding of the kind of person they were. Clothes are a form of expression, so my choices are made from the place of what would this person choose to wear and why. My understanding of Molly was that she was practical and strong. I was also aware that she would not have been able to see to select clothing, that someone would have needed to describe pieces to her. I looked for softer fabrics that I felt fit her personality. For Frank, I tried to design nods to all his misadventures, and mostly I knew his pieces should be practical and hardy. Mr. Rice I understood to be a man who used to be very proud, and who would like to feel proud again. I imagined him still having the suits from his high-flying days, but now they’re shabbier. His look is timelessly classic and also drab.
Charles McMahon: These design decisions arise from a long iterative process between the director, the designers, the Lantern’s artistic leadership, and, most importantly, the text itself. In the end we hope to come up with something that evokes an ongoing creative evolution from the actors and the film makers as we try to bring to you, the audience, some of the power and mysterious intelligence that we feel in the script.
More behind the scenes: The Molly Sweeney cast and creative team on making theater in the age of Covid-19
Molly Sweeney was filmed at St. Stephen’s Theater in Center City Philadelphia in fall 2020, with strict adherence to all CDC, state, and local health and safety guidelines, and is streaming January 22 — March 7, 2021. Visit our website for tickets and information.
