Q&A with ‘Snow White’ Scenic Designer Misha Kachman
This is not your usual “Once Upon a Time.” Classic? No. Wild? Yes! Get to know Scenic Designer Misha Kachman and how he created the world of ‘Snow White.’
CTC: How did you begin your process for designing the set for Snow White?
Misha: “I begin by reading the script. But reading the script, particularly when you’re working with a director who is also a playwright, only takes you so far. Speaking to Greg was the starting point; this is the first time I’m working with him and it was critically important for me to pick his brain first, to get an idea of how he sees the theatre form… Get some emotional response, sense of mood, tone, musical register we’re operating in. Also, getting an answer to the question I usually pose to directors and producers: why are we doing this? Why tell this story and why now? After that I went to my studio and started pacing up and down, sometimes stopping to sketch a doodle or two…”
CTC: How would you describe your style of design? What do you enjoy most about being a set designer?
Misha: “I’m probably not the right person to describe my own style in verbal form, partially because I spend a lot of time and effort making sure that I treat each script on its merits, ideally inventing a whole new toolkit every single time I’m doing a show. I tend to think of my own work in negative rather than in affirmative terms, defining what I’m not rather than what I am. Scenography, like other art forms, is prone to fashions and fads. Hopefully, there’s no such thing as ‘Misha’s design move’ or ‘Misha’s aesthetic.’ I have a taste rather than a style. My goal is to design rather than decorate. Scenery for me is a term of abuse. A true design is an emotional and sculptural response to the story that the show can’t happen without.
“What I enjoy most… Dealing with texts, words on the page. And with people. Also, seeing something that had started as an irresponsible doodle or a randomly folded piece of illustration board be realized as a set, manifested in steel and lumber. I’m constantly bemused by the fact that people would trust me with this sort of thing.
“The most important (and perhaps the only worthwhile) task that I have as a theatre artist is to advance our art form, to the best of my ability.”
CTC: Where did you turn to for inspiration before creating the topsy-turvy world of Snow White?
Misha: “Mostly to the script itself. I confess that I don’t normally do ‘visual research’ (the way they teach you at theatre school) but rather try to come up with a big gesture of the design on my own and then look up and research the details as needed. I don’t look things up online or in books when I’m looking for inspiration.”
CTC: Can you describe the process of designing the upside down tree and what it took to make it look and feel real?
Misha: “I sketched it and then spent a lot of time making preliminary models, trying to get the proportions and the scale of the tree right. After that comes drafting and devising the texture to make it look real, like a real — although bizarre — thing, rather than a piece of scenery. Then comes the turn of all the artisans whose job is to make it happen.”
CTC: When you were designing the set for Snow White, how did you think of ways to be playful and imaginative to fully immerse the audience into the action of the play?
Misha: “The spatial setup — a super thrust — is key here.”
CTC: Throughout the play we discover that the Queen lied about the outside world as being a foreign and unsafe environment. How does your set design distinguish between the world within the castle walls and the forest where Snow White meets the seven dwarfs?
Misha: “The world of the set is warm, cozy, safe, cute, protected and small, on a human scale. The foreign and unsafe environment of the hostile outside is represented by the theatre space itself; its cinder block walls, the ceiling grid, and we rely on lights to take us from here to there and back.”
CTC: What is your favorite scenic design element in Snow White and why?
Misha: “The tree stumps, without question. Mostly because you can’t really stage the show without them.”
CTC: What are some of the main reasons a set design could change? Do you anticipate your design changing?
Misha: “The paint and texture treatment of the surfaces on the set, its hue and saturation, is certainly subject to change. I look forward to seeing all visual elements (costumes, set, and lighting) come together, and considering further adjustments. As I usually say to my collaborators, this is why we have tech rehearsals.”
CTC: For those inspired to become a scenic designer, when did you get inspired to be a scenic designer, and how did you make your dream a reality?
Misha: “Well, I was brought up as a studio artist, classically trained. My advice is always to try to think of yourself as a visual artist who happens to do theatre as opposed to a ‘theatre professional.’ Being just the latter feels very limiting to me.”
Misha has worked at Arena Stage, Asolo Rep, Baltimore Center Stage, Cincinnati Playhouse, Court Theatre, Filarmónica de Jalisco, The Kennedy Center, Olney Theatre Center, Opéra royal de Versailles, Pasadena Playhouse, Portland Center Stage, Seattle Rep, Signature, Syracuse Stage, The Wilma Theater, and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, among many others.
— Article by Tyler Quam
See the magic unfold on stage in Snow White starting September 29! Get tickets today!
