Lincoln High School Performing Arts Dept.

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead

Set and Lighting Design by Jon Ares.

Fall 2001.

Written by Tom Stoppard. Directed by Carmela Lanza-Weil, Set & Lights by Jon Ares. Nat Bartos, Technical Director.

My original plan for this set was to do a highly-realistic, textured arrangement of the three columns in a sandstone color, but when we learned what colors the available costumes would be, I went to the grey. The Court was dressed in blacks and whites, and the Players were naturally more colorful, and the lighting palette worked with that — very harsh, directional and cold side lighting for the Court, and more colorful, warmer light for the Players. Hamlet got his own directional downlight look, but in the same colors as the Court.

In Act III, the columns were rotated and laid down, and upstage a wall, with crate and barrels, was folded up against the platforms, creating the ship-side look. The actors were able to climb through the barrels and the crate from behind and from below the deck.