During my penultimate semester of college, I had the opportunity to design the set for MSU’s 2023 touring children’s theatre production, Not All Heroes Wear Capes, written by RJ Magee. Not All Heroes Wear Capes follows Rory, a young student who has recently lost her father, as she wins a meet and greet with her favorite superhero and realizes that the real heroes in our lives are all around us, like our parents and teachers. This was my first time being on the design team for a production, and it was interesting to get to work directly with the director/playwright. He and I had many discussions regarding the set and concept, and I had a lot of liberty in my decisions and the route I went down for research following the first read.

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          Though this is not a very nuanced script, and the set primarily serves to add a colorful backdrop to the actors, I began with script analysis to determine the show's needs. It takes place in three distinct locations- Rory’s bedroom, a classroom, and the meet and greet site. Since the show talks about superheroes, I wanted the set to feel like a comic-book-style coloring book. I found lots of visual research to help communicate the styles and colors I was thinking of, looking more closely at Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, pop art, callouts, and comic book-style panels. Putting together research to present for something like this is very different from research for an academic paper, and there were many resources I used. Many of my images were straight from Google, but I also checked out a few physical comic books for inspiration. I also spent a lot of time looking through Roy Lichtenstein’s body of work on a site upheld by his foundation, as well as the MOMA webpage. Once I had gathered many research images, I shared the beginnings of my concept in our first production meeting and began my preliminary sketches.

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          This production uses a backdrop and blocks year after year for simplicity in travel, so I designed sketches that could be painted onto these pieces. Knowing my three locations, I designed a few more generalized options for the backdrop with set changes to be emphasized by the blocks which would show a bed, desks, and Blast-O-Girl signage for the meet and greet. When I presented my thumbnail sketches, the director requested one distinct panel for each location. My concern with this was that it would be too literal for the production, limiting the actors to one only area at a time, and that the audience of children may get more confused about the location if they were as specific as he was requesting. I offered to bring a few more sketches the next week that abstracted the three locations and made it less literal for the students. To do this, I created several comic panels with one large panel in the middle and brainstormed items that may be in all three locations. I decided on a window, bookshelf, and clock, as well as a city skyline. Whether this would be in their location or not, I’m not sure, but it’s a very common element found in comic books and I figured that a child who loves comic books that much would probably have a poster of the skyline in her room. Then I started playing with placement and color, added in onomatopoetic callouts, presented it to the director, and we had a finalized sketch! I then drafted ground plans and renderings and built a white model before creating transparencies and ultimately painting the set.   

 

          One challenge I encountered late in my process was when I was tracing my design onto the backdrop. When I asked for the dimensions of the backdrop, I was told it was 8’x12’, but when I got it, it was much closer to 8’x16’. Thus, when I centered my design on the backdrop, there was empty space on either side of the design. I chatted with my professor about how he would recommend I fill this space, and ultimately decided to paint the sides black instead of making the center panel wider to fill more of the set with color. Looking back, I wish I had extended the center panel as this would have put the bookshelf and city panel further out from where the action happens in front of the drop so more students would have been able to appreciate the details included. I think it looks very clean with the black panels on the side and adds to the theatrical elements of the set.

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          This production toured from January- March 2023 and had rave reviews from students and teachers alike. According to the performers, some of the students' favorite elements were the fishbowl on the backdrop and the slice of cheese I created for a character to bring to show and tell. I presented a slideshow and poster demonstrating my concept and process for this realized design at the Region 5 Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival on January 25, 2023. I received the “Heart of the Art” award for my work and dedication to the art of theatre. This was a new award this year, and I am proud that the evaluators recognized my dedication to the theatre in the mere 10 minutes I spent presenting. 

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          Working on this production taught me a lot about communicating research, sketches, and processes with the design team of a show to find the best way to suit its needs, how to present completed work to professionals, and how to put together a show. I was supported well by the faculty and design team, and I have a new-found love and appreciation for scene design, especially for children's shows. In conjunction with the skills I learned in my scenic design class, I can see myself designing many other shows in the future, and I believe this experience has equipped me well for my next design opportunity.