Thursday, July 28, 2011

A View of A View From The Bridge with Scenic Designer Oliver Luke

Today we spend a few minutes with Scenic Designer Oliver Luke as he discusses the long journery he and director Adam Adolfo have had in getting a firm grasp on design for A View From The Bridge.

In approaching the design for A View from the Bridge my first thought was to start literal and make it a traditional set.

However after pouring over designs of previous productions, reading the script and researching the time period, I had hit a roadblock. The designs I was working on just didn't feel right. The designs seem to be missing something. The designs just didn't seem to flow, or feel inspired.

When director Adam Adolfo first asked for the designs he had given me a packet of research and a color scheme, he wanted something to embody this dark oily image of dirty water, yet still containing some muddled blues and greens. The problem was the feel of the colors and the designs of the set just didn't seem to work in a traditional setting and design.

So after weeks of racking my brain trying to come up with something interesting but conventional I was still stumped. Then one Sunday morning weeks ago Adam and I sat down and started discussing our concerns and the fact that we both just weren't happy with the looks of my designs - they all just seemed to be missing something we could not put our fingers on. Then suddenly it hit us both - but at different times.

One of the reasons I like designing for Adam is that we both seem to be on the same page when it come to creative inspiration. Adam suddenly turned to his computer and started looking up images of early New York, picture after picture the ideas started to form between us and he handed me one image in particular. It was a picture done in charcoal of the cities building and the bridge, and then he handed me a second picture one of just the iconic Brooklyn Bridge.

At that moment we both come to the conclusion, it needed to be the bridge. We would take the title and idea behind it literally creating a beautiful metaphor, the set would be the bridge. So as I sit writing this blog I now have the daunting, yet exciting task of interpreting and recreating the bridge for this show. It will be fun!

~Oliver Luke

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