{"id":606,"date":"2014-03-07T17:56:56","date_gmt":"2014-03-07T17:56:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/?p=606"},"modified":"2014-03-07T17:56:56","modified_gmt":"2014-03-07T17:56:56","slug":"centre-alumna-designs-set-for-spring-production-of-macbeth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/2014\/03\/07\/centre-alumna-designs-set-for-spring-production-of-macbeth\/","title":{"rendered":"Centre Alumna designs Set for spring production of Macbeth"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Laura Humble<\/strong> – Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n

Centre\u2019s campus is abuzz with anticipation for the spring showing of Shakespeare\u2019s Macbeth. The Drama Department is pulling out all the stops this spring by bringing in Centre alumna Krit Robinson \u201909 to design the set. Robinson currently lives and works in New York and has been communicating with the Drama Department via Skype about the design process. The Cento recently caught up to Robinson to find out about her involvement in the play and design decisions.<\/p>\n

Already, she has put a lot of work into the scenic design for Macbeth. The final decision by the design team was to stay with a medieval Scotland setting. \u201c[Director and Professor of Dramatic Arts] Tony Haigh presented the idea of setting it in Medieval Scotland. It was a great design challenge to craft a space that \u2026 could be space that enticed our imaginations and demanded a great physicality of the actors,\u201d Robinson said. \u201c[It was] a space that spoke to us on a subconscious primitive and primeval level.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
An early sketch of Robinson\u2019s set design for Macbeth. The set is currently being constructed in pieces so that actors can rehearse on the set before it is put together in early April. DramaCentre\u2019s production of Macbeth runs Wed., April 23, through Sat., April 26 in Weisiger Theatre<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The design is not purely medieval. \u201cOne of the things I\u2019ve been interested in is the intersection between the historical Macbeth, the period in which the play was written, and our time today. I was also interested in the interplay between the natural, the unnatural, and the supernatural,\u201d Haigh said. Haigh\u2019s artistic vision draws on the atmosphere of smoke and violence during the time in which the play was written, adding to the unnatural and supernatural themes present in the plot.<\/p>\n

So what is the process for building such a set? \u201cLots of frustration and internal confusion,\u201d Robinson said. \u201cEach play, opera, dance piece is [a] sort of continuing puzzle, [and] some are easier and some are harder. The fantastic part of this job is the process changes with each production, and each creative team. Some directors feed you ideas, some are deep collaborations where nobody knows who had what idea first. I love this work because it is so hard. It\u2019s great to give your all to something that can be profoundly rewarding.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA good designer will ask you hard questions with what you\u2019re going to do with a play. That may be a question you haven\u2019t thought of. That may lead you in a direction you hadn\u2019t thought of,\u201d Haigh said about the interaction between a set designer and a director. According to him, Robinson excels in this area. \u201cShe\u2019s a creative dynamo,\u201d Haigh said.<\/p>\n

The set will be very large and composed of a number of moveable parts, somewhat invading the audience\u2019s space to draw them in. It is designed to challenge and excite the actors in the play while taking the audience to an entirely new world.<\/p>\n

Robinson\u2019s interest in scenic design began at a relatively young age. \u201cI designed and built sets in high school. I remember having a revelation that I was meant to travel this path but it took mentors to help verbalize it,\u201d she said. \u201c[I had] both mentors from high school but also [from] Centre. Both [Associate Professor of Dramatic Arts and Chair of Dramatic Arts Program] Matthew Hallock and [H.W. Stodghill, Jr. and Adele H. Stodghill Professor of Art and Chair of Art History & Studio Art Programs] Sheldon Tapley allowed me see the world and the possibilities and pushed me to go after them.\u201d<\/p>\n

And perhaps these mentors are why she has decided to return to her alma mater to complete this six-month long project. \u201c[It is] great to connect with old professors in new and meaningful ways, but I think what is more exciting is the ability to connect with the current student body. Hopefully [it will] be useful to them in some way in the future,\u201d Robinson said.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s already inspired one member of Centre\u2019s student body. Sophomore and Dramatic Arts major Cassie Chambers is currently working as Assistant Scenic Designer and Head Painter on the production of Macbeth. \u201cShe inspires me. She\u2019s a younger person doing what I hope to be [doing] \u2026 It gives me hope,\u201d Chambers said.<\/p>\n

Robinson has the rare ability to use her art to inspire others to do the same. \u201cEven when Krit was a student, she was a very serious artist and had an artist\u2019s sensibility,\u201d Haigh said. \u201cShe was challenging and creative and energizing then, and she\u2019s even more so now.\u201d Today, she serves as one of many examples of students using the skills they learned at Centre to make their mark on the world beyond their undergraduate work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Laura Humble – Staff Writer Centre\u2019s campus is abuzz with anticipation for the spring showing of Shakespeare\u2019s Macbeth. The Drama Department is pulling out all the stops this spring by bringing in Centre alumna Krit Robinson \u201909 to design the set. Robinson currently lives and works in New York and has been communicating with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":607,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-leisure"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}