This project was for a graduate level design class at the University of Tennessee during the Fall Semester of 2013.
Mary Stuart by Freidrich Schiller is a character driven drama. It is expected that from a design standpoint the costumes will take center stage. The challenge from a scenic design viewpoint is to create a world that captures the mood and the grandeur of the play but does not get in the way of the actors and their beautiful costumes. I chose to start with textures. To me it seemed that Mary Stuart and Elizabeth the First were very similar. They were reflections of each other but reflections viewed through a tarnished silver mirror. The texture of a heavily tarnished mirror informs the textures used in my design. It mimics the texture of stone but is far more romantic in mood. Turquoise blue dances across the walls and the background of the park. The trees of the park meld with the patterns of tarnished silver. It is moody and atmospheric. Romantic but not overwhelming. I chose to go tall with the design, to emphasize the grandeur of content and to create a sense of compression. Mary Stuart spends the majority of the play in captivity and when she finally meets Elizabeth in the Park, the set opens up, allowing her to breath and offering a brief hope of escape. Later as she goes to her death, walking through the sliver of light up stage, her exit is followed by bright red light descending like a headman’s axe. This light is later referenced when Elizabeth the First finds herself alone. The light slowly grows red, reflecting her ultimate culpability in Mary’s death, as the curtain slowly descends on her.
