Scenic Design for Seattle Pacific University Theatre\u27s Production of Tony Kushner\u27s The Illusion

This project is the scenic design for Seattle Pacific University Theatre’s mainstage production of The Illusion. As an aspiring scenic designer, I study the way that scenery works with the playwright’s written words and the director’s conceptual ideas in order to communicate the story of a play with an audience. The focus of this paper is on the relationship I see between faith and the scholastic pursuit of theatrical design. Theatrical productions are intended to be experienced in the theatre, and as such, they are bound by time. Though it is not possible to capture exactly how the set interacted with the cast, the audience, and the other design elements during performances, I have included appendices to this paper in order to provide the best possible approximation of the project. Included are a scenic breakdown; images of visual research, sketches, and the scale model of my design; technical drawings of the space; production photography of the performance; and a reflection on my design process. My senior project investigates this idea: How can I use my scenic design of The Illusion to illuminate the director’s concept and communicate the story of the script to the audience? I have found that scenery is indeed a key element in theatrical storytelling that acts as a framework supporting the audience’s empathic relationship with the play. This concept of framework is essential to both theatre and religious experience, and these ideas are formally addressed in the faith and scholarship portion of this paper