A total visual design of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot

In the first semester of graduate school at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, this designer collaborated with another graduate student who was studying in acting and directing to produce Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot. The play offers several challenges to the designer. Waiting for Godot begins with a stage direction on the setting, "A country road. A tree. Evening." That is all that is given. Unlike other playwrights, Samuel Beckett does not explain by use of detailed stage directions the milieu in which the characters are to act. In one sense this is good, for it means the designer will have to rely heavily on his creative imagination to convey the mood of the play through the use of line, color, and mass. Furthermore, the designer is challenged to effectively utilize the different elements of theatre design to give the total visual picture. A meaningful relationship must be established between setting, lighting, costumes, and the play. Also, here is the opportunity to design a world-renowned contemporary classic that has been categorized by many theatre intellectuals and critics alike as a play of the Theatre of the Absurd. Finally, from a financial standpoint, a single set show fits more realistically into the budget ceiling allowed to thesis productions