Developing Ground Plans

CITA National Conference 2005

Luis Ramirez, Scenic and Lighting Designer
3404 Tall Oak Drive
Nacogdoches, Texas 75965
laramirez@cox-internet.com 936-564-6054

Orientation to the audience

• parallel to plaster line or raked at angle
parallel is more formal
break up with jogs and bays to make casual
raked is more dynamic
tends to reduce playing area DS
Sight lines
• must make compromises, but deprive as few
people as possible
• mask areas you don't want to see
• mask overhead with ceilings, beams, clouds,
leaves, blacks, etc.
• open doors offstage, hinged on upstage side,
when possible

Create as much visual variety as possible

• provide several acting areas, not just one or two to use over & over again;
an acting area is a space where two or more people can relate to each other logically
• provide variety in levels
steps and platforms
chairs, tables, benches, sofas — sit, stand or lie down
• use more than one or two planes on stage
vary in depth as much as possible — at least foreground, middle & back (3 planes)
• evaluate strength and importance of entrances/exits
consider which characters will use each one, and why

Architecture
• make "house sense" — what's offstage in all directions
do things to let the audience know where rooms are
• doors and windows in correct places
the more doors, the easier to move around;
how many doors does this kind of room really have?
• use hallways to other rooms to avoid a room full of
doors and to provide masking
• compromise between architecture and directing needs
extremely important entrance or exit?
offstage action that must be seen or heard?
strengthen certain areas by levels
Furniture arrangement
• based on logic of reality; avoid
placing everything against walls
• force movement around furniture
— obstacles to straight lines
• keep furniture low in general, to
not block view of actors
• conform to the axis of the set,
not the plaster line
• define 3 or more acting areas
• avoid placing all acting areas on
the same plane

Practical considerations
• platforms at top of stairs
• escape steps or ladders
• crossovers
• offstage prop locations

Process for designing ground plans

A: Determine quantity, size and location of
• required acting areas • entrances/doors
• windows • levels and steps
• walls • furniture
B: Fit elements on stage with regard to
• sightlines • movement patterns (period costumes need more space)
• depth and height of fly lines • wing space/storage/shifting
C: Add masking as needed
• congruous part of set—halls, rooms, exteriors • black drapes
• ceilings, beams, clouds, leaves • cyc, drops, portals