Stage Design - Working towards a final idea!

I've decided to have the stage completely white, no colours, and no real signifiers to the time period. Making the design a combination of Louis XIV France but designed to be modern also. The Louis XIV element will come from the costumes and the modern element from the simple stage design - minimal set and the use of lighting!

The set have remained the focal point but have be moved to the side so that there is more space for the use of props (to suggest period) but also so that the stairs can be incorporated in different ways between the different scene changes e.g the stairs can be used to come down into the kitchen for Ashputtel and the stairs as the focal point when Ashputtel loses her shoe and runs away from the Prince's castle.

Lighting Projections for the scene (Using lights as up-lighting) - Lights projected onto the backdrop:

For the Prince's Castle - Red and Gold alternate panels of the backdrop. Colours to not mix where they colours meet.

**Stairs to be up-lit in a velvety red.

The red and gold sound gawdy but I almost want that to be the feel so it seems over the top and rich!

Stage Design

Moving on from my initial design I've carried on with keeping the stairs in a central position; these will be a fixed piece throughout the whole of the production so they need to be easily adaptable to each scene, I struggled with ways of how I was going to achieve this and through looking at the works of Peter Greenaway and Quills the way I will get around this is not through set changes but through the use and change of colour to compliment the mood of the scene.

The backdrop I see as being like drapes in a plain colour which can then change between the scenes using the lighting to alter colour and mood. (Ashputtels house - drapes in a grey; Prince's Castle - drapes in red and gold.)

Stage Design

This idea came from the screenshot of the Great Hall in the film Quills. I like the feeling of greatness that the room exudes as well as the obvious lack of too much colour but the feeling of grandeur still isn't lost. The period features are minimal, but too the point. The stairs I wanted as the main feature so keeping them in a central position you are immediately drawn to them. The only downside to this idea is I think it is just too literal to the Louis XIV era, I want something that hints at this period rather than is immediately a period drama!