I attended a student production of the Harold Pinter play “Betrayal” that was presented at Alfred University. The production was developed and facilitated by three senior students who where majoring in the Theatre program. All three students performed in the piece and where responsible for every aspect from the design to the set-up. Similar to what I am trying to accomplish with my own thesis, I was able to compare and contrast the elements that go into a production whether it is a theatre performance or a video piece.
The elements that both pieces share are Scene/Setting, Costume, and Lighting. Like in any story, there has to be a time and space in which characters can exist. The scenes for betrayal required minimal set pieces in order to establish a space that could allow the audience to suspend their disbelief. Some of the dialogue was able to provide an idea of the setting while the actual set provided a context for the characters to interact. For my production, I relied on the scenery to convey most of the setting as well as the mood of the piece. The key difference between video and theatre is that visuals can be shown or can be implied/imagined.
Costume has an important role for it not only helps establish the space, but it helps define the character as well. Something I have discovered about costume designs for characters is that color palette can have an overall impression on the audience. Referring to the basics of color theory, I chose a palette for each character that was associated with certain characteristics. For Damon’s color palette, I focused on neutrals, earth tones, and blues in order to give him a calming characteristic. The Mara character, I associated reds and monochromatic colors to give her an intense characteristic.
As far as lighting goes, there can be several uses in both theatre and video. Lighting can be as simple as making sure there is proper light in order to see the characters to as complex as abstract spaces and themes. Based on what was in Betrayal, they only used enough light to emphasize what was in the space. Alongside the minimalistic set, the lighting was used at a base level. Lighting within my thesis was specific to each shot and scene. A majority of the scenes required the use of natural lighting. In cases of not having resources, I discovered that one must use what they have to the fullest extent in order to develop an appreciation to what is needed.
My overall impressions of the entire performance and miss en scene of the piece where that it was impressive. Sharing a similar aspect of relying on what resources are available allowed me to respect the work that went into the piece. It was nice to compare how others handle similar situations and I was able to understand alternative methods which I would like to use in the future.
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Anthony J. Grande 