Summary of the week: We had Monday off for Labor Day! The rest of the week included several meetings of concept design, pitching ideas, and discussing goals for the installation.
Concept Ideating
Our team continued ideating and came up several potential concepts:
Building the Walls: Guests are prompted to recreate their childhood bedroom. Using an iPad, guests can change the color, shape, and look of different furniture items and project the completed furniture items against the walls and columns in the lobby. It is a collaborative, ever-changing art piece.
- As childhood is a major theme of the play, this experience puts guests in the mindset of reflecting on their time as a child.
Projection Mapped Childhood Dollhouse (based on an idea by Aldora): Guests use tablets to adjust colors and patterns of items in rooms of a dollhouse. The dollhouse could be themed to match the set design of the play, taking the shape of a castle.
Mr. Hooper’s Store (based on an idea by Lauren): A physical recreation of Mr. Hooper’s Store from Sesame Street complete with shelves full of items and a counter behind which would be a puppet/animatronic of Mr. Hooper that guests could interact with. Mr. Hooper would directly speak with guests and give guests a physical “receipt” from the shop with a quote from the show, a poem, or a prompt of something to think about. The guests can hold onto this receipt during the show and take it with them afterward. After the production, the store will be empty with lights flickering/dimmed and the puppet/animatronic is gone, symbolizing the death of Mr. Hooper.
- This experience bridges the gap of necessary context for the play for guests unaware of Mr. Hooper and his passing, specifically for the freshmen School of Drama audience members. This experience will also help any older guests who are familiar with Mr. Hooper and his passing remember this event and have it fresh on their minds for when it is referenced in the production. It also prepares the audience to feel a childhood sense of nostalgia and connection with Mr. Hooper which will make his death in the play feel more personally meaningful.
- This was our team’s and advisors’ favorite concept. It addressed our team’s academic learning goals, helped bridge context for the audience, and had an emotional journey for the audience.
Concept art by Angie
CMU Drama Meeting with Eliot, Kristi, and Shirley
This meeting was our first opportunity to meet Kristi, Eliot’s advisor! In this meeting, our team asked for further clarification on details like expectations, concepts, previous installations, and how the audience tends to behave when attending productions at CMU. We also pitched several potential installation concepts including Mr. Hooper’s Store and the projection mapped dollhouse.
Some of the major notes and take-aways from the meeting were:
- In the past, guests tended to be interested in lobby installations and participate
- The installation should be activated 30 minutes before the play starts
- We reviewed our current concepts and discussed how the team felt that Mr. Hooper’s Store was the strongest concept
- We also discussed our projection mapped dollhouse idea. Eliot liked this concept and thought that if it was a projection mapped castle versus a dollhouse, it would tie in even better to the play
- Eliot brought up again that she liked the concept of Big Bird’s nest and the guests drawing their loved ones and keeping that drawing in their pocket during the show. We could have a similar drawing activity in the Mr. Hooper’s Store concept if we had guests draw on their receipts from the shop
- A theme that Eliot liked from our concepts was encouraging guests to perform actions like what they would have done in their childhood, such as drawing or playing with toys
- For the Mr. Hooper’s Store concept, potentially guests could draw items and they could be projected onto the shelves of the store or the shelves could be stocked with items that we expect our guests would recognize from their childhood
- Kristi felt that the installation should serve more to prepare guests for the first 90 seconds of the production. Our current concepts tie in mostly to the second half of the production, so guests might be confused and not understand the connection at first. For this reason, Kristi felt that we should focus more on King Lear and less on Sesame Street, though we can still incorporate subtle Sesame Street elements if they fit or as Easter Eggs
Instructor Meeting
We met with Shirley and John to discuss further details to keep in mind when designing and contributed further pieces of inspiration.
Some of the major notes and take-aways from the meeting were:
- Design details to keep in mind
- Sometimes people don’t feel comfortable watching others engage with a museum exhibit/installation or don’t feel comfortable walking up to a display if someone else is already using it (intrusion factor). Think about mirroring the interaction to the rest of the lobby
- Big impacts can come from low effort (such as our idea from Mr. Hooper’s store where guests would take away a receipt with lines from the play)
- Surprises are memorable
- Make sure that guests feel welcomed and encouraged to participate in and interact with the installation
- Design for spectators. With installation design, keep in mind that not everyone will be able to interact or want to interact
- Understand the minimum level for the installation to still be impressive. Target that and aim to go further, never lower.
- Potential inspiration
- Street performances/magic shows where there are only one or two volunteers directly involved but the entire audience feels engaged
- Short throw projectors and potential changing sets and environments
- Le Petit Chef
- Recommendations moving forward
- Visit CMU Drama performances to observe how the audience behaves and to understand the environment
- Time how long the interactions take to understand the throughput of the experience
Updates and Further Brainstorming
After our meetings on Wednesday, Eliot spoke with the director of the play, Tatiana Baccari. After their discussion, Kristi, Eliot, and Tatiana seemed to be on the same page of wanting an installation that tied more into King Lear. Eliot also suggested potentially having our installation focus on the storm from King Lear, an iconic element of the show. This meant a pivot in direction for our team and the kinds of concepts that we were designing. As we move forward, we will continue to develop our ideas and bring them in a direction that we all are excited about.
Client Meeting with Eliot
Our team wanted to ensure that we properly understood the adjusted vision for the project after the recent design meeting between the dramaturg, Eliot, and the director, Tatiana. Therefore, we held a meeting with our client Eliot to review the client needs and adjusted goals of the installation.
Some of the major notes from the meeting were:
- At CMU drama productions, many guests/students will wait for the actors to come out to the lobby so they can congratulate them
- We might have more time with the guests after the show than we expected
- Tickets are “festival style” with no assigned seating
- People will typically put their bag on their seat to reserve it and then go back into the lobby to congregate before the show
- Even if people are rushing to get a good seat, we still can expect to have time with them before the show when they come back out to the lobby
- People will typically put their bag on their seat to reserve it and then go back into the lobby to congregate before the show
- Focusing more on Shakespeare and King Lear
- Priming audiences for the first 90 seconds of the production
- Invoking vulnerable feelings but not pushing boundaries or making people feel uncomfortable
Overall, the main take-away from this meeting was shifting our design focus away from Sesame Street and themes of nostalgia, reflection, and connection and focusing instead on King Lear and themes of vulnerability, relationships, and change.