The Power of Stagecraft
“Audiences need gateways to escape from reality, and voyage into the world of a story being portrayed on stage,” said Jared Eberlein, the Director of Theater Programs at Northfield Mount Hermon School. Although sometimes overlooked, theatrical scenery is that critical gateway. Sets hold tremendous power and influence in the success and believability of a production. It is crucial to have the set reflect the ideas of a show, to ensure all elements of the production are sharing the same message.
Set design plays a key role in engaging those watching a show, and engulfing them into the production. “Your job as a storyteller is to take the audience on a journey, and the environment is where the story is able to unfold. Bringing a story to the audience is impossible without those scenic elements,” Eberlein explains. Sets are specifically curated to deceive the minds of the viewers, in order to transport them away from reality. Emily Salfity, the Technical Theater Director at NMH, explains how, “Sets have the ability to be magical, when you walk into a room and it looks different than what you expected, or how it was in the past, something changes, and it becomes this dramatic moment of being in a new place,” The goal of set design is to make the audience undergo this internal transition from real to fabricated life, connecting them with the show visually, as well as emotionally. The set also corresponds to the energy on stage, which aids in understanding and reflecting the ideas of a script. For instance, the play of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee won a Tony Award for Best Scenic Design in 2019 due to the way its stage portrayed the aura of fragmented memory. The designer Miriam Buether achieved this by having a very open concept in each scene. The audience reviews that the set was able to aid them in understanding and adding context to the message and tone of the production.
Not only do sets play a pivotal role in engaging the audience in a show, but also in helping actors realize the importance and actuality of a production. “When actors step on stage with a completed set, something inside of them comes alive,” says Eberlein. Actors only see the finalized set a few days before opening night, so when they are able to practice in this finished environment, they acknowledge the presence and reality of a performance they have been working on for months. “Oftentimes, a show doesn’t feel real until the set is put up. But once there is flooring, walls, and decor, actors realize that the stage is a place that they need to inhabit, and bring to life,” continues Eberlein. Set design also aids actors by helping them fully transform into their characters. “The set really brings it full circle, because it allows me to better connect to the world that my characters are in,” shares Jasper Neff ‘25, an actress at NMH. In last spring's production of Newsies by Harvey Fierstein, a musical about the Newsboy strike of 1899, Neff says the set helped her understand and immerse into the time period. “The backdrop of the set was historical newspapers recording real events of the era, which allowed me to feel transported into the challenging situation my character was in,” she shares.
The value and impact of set design will be showcased during this fall's theater production of 12 Angry Jurors, a play by Reginald Rose. This piece follows 12 jurors in a deliberation room as they decide the fate of a young man accused of murder, with the play concluding once their final verdict is made. As the cast tackles this challenging piece at rehearsal, the backstage crew is occupied with building all of the scenic elements that are unique to this performance in order to properly portray the ideas of the script. The deliberation room itself is that of a “mundane conference room,” reveals Salfity, but this is contrasted by the bold decision of altering the position of the audience. “This show is really different from anything we've ever done before, because instead of having our audience sitting in the chairs of the theater, we are putting them in risers on stage,” she explains. With the audience surrounding actors in a style called theater-in-the-round, the space that the NMH actors have to work with becomes much smaller and more confining, which is a very intentional decision. “We are trying to have it be an immersive and claustrophobic experience, filled with intimacy and intensity,” says Eberlein. “We are creating this box around the actors, to convey that there is no escape from the decision.” Set design holds the power to subconsciously influence the audience, and make them feel and adapt to the energy and tone of the performance, just as this crowded and enclosed set will convey the fear and ultimatum of the jurors.
