Doubt
Design Process Notes
Portland Stage Company
director: Sally Wood
sets: Daniel Bilodeau
lights: Lynne Chase
costumes: Susan E. Picinich
sound: Stephen Swift
Beautiful Simplicity
The Church
Director Sally Wood envisioned a look of light streaming into the church through high windows for this location.
A picture is worth a 1000 words.
There is a bit of theatrical "cheating" going on here. Father Flynn himself is actually being lit from window templates coming from both sides.
The Office
We posited that the office was in the city, so there would be large institutional windows on the outside walls of Sister Aloysius' office.
Sister Aloysius is actually looking out of her window. The mullion from the gobo is visible crossing her chest. When this wagon rolled onstage during the scene transition, several window templates were visible.
The Garden
We conceived the garden as chilly with bare trees.
Tree templates were used to suggest bare trees, to give the scene some texture and to suggest a chill in the air.
Though each of these scenes had a beauty of its own, the greatest beauty of this show, visually speaking, cannot be captured in pictures. During the scene transitions, the office and/or garden wagon moved through the arches with actors riding them. They moved through window or tree templates so that the performers were passing through dappled light. Captivating. It gave the show additional character.
To see more show photos, please visit the Doubt gallery page.
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