“If I was gonna give advise to somebody starting out wanting to be a set designer, I would tell them that you have to have this heartfelt inner love for theatre which requires hours and hours and hours and hours of dedication. A lot of people today don’t do any kind of sketching or develop their designs and it’s all computer done but I think that depending on what the show is and what the needs are you have to be able to understand sculpture and colour and light and painting and movement, too. I think that’s a big part of it, so I think anybody can have a career in the theatre if you are dedicated enough and you really want it, but it’s a lot of work.
I think that the idea is everything. If you have a great idea and certainly a good idea is important, it’s everything but it’s also the script. You have to have a fantastic script and music to work from and then it’s about just living with it for a while. For me personally, the music, re-read the script, I look at a time of research and then I get inspiration and ideas and then what happens: then as I sit down to draw and create, then there is a back and forth. It’s supposed to be a collaborative art form, but a lot of times it’s not and people drive whatever their idea is. And for me personally, I love, love, love working with choreographers, directors and other designers and the back and forth. One idea inspires another inspires another and then you’ve got the director who is the editor who is saying: “okay: this, this and this” and then pulling it together. It’s good to have technical skills and computer drafting, painting and all that but I think, really it’s about being creative and clever with your ideas.”
Stanley A. Meyer | Set designer
Stanley A. Meyer is an award winning set designer whose work covers the Broadway production of Disney’s BEAUTY AND THE BEAST as well as the design for tours of the Steve Miller Band and Alice Cooper. Find out more on Stan and his work on his website www.stanleyameyerdesign.com.
