Nathan Everett

When I started my theatre major in college, I had the notion that I’d be a great actor and be appearing in regional and Broadway theatres by the time I was out of school. But before my second year was through, I’d been seduced by the backstage, not by the audience. I had tools and construction experience. It wasn’t long before I was building sets under some really great master designers.

Dick Williams was the Director of Theatre and when he announced that the first play of my senior year would be King Lear, I begged him to let me design the show. His commitment extended only so far as being willing to look at my designs before deciding.

I went to work in my dorm room, determined to make this my debut as a scenic designer.

I learned a great deal about scene design from Carl Wright, whose raked platforms and multi-level designs for Hamlet, Romeo & Juliet, and Antigone were burned into my memory as goals to be achieved. So I started with an inventory of stock platforms in our scene shop and began sketching out various arrangements. To these I added my own stage-stretching platforms to accommodate Dick’s demand for a “variety of playing areas.”

I went entirely too far with my first attempt. I bought balsa wood and a razor blade and made a model of every platform in our inventory. I did the same with the flats that made up walls, gluing paper on wooden frames. Having created a complete model of my setting, I unveiled it in front of Dick like an old master painting.

Pages: 1 · 2 · 3