FUTURISM

To expand my development further I decided to look into genre of Futurism. Now I know the first thing you think about when thinking of Futurism is the art movement and all the stylistic, bold brush strokes and high intensity colours being used. But there is much more within this genre than just painting so to speak. Architecture, film, music, photography, sculpture and theatre - all these categories are very different in subject but hold similar qualities in style throughout each.

The idea of conveying a sense of movement was one of the essential features of Futurist painting. Sometimes movement was conveyed by blurring forms or overlapping images in the manner of high-speed multiple-exposure photography. The fragmented forms of cubism and the bright, broken colours of neo-Impressionism were major influences. Usually the Futurists took their subjects from modern city life, machines, and power, and this influenced cubists and constructivists.

By focusing on this idea and exploring the elements of futurism towards my stage design I'm able to translate the play of the Lady and the Lion alternatively - producing something new and visually exciting for the suspected audience.

Design for Stage

I felt the best way I could communicate my design under the genre of Futurism was to play around with the colour palette. The futurist movement involved the use of high intensity and a selection of contrasting colours. For the Lion's castle the colours I used was to depict the Lion-like qualities yet communicate the essence of love and passion (the feeling surrounding the play) with the use of pinky reds around the 'Lion's eyes'. I decided to hold onto the basic shape as for the audience to be still be able to identify the object as a castle. Although I did play around with the inner shapes, thus reflecting the futurist style.

For the forest an iconic colour palette was use to let the audience again grasp the identity of the objects themselves i.e. trees being brown and green. I must admit I deliberately increased the intensity of these colours, just to keep within the futurist parameters. Also I made the conscious decision of making the 'section' of forest into literally one block, this was to help me communicate the concept of the sense of movement found in the futurist period.

Bold block colourful overlapping shapes are used in the floor and proscenium arch to instantly catapult the audience into the genre of futurism before the objects had been introduced. I would love to see the change in setting to happen through the background lighting. A large curved backdrop screen would project rays of light, changing clolour and intensity depending on the play's moment. These rays of colour would hopefully impact the audience in a 'wow-factoring' way. The sense of movement and change of state would hopefully have been communicated in this colourful protrayal of Futurism.