DESIGNER STATEMENTS


DAVID ROCKWELL – SET DESIGN The essence of the 20th Century experience was the combination of speed and extravagance, the inherent optimism of expanding train travel experienced in opulent interiors. Two design languages are used to capture this combination and create the armature of the production: the finely detailed and luxurious train carriage. Speed and motion are embodied in the use of an exaggerated forced perspective on the Show Curtain, inspired by the elegant poster art of the time that used graphic distortions to celebrate speed. The Streamline Moderne language, an aerodynamic intersection of cylindrical and linear forms that is expressed in the actual 20th Century locomotive designed in 1938 by industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss, influenced the design of the train in the show. Luxury and opulence are captured by the 1930’s Art Deco style characterized by bold geometric patterning and lavish ornamentation. The train interiors are crafted from a rich and varied palette of symmetrical patterns expressed in vivid fabrics and a palette of metals in gold, silver, and bronze that interweaves to create a heavily textured jewel box environment. In bringing an architect’s sensibility to a set that combines the inherent asymmetry of Streamline Moderne with the symmetry of Art Deco, the design adds a new dimension to the highly pedigreed production of On the Twentieth Century.


WILLIAM IVEY LONG – COSTUME DESIGN This project has been a wonderful design experience because it is a comedy set in one of my favorite periods. It is also set on a train, which means everyone is in very close quarters. I worked very closely with David Rockwell to ensure that all of our details told a cohesive story. When I sketched the thumbnails for this show, I laid out all the characters in each scene together and also put elements of the train on the sketch to show our director, Scott Ellis, a more complete visual world. I had the opportunity to design the revival of the straight play, Twentieth Century (also at Roundabout), about 10 years ago, and I like that I now have the chance to tell the same story in a different way—this time with music and dancing.


DONALD HOLDER – LIGHTING DESIGN Lighting Design is often relied upon to make crucial storytelling contributions to a play or musical, and this is certainly the case for On the Twentieth Century. My first objective was to create a bright, effervescent atmosphere both on the train and off that establishes a real sense of time and place and provides a high-energy foundation for the


comedy and hijinks. This included the integration of many period-looking practical lighting sources (in collaboration with David Rockwell and his team) that would motivate the warm, bright light of the train interiors. To communicate and reveal the many moments of flashback, inner monologue, and fantasy, the lighting features dramatic shifts to a highly colored and romantic palette, using angles and textures that contrast strongly with what the audience has typically encountered during the more realistic moments on board the moving train.•


Click here for process statements from the On the Twentieth Century choreographer and music director:


http://www.roundabouttheatre.org/Roundabout/media/ Roundabout/PDF/UPSTAGE/OTTC-Process-Statements.pdf


ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY UPSTAGE GUIDE 19


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