DESIGNER STATEMENTS
DEREK MCLANE—SET DESIGN When I first read A Soldier's Play, I was totally absorbed by the murder mystery of it. Who killed Sgt. Waters? The play, of course, has bigger themes in mind, but that structure is very effective at grabbing your attention. For me, the play taps into a certain nostalgia for World War II—a war with far less ambiguous goals than more recent wars—and the patriotism I associate with it. That patriotism is the backdrop for every character in A Soldier’s Play, and the nostalgia I felt makes the racism the soldiers deal with that much more jarring. The play is very fluid in the way it is written. It jumps backward and forwards in time as various soldiers tell their story of the events surrounding the murder. Many scenes are simultaneously in an office and outside somewhere, as soldiers recount their last encounters with Sgt. Waters. So the play requires several different realities to co-exist, with both specificity and simplicity.
After I read a play, I always start by doing some research. In the case of A Soldier’s Play, I looked a lot at WWII army bases, particularly in the south, where this takes place. I was struck by how simple they were. Virtually everyone was made of unadorned wood boards and beams; there was no decoration and simple construction. It is clear looking at the research the buildings were built quickly, and presumably not necessarily intended to last past the end of the war. Even senior commanders had very simple offices. And so I started sketching structures based on these images, to create a space simple enough and flexible enough that all of the many scenes could be contained with really minimal scene changes. From the sketches, I moved onto models—I usually make several different drafts—as
I did here. Eventually, director Kenny Leon and I settled on the version that became the design. The last step in my studio was to draft the set —produce a set of scale drawings that a scene shop could use to build from.
I’ve done a pretty wide variety of shows with Kenny, from intimate plays to big television musicals, and I know how interested he is in bringing out the human side of every story and also in making every show feel that it is somehow of “today.” So my work with him on this was about putting us confidently in the America of 1944 and to do it in a way that also has the immediacy of 2020. My goal was to give it just enough detail that you feel WWII military base, and not so much that it feels fussy.
DEDE AYITE—COSTUME DESIGN
Suspense, thrill, sadness, and pride were emotions I felt as I read the last sentence in A Soldier’s Play. Written beautifully, I am honored to be a part of telling this story. A story that delves into the complexity of race in America. Although set during World War II, the heart of this piece feels just as significant for today. When I first read A Soldier’s Play, I was deeply intrigued by the sense of duty these brave men had that made them serve a country that did not recognize them as equals.
Supporting this story with costumes, my first step was to identify the status of each character; identifying the rules and parameters that surrounded them in the army. A deep dive through historical material ensured accurate portrayal of the uniforms they would have worn during this time. Speaking with people who have in-depth knowledge of the time we are aiming to represent on
Set models by Derek McLane for A Soldier's Play 18 ROUNDABOUT THEATRE COMPANY
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