I decided to set A Comedy of Errors on a playground. I liked the idea of the play being like a game of make believe between children on a playground, and the actors being projections of the children’s imaginary grown up selves. I liked the idea of having the playground built out of clockwork because it gave the imaginary game a darker feel. It feels mechanical, less dream-like and adds to the blurred line not only between imagination and reality, but also childhood and adulthood, working class and non working class, actual time and perceived time. I made the playground a little too small for an adult actor, because real playgrounds are small for adults, and I wanted that to be shown that the playground is meant for children, not these adults. It could show that the children whose imagination we are in are on the brink of no longer being children and wanting to stay even when they no longer fit. I started this process by creating thumnails to figure out how I wanted this playground to be set up.

During this process, I also searched google images for playground setups and took different elements from each to create my set.

I then decided I wanted to make the playground out of clock work. I mostly went with my memory of the set from Wicked, which is mostley clockwork, but I also searched for some images and found these pictures as to how to put pieces together to make a solid object.

Then I found these images and I liked how the clockwork wasn’t metal and how it would give the set a less mechanical and a more earthy feel. 

I actually did the ground plan last, trying to measure out where everything went based off of my white model. This was before I knew how to show heights and ramps on drafts.

My white model I did after my thumgnail sketches and before my ground plan. This made it easier to decide where I wanted to place things, but it made it difficult to translate from white model to ground plan with exact placement. I started with stage left and worked my way right. I wanted slides and bridges and tunnels like pretty much every playground does, but I also wanted to add a ball pit as a sort of thrust. I decided to show the jail, which would be the metal domes that children climb in, and I placed it in the ball pit so when they are placed in the jail they are pushed into the ball pit. The wall of the ball pit would be clear so the audience could see the actors in it. All the slides would lead into the ballpit and there would be two ladders from the pit to the stage. I added the clockwork backdrop last. On the actual set, everything would be made out of earthy clockwork.

For this project we also had to create a props list and have either research images for them or drawn images. Based on the nature of my props, I decided to draw them.