PROJECT 3. HAMLET SET

Mind map & Initial idea

I am interested in Ophelia rather than Hamlet because I think she is a quite interesting person and especially my mother played the role of Ophelia in a play when she was in college. So I made a small mind map of Ophelia. And my mom said, when she was playing, the song from Puccini’s Madama Butterfly was used as background music in Ophelia’s monologue scene. So I researched the Puccini’s opera. The opera is about love, betrayal and cultural clash between the East and the West. It is controversial from a modern point of view, but the aria of the song shows the female main character’s love. Based on the research, I decided to interpret ‘Hamlet’ from Ophelia’s point of view. Although the play does not explicitly reveal Ophelia’s love for Hamlet, I think Ophelia loved Hamlet purely. I’d like to show this on my stage.

Research

I made a moodboard of Ophelia and found Ophelia is presented by flowers and water. Also there are many scenes and lines in the play that Ophelia is related to flowers. So I want to use flowers and butterflies on my stage.

The second research is about one of my favorite films ‘Mood Indigo’ by Michel Gondry. In this film, the female main character has an ill that requires her to be surrounded by flowers. As progressing to the end of the film, her illness’s getting worse and her family is gonna be broke. To describe this, the color of the film is gradually becoming achromatic color. I decided to apply this concept to my stage.

Next, I did some research of Es Devlin’s revolving stage. I think this type of stage is quite interesting and can show narratives more efficiently by using projection.

Initial sketches

These are initial idea sketches. The whole concept is that transparent stage in the middle and it can be rotated during transitions. The projection mapping is behind the stage and changes as the Acts and the Scenes change.

Amended idea

After first Teams meeting, I had a little change of my concept. This is the amended idea. Theme and metaphor are same, but I wanted to use different background. So I decided to add Korean mood to my stage. Madama Butterfly which I mentioned before has the Eastern background, and I was inspired by its stage design a lot. Therefore, I wanted to create my own version of Hamlet, just as Miss Saigon was adapted from Madama Butterfly, by changing the era and background. So, I did more research about Madama Butterfly’s stage design, and also about Korean traditional house for some props making, Korean polychrome paintings as well, especially lotus flowers for flower metaphor.

More research about Korea

Second & third sketches

After first feedback, I had a change of my set design. It is a circle shape set and consists of four stages. Each stage show each scene that I choose from the play, like featuring Ophelia. Actors and Actresses can use this entrance behind the stage. I sketched a big circle at the bottom and put the smaller one on it. The big one is a fixed stage and the smaller one is a revolving stage. So, Actors and actresses can use this whole space. And I’m planning to use some fabric because fabric can hide the actor’s entrance on the wall and they can move more freely since they can just open the fabric whenever they move.

When one scene ends, the stage revolves during transition and the next scene starts on the next stage. I drew four sketches for each stage. First stage is about conversation between Ophelia and her father. I think Ophelia’s love doesn’t reveal so much in that scene, so I use flower buds for presenting Ophelia’s love. And the next scene is that Ophelia talks with Hamlet. In my interpretation, in that scene, Ophelia’s love starts to reveal so, I use some Korean polychrome paintings style lotus flowers in full bloom to show that love. The third scene is about Ophelia’s monologue so I added the butterflies, water and mountains. The last scene is Ophelia’s death so I tried to describe her in the water.