Interview with Designer

Emily Shaw was the designer for The Little Company’s production of Lily Plants a Garden. As a Morehead State University senior in the Theatre Department, she was so pleased to take on many jobs within the production. Emily was not only the costume designer for the show but she also was the scenic designer and props master. With so many jobs to take on, I had an interview with Miss Shaw to give all the students an idea of what it is really like to be a designer in the theatre!

Interviewer: Emily, you were chosen to be the designer for the three production aspects of this show: costumes, scenery and props. How crazy was that?

Emily: It was really crazy being selected to design the Little Company show. It's such an honor, but I didn't realize what I would be getting into when I applied.

I: Can you describe a part of your process?

E: My process began by reading the script and figuring out the mood of each character- for example I selected colors for each of the groups in the show. From there, I saw Mama as being a lighter blue and green, whereas Papa as a darker blue and green. The process sort of took off from there!

I: What was your favorite area of design?

E: My favorite area of design was props and puppets. I really loved imagining these objects and creating them. We collectively determined to have some props 2 dimensional which was really neat and lovely to see.

I: What was the toughest part about being a designer?

E: The toughest part for me was learning as I went. I had little design experience prior to this year, so I felt that I was in over my head at several points in the process, but the faculty and my peers encouraged me so I didn't give up or have too bad of a break down.

I: What turned out to be your biggest obstacle?

E: The biggest obstacle for me was not being able to get exactly what I envisioned, but that's just a part of theatre and the show turned out really well.

I: Do you have any advice to young designers that might want to try it out? How do you even get started?

E: To young designers I would say not to stand in your own way- if you have an idea, run with it and don't let anyone tell you it's ugly or won't work if you truly believe in it.