The three students in Design for the Theater: Scenery in the spring term of 2005 fed off each other’s energies in exploring different media and production styles. As the two radically different approaches to the symbolist opera Bluebeard’s Castle clearly show, they also established and confidently maintained their own styles as well.
In a design course like this, there are no “right” or “wrong” answers to a project. The students are in competition with themselves rather than with their classmates. Accomplishment is measured by their growing daring in exploring a visual world in response to the text, and by their willingness to experiment with materials and styles. At some point early in term. I make my students aware of one of my favorite quotes concerning the arts, by the Mexican author Carlos Chavez: “I live through risk. Without risk, there is no art. You should always be on the edge of a cliff about to fall down and break your neck.”
All images courtesy of Professor William Fregosi. Used with permission. Student work by J. Hinel and J. Ornstein was retained from the Spring 2003 version of the course.
