Masters Thesis

Realization of the scenic and lighting design for the play Plaza Suite by Neil Simon

The purpose of a design production thesis is to allow the designer, through the production, to show himself an accomplished artist, and through the thesis, to show himself a scholar. He must develop and present certain artistic choices for an actual production, and he must explain and justify these in a written statement. For this particular thesis program, the writer was assigned the responsibility of designing the scenery and the lighting for an arena production of Plaza Suite by Neil Simon. Neil Simon is a very prolific, successful, and contemporary playwright whose plays are centered largely in New York City. Plaza Suite, only one of his many successful plays, is a valid choice for this study in that it involves an investigation and understanding of the playwright, the location the play was written for, and the influence both of these aspects have on the action within the script. An added significance of this study is the fact that this play was originally written for the proscenium stage, and placing it in an arena situation required considerable thought in adapting the design of the set to that particular form of staging.

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