Imagine you are a scenic artist working on a production of the White Snake and have been charged with selecting the production’s projections, as part of the scenic design.
In the back of the published script on page 141 is a detailed list and director’s notes of what the set projections might look like, but Mary Zimmerman also notes “you might use entirely different images…(but) projections should be subtle, poetic and slightly abstracted.”
Your director has told you that she wants the projections to have a “cohesive artistic style” and she would like them all to have a “dream-like” quality, kind of “blurred around the edges.”
Your job is to find appropriate images for the products that fulfill the director’s vision and the needs of the play.
Prepare at least eleven projections, each of which depicts the required locations.
DO NOT use images from the past production of the play–this is not an assignment about finding images from the play, this is an assignment about artistically interpreting the design of the script.
Make sure the images all have some kind of stylistic unification–a similar color palette, a similar border, a similar style, etc.
For instance, the DRAGON BOAT FESTIVAL might have a projection like this as a backdrop:
dragon boat color
It is a very colorful picture, and in order to stay “stylistically cohesive” you would not want to use a black and white KUNLUN FOREST projection like this:
An image that might be closer in the colorful style, color, and content for the KUNLUN FOREST would be this:
forest
HOWEVER, if you like black and white, traditional feel for your projections, then a DRAGON BOAT like this might fit better with the second image:
Feel free to choose other styles for your projections: watercolor, photographs, even abstract designs. Just make sure they reflect the play, the director’s vision and present a cohesive design whole.
You may draw these images yourself, but you can also find them online (please cite your sources)
The projections listed in the script are
OPENING
AT WEST LAKE
TWO HOMES
MARRIAGE
PHARMACY
DRAGON BOAT FESTIVAL
KUNLUN FOREST
FA HAI LURES XU XIAN
THE WATER BATTLE
AT BROKEN BRIDGE
THE LANTERN FESTIVAL
NOTE: Some of the projections for the original production were animated and moved (such as the waves, the blossoms and the lanterns. Also, Zimmerman notes the home transformed from burnt house to beautiful house, and the Golden Monastery appeared by the pharmacy at one point). You are not required to create animated images (although you may choose to) but you may want to choose more than one image to signal a transformation (such as the appearance of the house changing because of the White Snake’s magic, or the storm at sea). Thus, in the end, you may turn in more than eleven images.
Be sure you support the play and the director’s vision
You can use Powerpoint, Word, or some other appropriate program to do your project, but please title your images.