Fishie

Inaccurate quotes?

Bonus:

You mentioned in a post a little while ago that you designed a set for ghost quartet, and this is me humbly putting forward that I would very very much like to hear about this (and all the thought behind it, fucking love gq).

Have a great day!!!

Oh my goodness thank you for asking!! Okay, so some context is that this was for a scenic design competition, so I did a full design and miniature but it never got made into an actual set used for the show. Since then it’s gone through many different iterations as I worked on it in my own time since I love GQ and I love scenic design. Okay, with that let’s get started (this is going to be a long one).

When I was brainstorming possible ideas for a scenic design I was listening to the musical a LOT. One of the songs that caught my attention was “The Camera Shop” because it begins introducing us to the mysteries of GQ’s story. I began to form the idea that I wanted the set to be an antique shop that represented Rose’s journey and hold key items from all the different timelines. This presented an interesting challenge because GQ is meant to be staged with the audience near the performers as a way of immersing them within the storytelling and making it easier to actually include them. So I had to find a way to do this while still meeting the requirements of the competition, which required me to design for a standard theater with a proscenium. In later years I’ve since switched to a more immersive design that has the audience within the antique shop with the performers, but in all my early sketches and miniatures that was not present.

This was a photo I took a lot of inspiration from because I felt it fit the exact vibe I was going for. So with the idea that the set was going to be an antique shop I began looking for inspirations as to layout, materials, and what items I should include within the actual set. The three things I knew I absolutely wanted were custom wall paper (I’ll explain in a minute), a glass case with the four items, and a bear head on the wall. The setup had to accommodate for the four performers and all 26(?) instruments played over the course of the show, which meant I had to be mindful of spacing and how much storage space I included. I’ll be frank, even years later I haven’t fully settled on a layout that I fully love, so there have been many iterations of this that I’ve gone through.

As an aspiring props designer myself the antique shop is sooo fucking sick. Like as a setting it's so useful for this show -- all the physical motifs (like you said, the items Rose collects, and even other things like the telescope, the camera, the breastbone fiddle), and the other symbols that are present throughout the whole show, that drive the story -- they can all be incorporated so seamlessly into an antique shop, and I think physically including those things in the set really adds to the show and the story as a whole.

The only gq set I'm familiar with is the og production at the McKittrick on yt, which is I believe also inspired by an antique shop (the shop at the centre of the universe, that the characters keep returning to, that keeps the story tethered) (god I love this show) but they don't really have any items that would actually be sold in an antique shop onstage, so I absolutely love that you chose to incorporate that in your design. It's so interesting, both visually and narratively.

Absolutely love the wallpaper design, and what you said about Rose and the Bear being the constants throughout all the timelines-- soooo true. And there's something to be said about the nature of wallpaper designs as well, how it's designed to be a repeating pattern that can be copied over and over however many times you need it to be to cover the wall. Something something circular story, repeating patterns, yknow? 'I wanted her to not be able to escape it to the point where it was in the walls of the shop that represented all her lives' RAAGGHHHHHHH YES!!!!!! It's embedded in the walls themselves! There is nothing she can do! She must finish the story! Obsessed with that, that's wonderful visual storytelling right there.

Side note but I'm giggling at the squares in your sketches just titled 'percussion zone', that's really delightful for some reason. Percussion happens here.

I REALLY love the idea of having the taxidermy head on the wall. Like a constant reminder, haunting the whole show. 'I wanted the Bear to always be watching Rose, fuelling every action' SO TRUE MAN I'm excited just thinking about this, what a great idea to have him constantly up there, looming over the shop, there from the very beginning to the very end. Like you said, items can be taken on and off stage, but things like the walls themselves, the wallpaper and the bear head, those cannot be moved. They stay there the whole time, no matter what.

'In so many interactions the two love each other and are incredibly close, but Rose's unquenchable thirst for vengeance dooms all versions of Rose and Pearl' and the Bear represents that and he is always there behind every interaction they have, watching, waiting. You are a genius.

This isn't in your design but I am imagining the bear with a puppet mouth that can be operated from behind the wall, so every time he talks it's this kind of comical jaw movement as he speaks. Like it's sort of silly but I think it fits the way Brent plays the Bear in particular. And the spotlight I'm also imagining being a little comical, like a real sudden pan over to the bear head, kinda camp and silly. I think it fits the absurdity of the show and the Bear's character and storyline with Rose especially. It's all bizarre and over the top.

Reading your analysis of the show and the characters is fascinating man. Especially how Rose is haunted by all her decisions in every timeline, and how that's incorporated into your design, just absolutely beautiful stuff. Truly, this is all so interesting.

Loooove the light underneath each of the items for when they're relevant. And the shopkeeper adding the photograph to the empty stand is just 🤌 chef's kiss, fantastic. The fact that it's Pearl (as the shopkeeper) keeping tally on the items Rose is collecting for her demise. That even when Rose is trying to get the Bear to kill her, they are so intrinsically linked, and Pearl is almost resigned to it at this point, just adding the photograp to everything else. Like yeah, she knows how this goes by now, and she's going to go along with it if it means she gets to keep doing this dance with Rose.

I can see your idea for the stardust so clearly, and choosing the colours of a supernova is so beautiful and poetic. Saw a post recently about how Scheherazade (Pearl) had stardust because the astronomer gave it to her instead of to Rose, so having it look like something they would have looked at through his telescope is soooo good.

Loving the dedication to making this design echo Rose's lives so clearly, everything she's done is woven so overtly and inextricably into the set. It's wonderful, and I just love that cluttered, maximalist look of an antique shop that your design lends itself to, it's truly making my little prop designer heart so happy. It makes me want to work on this show with you. Like just reading the list of all the items you'd want to have onstage is getting me excited.

Constellations! That the audience is 'bathed/immersed' in! Yesssss love that!!!! I think it could be done really well with projections, I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to AV but I'm imagining them being made to twinkle a little, as if they're alive and real and there in the theatre with you.

And pardon me but now I'm just thinking about these constellations. The way I'd wanna do it, just because I love practical effects and handcrafted decorations, is to physically make the constellations. Like to create the stars, little glowing balls (either with fairy lights or even just small globes) using clear baubles, or tissue paper to make the light a bit more diffuse (or maybe something a little less flammable than tissue paper lol). Attach them to each other to make each specific constellation, whether that be with wire or thin rods (wooden or plastic dowel, metal bars, anything like that) so that the cables can still run between them, and painted black so they're not so visible. Then hang them like that from the rigging bars. Idk if I explained that very well but I feel like it could be done in a way that's really magical, and lets you feel the same wonder that Rose (and Pearl) did when looking up at the stars.

Just a quick pinterest search, but like this kinda stuff, except clear and distinct constellations so you can actually tell what each of them are if you take a moment to look. Like you said, still simplistic and not taking away from the performance, but also real and right there over everyone's heads, another thing that's quietly present throughout the whole show, through all the different storylines, through all of Rose's lives.

On my playlist I only have Tongues & Teeth (obviously) and Down the River (this is literally PERFECT from Sherlock's POV of James' morality)

I think Time Will Change You is also a good shout for the eventual betrayal because well James isn't the 'same' externally as he was when Sherlock met him from Sherlock's view

Metaphor "You can't trust a single thing I say" is also huge

There's so many more but off the top of my head those are THE songs for them

That scene changed my brain chemistry