Set Design
RENT

Concept and Features:

Rent is a rock musical that follows a group of struggling artists and friends in New York City’s East Village as they navigate love, loss, and life under the shadow of HIV/AIDS. Over the course of a year, they grapple with poverty, illness, and personal conflict while striving to live authentically and cherish each moment.

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The beginning of this project involved watching the recording of the broad way production with the director, Cody Riker and sound designer Sam Victoria. The three of us talked basics and plans for what we each wanted out of this production. We also discussed budget, being $1000, we ended up chipping in a little ourselves to create the set.

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​From here I created a 3d model. Maximising the space for the dancers as the choreographer requested more space to work with. ​

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Within the coming weeks before opening, we got to work on the set. Creating two platforms to go along with the sets of stairs the production manager purchased. Sam V, Alex T (Props) and myself spent two long days measuring, cutting and assembling the platforms and painting the flats. 

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Painting the set was the best part, I bought in some friends for extra hands and gave everyone some direction in what I wanted for the spray paint. ​"Please look up graffiti in New York and anything that sounds topical." Nice and broad so that the graffiti wouldn't look to uniform because I wanted it to really look like multiple artists over years of painting over each other. 

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This was my first set I was the lead set designer on and I'm very proud of how it went. I'm excited for the future, whether it be a lead designer or being an extra set of hands to help out building, this is my passion. 

Reader, if you or anyone you know are doing a production, be it a play, musical or movie, my contact details are in the footer and I'm keen to hear from you.