Scene Design Curriculum

Nine graduate studios in scene design, taken concurrently with nine graduate studios in computer-aided design, one seminar in script analysis and research, three courses in development of theatre, two seminars in dramatic literature, performance theory, criticism, contemporary theatre, and designs for 3-5 budgeted and fully-produced productions on one of UCI's 5 theatres' stages provide a challenging and deeply engaging course of study, preparing students for entry into design careers across the nation.

There are nine quarters of instruction (3 per year for 3 years). Each quarter, scene designers take a core course, DR 255, that emphasizes design conceptualization supported by the fundamental development and presentational skills of drawing, drafting, rendering, model-making and story-boarding. With concept-making as the center, the individual development and presentation skills each receive a quarter's focus in sequence.

First Year

Drawing activities are continuous and ever-present in the scene design program. It is considered the primal skill for our designers. Incoming scenics begin this engagement in the first quarter core course of their first year with the Head of the Scene Design Program, Douglas-Scott Goheen, PhD. This is a unique project-driven course that explores design solutions through the use of graphite (only) as a medium. These projects are presented through traditional hand-drafting and large monochromatic graphite renderings. The medium restriction allows the students to concentrate on value-relationships as the basis for representing the play of light on scenic objects. Second quarter, the core instruction presented by Cliff Faulkner is a drawing-based development class exploring individual props as extensions of onstage characters. This valuable theatre scene design skill has even deeper application to the nearby related industries of film, television and theme entertainment. Third quarter, Prof. Goheen finishes up the year of core course work with a class that extends drawing into painting through traditional renderings, hand-painted and with full-palette color. The weekly script-based projects explore a variety of liquid media, mixed media and grounds. These 10 projects have the added benefit of practicing concept-making through the demand for a-show-a-week.

Second Year

The scene design core begins with Prof. Goheen requiring a full presentation materials package (sketches, drafting, renderings, painter's elevations) for a single "complex" production that requires serious scenery shifting and multiple looks. This single-script 10-week project, usually an opera or musical theatre, results in a complete, fully articulated package of presentation materials of some magnitude. Second quarter, Prof. Faulkner conducts a model-making class that explores the various construction techniques and materials used in several performance media. Prof. Goheen concludes the year's core offerings with a course devoted to the development of exterior site-based scene designs for non-traditional or found performance venues. These "alternative theatre" projects require field work, photography and are presented in model form.

Third Year

Technically, the core course in one of the quarters of a student's third year is selected as scheduled thesis development time. Typically, however, students opt to take all three core courses so as not to miss any of the skill-offerings of these concept-based classes. Prof. Goheen begins the third-year core courses with a rendering-based class that helps to finalize the student's personal preference of rendering tools and materials as they near the end of their graduate career. The designs for three separate script-based projects are presented as dry monochrome medium, mixed media that includes collage and a final presentation in media of the student's own choosing. In the second quarter, Prof. Faulkner teaches a core course in story-boarding using the media of choice for sketch artists: felt pen. This technically intense drawing/painting class explores skill-sets that are in considerable demand in all theatre-related performance industries. The final core course of the three years is a television/art direction class that Prof. Goheen team-teaches with two working union production designers in Los Angeles. With Prof. Goheen acting as facilitator and mentor, students are assigned projects and meet with the professional designers at their LA production studios for project critique as well as professional art direction/production designer advice and career suggestions.

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