OBIE Award-winning Set Designer Mimi Lien joins Studio Theatre for the first time with the Studio Lab production of Red Speedo. She previously worked with playwright Lucas Hnath on the world premiere of his play A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay about the Death of Walt Disney at Soho Rep. Lien is a sculpture and architect, and her work often focuses on the interaction between the audience and environment. Here are her thoughts on the design process for Hnath’s play.
When I first read the play, one thing I noticed right away was its compression, both in language and action. The design that [director] Lila and I arrived at only uses about half of the available space in Stage 4. The compressed volume of space helps us treat Ray as a kind of specimen on display: the first line of the play is, “A man. This man. Here is a man.” The design kind of pins Ray against the wall, and the audience watches from a seating bank that’s going to feel steeply raked, which evokes the bleachers of sporting events and helps characterize them as spectators and jury.
The next thing we thought about was how to evoke reality in this space. We chose a few elements that represent a pool—the ubiquitous tile, a big clock, a bench, of course Ray in his speedo as an object and a character. But ultimately, this stage is a space of examination, not really a location. It’s not a three-sided room, as you’d expect in a naturalistic set; it’s more presentational.
And finally, Lila and I have worked with the staff at Studio to find an interesting way to get into the space, up this back staircase, up a ladder, across a bridge, and down into the space. Lila was interested in the idea of the ways that pools are frequently hidden in the inner sanctum of a building. We’re looking into using a little bleach to get some olfactory design as well.