Creative Ideas for Stage Right for the set of “In the Heights”

I thought of having a fire escape on the Stage Right building. I got this idea firstly from reading (from the script) that the play is set in Washington Heights in Manhattan and I instantly thought of the ‘typical’ Manhattan apartment with boarded-off fire escapes on one side, so I researched this and gathered a collection of images. Then, using ideas from these images, I sketched my own version for the set. To make it more interesting and put my own twist on it I’m going to make the bars curved rather than straight.

As there is a character in the play called Graffiti Pete, we deemed it necessary that there should be graffiti on the wall. Also, the script says that Graffiti Pete is “painting various walls in the neighbourhood”. During the interval after Act 1, there is a riot and so parts of the set need to look dishevelled. Therefore the graffiti will only appear in Act 2, after the interval, to contribute to the messy set. To do this we will paint the graffiti onto a large piece of thin card, and attach it to the set in the interval.

My idea of having ivy growing from corners of the buildings came purely from my imagination. The buildings are quite worn down and I think ivy will be an authentic choice of decoration to achieve this particular look because it will look overgrown and not particularly well looked after, which is the desired look for the set.

One of my ideas was to create crescent shaped windows at the tops of the doors on set. Since there are no parts of the script that relate to the windows, I thought that it would be aesthetically pleasing to create windows that are not just straight – it will give the set character. I researched New York City buildings to see if any specific windows showed up and the picture to the left is what I found. These types of windows therefore fit into the set contextually as the play is set in Washington Heights.

I thought of having lace curtains hung behind the windows on the set because the script states that elderly people live in one of the apartments on Stage Right, and typically lace curtains are associated with older people. It would also look aesthetically pleasing rather than having blank windows – it would make the set have a more realistic feel.

This is my final individual design for a specific flat on Stage Right. It’s labelled “T2” because it is on the top tier of the set and the 2nd flat along. As you can see, I have taken all of my initial ideas from above and incorporated them into one final design that will become my ultimate product. The measurements of the flat are: 1.22m wide x 1.9m high. The colour of the flat is “Wholemeal” brown because we wanted to achieve a run-down look using dark, earthy colours.