The Tony Award–winning scenic designer gives Playbill an inside glimpse at his creative process.
The original cast of Mean GirlsJoan Marcus
At the beginning of every Broadway creative process, all that exists is an empty stage. Using craft, imagination, and theatre magic, designers bring a production to life, transporting an audience to worlds near and far.
It’s a challenging feat for any one production, but for many Broadway designers, a life in the theatre involves re-inventing the wheel again and again. Playbill caught up with Tony Award–winning scenic designer Scott Pask to unpack his approach to design, his creative process, and to explore his favorite theatre designs.
"It has always been important to me to approach design like a chameleon. I design many different kinds of productions in a wide variety of formats: plays, musicals, operas, and dance for the stage, museum exhibitions, TV/film projects—and approach each one with a visual diligence and heightened level of specificity and detail, whatever the style, period, or aesthetic goals," Pask says. "I hope this selection of productions shows this diversity in approach as well as an aesthetic nimbleness, and that they are all linked by their rigor in attention to detail."
Set design sketch for The Band's Visit Courtesy of Scott Pask
After reading the material and speaking at length with a director about the goals for the production and developing a sense of space in which the story will be told, "sketches are quickly developed into more clear renderings and then into physical models to explore the space in three dimensions with the director and producer, along with the lighting, costume, sound, and prop designers," Pask says.
"Collaboration with the team is the most important part of the design journey and the conversations, investigation and work together is what ultimately shapes the process as well as the world onstage that we are creating."
From the high energy design of Mean Girls to the quiet nature of The Band's Visit, go inside Pask's process as he unpacks the designs of six of his favorite shows.
From Mean Girls to The Band's Visit, Scott Pask Unpacks His Favorite Theatre Designs
From Mean Girls to The Band's Visit, Scott Pask Unpacks His Favorite Theatre Designs
30 PHOTOS
"This is an early sketch for The Visit, a musical by Kander and Ebb and Terrence McNally. I’m beginning with this project that is very dear to me as a tribute to the wonderful Terrence, who recently passed away as a result of COVID-19, and for his husband Tom, who produced this production. It has been the greatest gift to have worked on three productions written by Terrence, who has been a theatrical and personal hero of mine for as long as I can remember."
Courtesy of Scott Pask
The VisitCourtesy of Scott Pask
"This was directed by the visionary John Doyle, and with many scenes and multiple locations, we approached this musical with the idea of creating one resonant and poetic space/installation that would serve as the environment for the entire production, with the cast and dramatic shifts in lighting (by Japhy Weidman) as the transforming elements. The lavish period costumes were by Ann Hould Ward."
Courtesy of Scott Pask
"For the onstage crucible of this tale of revenge, I developed a 19th-century European rail station ravaged by time and riddled with decay, where nature is literally reclaiming the land upon which it stands. Scenes in the forest were heightened by the prominence of this ominous natural world that had overtaken the man-made structure."
Courtesy of Scott Pask
"Creating The Band's Visit's small Israeli desert town of Bet Hatikvah onstage began with a few words for me from director David Cromer, who said, 'Think about a slow, lazy turntable.' I took this inspiration and developed a sort of town square anchored by Dina's Café, around which everything would transpire in this musical in which 'nothing really happens' but people are wonderfully transformed."
Courtesy of Scott Pask
"The central café sits on that lazy turntable, but I also added a rotating ring around it so the people and furniture could magically appear, like a mirage, while the central piece could stay stationary, or rotate in opposing directions, or both engage to spin together."
Matthew Murphy
"I did a lot of research and mapped street views of the town upon which Bet Hatikvah was based to get the architectural details and the all-important authenticity correct, while lifting the naturalism to a more painterly level to embrace the poetic beauty of David Yazbek’s transcendent score and lyrics. Upon the buildings is a heavily textured horizon of the desert in which the town sits, and the colors of the sand ombré upwards into the clear blue desert sky. In that sky we find the surreal existence of Dina’s window surveying the town."
Courtesy of Scott Pask
"The windows and buildings, each with their satellite dishes reaching out to the heavens and the world beyond, hoping, wishing for connection, give physical life to the words of David’s anthemic song 'Answer Me.' All beautifully lit by Tyler Micoleau and perfectly costumed by Sarah Laux."
Courtesy of Scott Pask
"I designed Mean Girls in the same Broadway season as The Band's Visit. They are both great shows, but their scenic designs couldn't be more different. It was an exciting exercise in guiding each design process to what would hopefully be the best onstage environment for the each production. Tina Fey’s brilliant and fast-paced book for the musical along with the similarly fast transitional pace and high energy work envisioned by director-choreographer Casey Nicholaw necessitated a nimble method of visual storytelling. In our very first meeting, Casey and I discussed the merits of projection and digital imaging technology onstage to establish that desired swiftness. We immediately decided it would be an effective tool for us. It also spoke to the Internet/social media culture of the teenagers onstage at North Shore High."
Courtesy of Scott Pask
"Burn Book pages are torn away to reveal others as the audience enters the theatre until showtime."
Courtesy of Scott Pask
