Genevieve Schmidt

For my final project in my Intro to Design Class, we were asked to make a model for a theoretical set design if we were to make a staged show of the poem October's Party by George Cooper.

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Poem:

October gave a party;
The leaves by hundreds came—
The Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples,
And leaves of every name.
The Sunshine spread a carpet,
And everything was grand,
Miss Weather led the dancing,
Professor Wind the band.

The Chestnuts came in yellow,
The Oaks in crimson dressed;
The lovely Misses Maple
In scarlet looked their best;
All balanced to their partners,
And gaily fluttered by;
The sight was like a rainbow
New fallen from the sky.

Then, in the rustic hollow,
At hide-and-seek they played,
The party closed at sundown,
And everybody stayed.
Professor Wind played louder;
They flew along the ground;
And then the party ended
In jolly "hands around."

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Concept: When I think of autumn, I think of orange leaves and the golden sunshine peeking through the branches. When I think of a party in autumn, I think of roaring 20's Art Deco, so I had this vision that October's Party would take place in an Art Deco ballroom that is slowly turning into an autumn forest...Or, is it an autumn forest turning into an Art Deco ballroom?

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Process: When doing research, I looked up photos of autumn forests, 1920's ballrooms, and Art Deco patterns that conveyed the image that I was going for.

When making the model, I cut out, painted, and drew the geometric gold patterns and the trees around the proscenium and side curtains on black paper. I also painted the backdrop using metallic watercolor to look like a forest with the sun peeking through the trees, and a back wall to look like the wall of the ballroom. After that, I taped all the pieces together so that they could act like a pop-up book and go from 2-D to 3-D easily.