Set Designs For "The Scarlet Letter"

The following are some views of 3D set models created for the new musical production of "The Scarlet Letter". For those interested in technical details, the models were developed and rendered with Visual Reality 2.0 and were created by the designer, Scott Freiheit, who is also the author of the show.

THE SETTING: Boston, 1640's

This first picture represents the MEETINGHOUSE and the SCAFFOLD which are located stage right. (Although the scaffold is really situated closer to the center of the stage in the actual design.) Everything in the main town square is very stark and bleak. Greys and browns. Untreated wood that has been hammered by the hard weather of New England. There are also virtually no curved lines on this part of the set, and everything is rigidly balanced to suggest the prim conformity of the Puritan community.

Another interesting aspect to the over-all design philosophy is the use of an "A" motiff on most of the buildings and structures. "The Scarlet Letter" is a novel that uses a great deal of symbolism so I have tried to incorporate that into the set. The roofs, trim and arches are virtually all some variation of the "A" theme, and there are other "A's" hidden around the set which can only be seen from certain angles.

The balcony of the MEETINGHOUSE (which is mentioned in the novel) provides a dramatic acting space for the civic leaders in the opening sequence as they confront their prisoner, Hester Prynne on the SCAFFOLD below. The SCAFFOLD is the focus of many of the most important moments in the show and must be placed so that it is the point where the natural eye line is attracted.

Here we see the interior of the JAIL. This building is located stage left and is built on a revolve unit. At the top of the show we see the exterior front and door and later the entire unit will rotate to the view pictured here.

The JAIL continues the "A" motiff and also the stark, "hardness" of the entire town setting. Buildings made of brick and stone were virtually unknown in the Boston of this time period and even the JAIL was made of wood.

The room is sparcely furnished with just a hard bench, a small table and a hook on the wall to hang a lantern. The lighting represented here is more to illustrate the details of the set rather than to convey a feeling of the actual stage lighting.