Euripides’ MEDEA

Final Scene Designby

Sarah Alonso

Colton Carroll

Sabrina Tucker

Christian Woodard-Sett

26 April 2011

Scenic Model

Costume Sketches with Fabric Swatches

Characters:

Medea

Jason

The Children

Medea’s Costume

Jason’s Costume

The Children’s Costumes

Scenic Rendering

Design Statement

The overall concept of the play takes places when Medea is in a coma after intentionally

causing a car accident in order to kill her children. The children have already just died and she is

in a critical state herself, in a coma. The play takes place in Medea's mind while she is in the

coma. While she is in her coma, she can still hear things around her and what she is hearing, her

brain is taking in and absorbing into the atmosphere of her internal dream-state. The set concept

is a hospital room with all its sterile cold qualities layered with a spacious environment that

represents the fractured nature of her mind. Medea is lying in the hospital room (this is hinted at

by images projected on the scrims, and by ambient hospital sounds, etc.) but her mind is

elsewhere, deep inside herself, interacting with the characters in her life within the context of her

shattered consciousness. In this final scene we see her interacting with Jason.

Design Statement (continued)The overall mood is dark, foreboding, sterile, cold, and broken. The visual production

style is styled and simplistic, with striking contrasts between bold blood red and a subtle range of

shades of gray. The visual metaphor is a broken mirror. This represents how shattered her state

of mind and psyche are; within her own being, the elements of herself are broken distorted, and

dissociated from one another.

The elements of design are used to c onvey this mood and atmosphere. Jagged, b roken

lines dominate and represent the fractured, shattered nature of her interior and exterior life. The

shapes are triangular like glass shards. The space is left very open and vast, but is interrupted by

monolithic or jagged shard-like shapes. The values are high contrast. The textures are metallic,

cold, steely, and cracked. The patterns are reminiscent of broken glass. The colors in t he

costumes and set itself are pr imarily gray tones, but blue gels are also used to create a cool

lifeless atmosphere. Red gels are used in the very end to emphasize the bloody quality of the

scene with the sons being revealed in the gurneys. The lighting is used to create long dark

shadows and stark contrast. There will also be spotlighting on Medea when she finally dies and

is carried away on the gurney with her sons being wheeled away alongside her.

Collage

Visual Metaphor

Painting Representative of

Design Style

By Otto Dix