I chose to do Terra Nova for my thesis because I was intrigued by the idea of a man searching for where he belonged in life. The show tells the story of Robert Scott’s doomed expedition taking five men to the South Pole in 1911-1912. During the trek we discover that he has lived his life believing he was meant to be the first to the South Pole, but the reality is that his purpose was to be the last one alive to ensure their story was told.

In his journey he encounters Roald Amundsen, the Norwegian who had been to the Pole only a few weeks before Scott. Since they never met in real life and only Scott can see him, Amundsen acts as his guide and conscience. We also flash back to see scenes with his wife, Kathleen, where again, only Scott can see her.

I wanted the world to be large, vast, empty. That we would see five men in a huge environment and understand how barren it was, while still having the opportunity to be able to bring the focus down to small areas for intimate scenes. The Vivian Beaumont Theatre in New York’s Lincoln Center ended up being the perfect space, incredibly deep (100’+) with a thrust stage that could bring the characters to the audience. The set was a large sweeping surround that curved into the stage floor, in an effort to eliminate the horizon. It is a very organic, translucent white surround, probably made from a type of plastic sheeting, allowing sharp edges as well as gentle curves. Upstage left is a large cavern that extends further behind the set as a main entrance.

This essentially set up the idea of three worlds, Scott’s, Amundsen’s and Kathleen’s. Scott’s world was very cool, clean blues and crisp whites that blended the line between floor and wall by using the same color. Backlighting the surface also helped eliminate shadows, assisting in showing Scott lost in his environment, both physically and emotionally. Amundsen’s idea was the opposite, the same colors were used to create a horizon and shadows helped demonstrate the Amundsen was comfortable, found. Kathleen represented home, a warm underlit area helped define her space, identifying her with the most comfortable world that he has known.

One of the major elements in this piece is the aurora. It occurs during moments of Scott beginning to lose his grasp of reality and climaxes at the end of the show with him lost in a maelstrom of emotion with past decisions and characters haunting him. With a very surreal idea of Antarctica I had to come up with a surreal aurora that would fit. By using color faders on the units that backlit the space and gently fading very saturated, vibrawhat nt color that moved across the space. It would begin at the top of the wall and through the show make it’s way down until the end of the piece as Scott is being driven mad the colors swirl underneath him, fully encompassing his space until he cries “Stop, I make my peace with you!” and discovers the understanding that wishing you were elsewhere is not as important as living for the now and living where you are.