Set Design
projects.
Here are some examples of my past designs. For more info look at the individual showcases!
A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream
School House Rock Live Jr.
Class Action - Virtual
about.
Hello, I'm Jessica Nero, a theatre technician and artist. I became interested in theatre at a very young age, always fascinated with the interworkings of productions. I have worked on many shows in the past, in person and online, as a set designer and a stage manager. I always love diving into a new project and completely immersing myself into everything I do.
A Midsummer Night's Dream
We wanted to focus on the class divide in the show so we made an effort to make the set for the players scenes dirtier. We sanded down each piece of wood and put them together to create a mismatched pattern, as if they pieced the bar together as driftwood washed on shore. This contrasts the back of the bar set which is used to represent the upper class. It is a solid red and black - symbolizing power since this is the background for the king - with a fancy design to add elegance.
My director decided to set this Shakespearean classic in 1960's Hawaii - during the sudden increase in tourism and love for Polynesian culture
The lifeguard tower is a representation of the increase of tourism. It is painted fresh white to show the modern/freshness of the tower. We wanted it to oppose the other features of the set to show how tourism has just recently developed, with Americans commercializing Hawaii and romanticizing the beaches and sun.
We used a multitude of rolling platforms so we could move them around throughout the show, displaying the chaotic nature of the show. Also, we layered each platform with logs and fabric to add depth, covering them with greens and browns to resemble the Hawaiian rainforest.
In the background, we had a large volcano take a majority of the ground row to relate to Titania’s character. As the Hawaiian goddess of volcanoes, we wanted the set to reflect her power over the land. It also provided us with a large area where we could work with lighting to create an intense storm during the fight between Titania and Oberon.
contact.
A Midsummer Night's Dream Inspiration
We made our Titania Pele, the goddess of Volcanoes so it was vital that we incorporated a Hawaiian volcano into our set somehow.
A major element of our set (not pictured) was the postcards along the proscenium. We made an effort to make them look vintage to suit the 60s time period. Also, many of the postcards relate to the characters/settings of the show. One of the postcards has an infamous quote from the characters as the message. Another one has a stamp with the image of a Hawaiian Honey-Creeper bird to resemble one of the fairies. Or a postcard that says “Fly Hawaiian” to show the increase of tourism of the time.
These are the general ideas of the back of the bar set for the players.
This is one of the original rough sketches I did. Initially, we were going to add many platforms to the front of the volcano, but it ended up taking up too much space and made the rest of the stage hard to get to so we had to readjust our design.
IOriginally, I was going to make the hotel pink, reminiscent of this iconic, vintage Hawaiian hotel, but iI liked the meaning behind the color we eventually chose.
Virtual Shows
Over the course of 2020, my school did numerous virtual shows, which were quite the challenge to set design for. One idea that I am very proud of however, is when two students needed to perform a scene in a car, but one student's virtual background did not work. To solve this issue, I asked the student to hold their computer in front of their car seat and leave the camera's view. I then screenshotted the student's car, flipped it and had the other student use it as their background
Not the exact picture
School House Rock Live Jr.
Inspiration
Here is my inspiration for this show. I pulled many images from kindergarten classrooms because I wanted to capture the juvenile, vibrant setting of the teacher's class.
For this design, I decided to use a unit set since the plot is all about the teacher getting ready for his first kindergarten class. I mostly used primary colors to highlight the simplicity and I covered the floor in various shapes and swirls. I believe these basic designs fit perfectly with the juvenile setting. I added the platforms in the back to add levels, which provided the perfect space for me to create a chalkboard backdrop with random basic math questions and other shapes. You can see all the different elements I hung from our ceiling, relating to the essentials of a kindergarten classroom. We also had a few acting boxes painted as building blocks for the actors to use as props and add more levels. There was a large purple TV on stage left that all the cast walked in and out of, the size adding to the magical elements of the show - all the characters coming out of a TV show. Lastly, to cover the stairs, I cut out a stack of books, also painted the primary colors, as a clever way to conceal a piece of functionality with something that added to the set.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
This is a rough sketch of my upcoming production, The Curious Incident. of the Dog in the Night-time. There are many layered platforms, providing plenty of space for the actors to vary their blocking and add levels. Also, I made the set symmetrical to highlight the main character, Christopher's, autism and how he requires order to function. In addition to this, there is a light outline of a grid on the floor since Christopher sees
the world like a mathematical equation.
Another aspect of this set is the flats
surrounding the platforms. They are
covered in chalkboard paint, allowing
the characters to write out their thoughts
for the audience to see and for
Christopher to display how his brian
functions. Lastly there are chairs evenly
placed along the platforms for the entire
cast since they stay on stage for the entirety of the show, perfectly placed for them to watch Christopher, adding to the character's paranoia and trapped feeling.
How I Learned to Drive
This is a set from a class project I did last year. I read through this play and chose a scene to design a set for. In this scene, the main character is at college and receiving letters from her uncle whom she is ignoring, and he keeps sending her gifts. Since this story follows the protagonist from her childhood to college, I wanted to keep her in an academic environment since it is her only scene at college. I also placed her in the history section of a library because it is a theme throughout the show that she is obsessed with her history class. I wanted to make it simplistic since the main attention of this scene is the narrator (who would be standing in front of the brick wall) and the projection that would be above, showing the letters, slowly etching onto a piece of paper, as if the uncle was writing the letters as she received them.
