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I don't believe in illusion. I believe in delusion that comes from the
text and I try not to illustrate on top of that.
I am Riccardo Fernandez I am a scenic designer.
[MUSIC] I know this sounds like a contradiction and wrong to say but I just
don't like scenery. What I like is something that has it's
own visual power. That allows the play to happen.
I try not to get on top of the play. And I don't believe in that kind, you
know, like proppy decoration. I, I, I gravitate to something more based
on the, the big, the big idea and how it's implemented by the actors.
I was born in Cuba, but I grew up in Argentina, Buenos Aires, and my father
was an opera singer. When I was a little kid all I wanted to
do was sing opera, because I, I was raised in that world.
Then my voice changed. I would say that by the age of 10 I
really wanted to pursue a career in set design.
One of the operas that I saw when I, when I was a little kid Was designed by
Ming[UNKNOWN] who is the head of the design program here at Yale.
I think it was my first opera ever, actually, and eventually I just
gravitated, finished my undergrad and applied to Yale an came to Yale and then
I reminded Ming, my teacher, that I had seen one of his operas in Buenos Aires.
And he was shocked. It was like, oh no, no that was horrible.
It was like, you know, he did not like the production.
But I, I told him, listen, I was a kid and I thought it was the most beautiful
thing I'd ever seen. After I graduated, all I wanted to do was
opera. But, little by little I, you know, I
started entering the world of musicals. I did Bring In The Noise, Bring In The
Funk with George C. Wolfe and then I did Parade with Hal
Prince. its just how things just you know life
lead to meeting all these incredible directors.
So I was very, I'm very fortunate. The first meeting with the director is
always about how should we do it, why are we doing this play right now.
So you know little by little you start formulating this 3 dimensional world.
And there comes a point in time where you have to, like, you know, draw it, give to
the shop so they start building, but that process can take up to, to to a year.
And once you finalize the, the set design, in model form, it's only the
first step. It re-, everything changes by the time
you get here. Here we're at the Yale Rep and tonight as
the opening of Full Tessa's Battle of Black and Dogs.
The director of this play is,uh, Robert Woodruff.
One of the things that we wanted to do with this play is to be as simple as
possible in a very aggressive way. To depict a very cold and human world.
There was something about. This play, that has to do with the
imposition of culture, I felt very strongly that I needed to gut, to like
really expose the room in a very honest way.
So, what I loved is that we could actually take the stage out completely,
and expose it, which you see right now. And on top of it to create this layer of
adding things, and it's all structural. It's real steel i-beams, the floor is
glass. So when the actors are on stage, they can
actually see through this other pit to almost get the sense that there's no that
no-, nothing is grounded. These are lost souls.
In a very inhuman world. What Robert Woodruff kept talking about,
which is very interesting to me, was the notion of light, characters talking about
being outside the light, inside the light.
And the one thing that I knew, it is that it was not stage light.
It had to be something else, more brutal. And little by little, we came up with
this notion that's almost like a boxing ring with this massive weapon like hands.
And that idea came from the notion of thise, sewers.
Because it;s part of the play. So we inverted that idea, and they really
put out a lot of light, to the point where it's blinding.
And it creates this alienating uncanny worlds.
You see this, this, the smallness and the loneliness of these people in this, in
this inhuman cold space. I'm working with a, a new play at the
Atlantic theater that David Spornson is directing.
The most important part for me is being in the tech rehearsal with the director
and all the components. Of the team.
lighting, sound, clothing, everything. It's the one time when you put everything
together. When you, when you discover things.
This play takes place during World War II, in the Channel Islands.
And it's during the German occupation. David, the director, asked that famous
question, where are we, how do we present this island?
And he also felt that we, we needed to feel the compression, the, the, the, the,
of occupation. And we did again a lot of research and I
found these really disturbing massive concrete bunkers that the German's had
and I felt somehow that, that needed to be part of the world.
And again exactly what we did is we basically took everything out, and it's a
raw space. But we, put this disjointed mass of
concrete wall and this deck, this almost like floating island that is collapsing
and falling apart. And it's on a very extreme rake.
Everything is angled, like destroyed, like their lives have been turned upside
down. and I think it's exciting, because it's
you walk into a room. And the set is really not telling you
much, except that it becomes alive when you hear the first sound, the first
words. To do justice to the text, you have to
creat an honoest space. And sometimes it's based on architecture,
materials. but mostly in, there's gotta be some kind
of idea that frames the piece. I love the anxiety that it creates, you
know, it's an unknown, it, it's really terrifying, and you can't preconceive
anything. So I love, I, I thrive that challenge.
I think the day that goes It's over. I, I need that mystery.
[MUSIC][MUSIC][MUSIC]