This article was written in the Spring of 2013.
Building scale models of theater sets, where the width of one sheet of paper equals an inch, requires many things. Attention to detail, an artistic eye, a sense for the play’s action, a steady hand, and a mathematical mind. But Cate McCrea ’13 brings something else to the table when she sits down to work on a set layout: knowledge of the historical significance of the moment she wants to represent.
A history and theatre double major, Cate spent the fall semester designing a set for Arthur Miller’s play Broken Glass. It takes place in 1938 and tells the story of a disintegrating marriage between two American Jews and their reaction to the Nazi Germany’s Kristallnacht. Cate’s concentration in 20th century European history, as well as her study of race and ethnicity, provided her with insights that another set designer might not have had. “My history major gives me the intellectual grounding and questioning that allows me to make the art that I do,” she explains.
Cate took an independent study last year with theatre professor David Morris. She designed five different sets for the play Agamemnon. Using insights gained in another class she was taking—Remembering American History, with professor Scott Wong—Cate found creative ways to represent memory in her sets. “The whole play is about remembering, and I was able to infuse all of the sets with the insights I gained in my history class,” she says. In one set, the memories discussed in the dialogue were represented in images projected onto large sails in the background.
Over Winter Study, Cate built the scale model of the set for Broken Glass inside an Adams Memorial Theatre replication measuring 1 x 1.5 x 2 ft. She made much of the furniture out of paper. “It looks great once you’ve got it down, but it takes a lot of practice,” she says. Cate will see her design come to life when Broken Glass is produced in May. Directed by David Eppel, the show will run May 2 through May 4, 2013. “Cate is a brilliantly talented designer, and her set has illuminated the play for me,” Eppel says. “Our talks about place, time, and emotional impact have borne very exciting fruit. I know the Williams community will be impressed when they see the results.”