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Bransen Black

Professor Umfrid

Appreciation of TD&P

7 November 2017

Critical Essay 2

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time was one of the most
amazing shows I have seen in a long time. The story of this show felt so real to the
audience felt so real and raw. This show offered the right amount of escapism while all
at the same time being a real, emotional piece. This show hit me in a very vulnerable
spot, as I have had real life experience with my parents separating and also having
siblings with autism. Marcia Dodge did a fantastic job with the direction of this show and
really showing the truth of what it is like to interact with people with autism and also

gives the audience a peek into the mind of a person with autism .

The lighting designer for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time,
Matthew Richards did some remarkable work. The lighting design was very realistic and
very clearly directed the audiences attention to the action with ease. Matthew Richards
has a very deep background in theatre, with degrees from University of Massachusetts
and Yale School of Drama, you could say that Richards knows his way around
designing for the theatre. (Playbill pg. 17) Richards placed fixtures on the floor of the
stage, an interesting choice that I was unsure of before the show began but as I saw the
effect they created, I was mesmerized. These fixtures projected very sharp shadows on
to the walls of the set and created an effect of, what I would refer to as, suspended
reality, as Christopher, the main character, goes through his internal thought process
and also highlights the other actors on stage, although they may not be in the main

action of the scene.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time was a heavily choreographed
show. When people think of choreography, they think of big dance numbers but thats
not what this show was. The choreography was very pedestrian like and strongly
motivated. All of the actors on stage were constantly involved with the action although
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they might have not been speaking. The actors choreography included sharp walking
patterns, and moving of set pieces and props that were choreographed to the second in

order to keep up with the dialogue, the lighting, and the sound design of the scene .

The lighting designer and sound designer seemed to very closely together on this
project. A lot of the lighting cues were taken with sound cues and could have seemed

misplaced to someone who works in theatre if one was fired before the other . The

sound design was a little hard for me to get a grasp on at times though. There were
moments in the show where the sound designer chose to play rock n roll tracks that did
not really translate to me as an audience member; While on the other hand, the sound
designer created this beautiful transition music that was accompanied by a light chase
with some generic, house hold like, light bulbs hanging across the ceiling which was
really quite beautiful and aesthetically pleasing. The sound designer of this show did a
very good job of conveying the internal thought of the actors during this show with
pieces of music that the designer would underscore certain scenes with.
The set design of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time was very
minimalistic. The set was a unit set but it had various tricks up its sleeve. The set was
painted in what seemed to be a white board paint and the actors were able to write on it,
as Christopher did many times through the play, but what was so spectacular about the
actors writing and drawing on the set was that their drawings motivated the play For
example; Christopher draws what seems to be a door on a wall, complete with a
window and door knob and then suddenly the piece is pushed out from the wall and
acts as a doorway to help the audience know that they are changing locations and that
there is a door involved in the scene. Another example was when Christopher drew a
window on the wall and then pushed it open, to reveal a beam of light shining through to
help us, the audience distinguish time of day. This shows me that the set designer and
the lighting designer worked very closely in this process, as the lighting designer was
able to light each hole in the wall as they appeared to help the audience tell time of day.
Another way that you can tell scenic and lighting worked closely together was by the
way the walls were up lit with LEDs embedded in the stage floor under some

transparent masking.
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The costume design for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time was
very modern but could tell us a lot about the characters before they were even
introduced into the plot. The costuming was very important for this show, as it was a
very small company so the actors took on multiple roles and had to add or subtract
costume pieces as the show progressed in order to let the audience know that they are
a different character than the audience was previously introduced to. As far as I could
tell, there was no involvement with wigs in this show, although the wig and makeup
department was represented with corrective makeup on each actor.
The physical production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time
helped in the continuous flow of the show- There were multiple incidences in this show
where the audience would have been completely clueless without the help of the
lighting, scenic, sound, and even costume designer to help suggest time of day,
location, character, or even just to help highlight the main action of the scene- all of the
disciplines combined showed a great symbiotic relationship, which was very apparent to
the audience as we were on this journey through the world of a young boy named
Christopher and his journey to find out who killed his neighbors dog and to find out
where his mother disappeared to.