About the Design
A scenic design for Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes — the story of the Hubbard family’s ruthless ambition in a turn-of-the-century Southern household. The set captures the outward elegance and simmering tension of the Hubbard parlor: fine furniture, a grand piano, towering panelled walls, and a staircase that becomes the play’s dramatic spine.
Designed for a thrust stage with audience seating wrapping three sides, the set uses a faceted platform to carve intimate playing areas from the open floor — a parlor grouping centre, a dining area stage right, and a music alcove stage left — while the back wall and staircase unit anchor the architecture.
Design Process
The project progressed through three render modes in Vectorworks — hidden-line wireframes establishing spatial relationships, white-model shading to study volume and light, and fully textured OpenGL renderings resolving material, colour and atmosphere — each paired with a dimensioned ground plan documenting the configuration for the build.
Two distinct scene configurations were developed: the formal parlor arrangement and a revised layout centring the grand staircase, each with its own furniture plot and architectural treatment.
Act I — The Parlor
The formal parlor of the Hubbard home — panelled back wall with display cabinets, grand piano stage left, settee and armchairs centre, staircase partially visible stage right.
Act II — The Staircase
The set reconfigures to reveal the grand staircase as the centrepiece — arched windows stage left, a relocated piano, and a dining area stage right under framed portraits.
