About the Design
A scenic design for Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing set in a Moorish-influenced courtyard palace. The design draws on Islamic geometric patterns, mashrabiya lattice screens, and the scalloped archways of Andalusian architecture to create the warm, sunlit world of Messina where Beatrice and Benedick spar their way toward love.
Designed for a thrust stage with audience wrapping three sides, the set centres on a raised platform with a grand ornamental doorway backed by a colonnade of horseshoe arches. Carved lattice screens flank the stage, benches and chairs provide intimate playing areas, and a geometric star fountain anchors the courtyard floor.
Design Process
The project developed through hidden-line wireframes — first a clean elevation establishing the architectural massing, then a technical view showing the overhead lighting grid — before moving to a fully textured OpenGL rendering with warm stage lighting and a subtle theatrical vignette.
Three ground plans document the design at increasing levels of detail: a simplified furniture plot, a full scenic plan with lattice screen positions, and a comprehensive theatre plan showing the stage within the full house.
Renderings
From wireframe through to rendered visualization — the Moorish courtyard set in Vectorworks.
Ground Plans
Dimensioned plans documenting the scenic configuration at three levels of detail.
