Stage Design for Whale Rider

For my stage design I used several different things to make the scenes come alive. In stage right there is a door with a porch in front of it. This is where most of the characters will exit and enter. In the door there is Nanny Flowers watching over connect. The door and the porch will look old and worn down. The porch is decorated with flowers to represent life in the novel. Downstage (stage right) there is a garden. Kahu is attending to the carrots in the garden, and this will be the place Nanny Flowers and Kahu talk and work together. The garden would have lots of different vegetables in it, so that there is more life on the stage. Stage left there is the meeting place/church like area. Upstage (stage left) there is a podium, so the audience will be able to see the person talking (in this case Papa Apriana.)  Down stage (stage left) there are chairs facing the podium, so the audience will see the back of their heads. This is the place the boys will meet and they will learn about there culture. Downstage center there is the ocean (the blue blocks), this is where the scenes with the whales will be. The ocean will be projected and it will be digital. This holds a significance, because the whales connect with the aspect I want to get across.

I also wanted to keep the set simple. In the novel, the people don't have much, they live in a small village with not much going on. These three places were the things I wanted to highlight, because these events were important to the theme I wanted to highlight, which is the relationship between the people and the whales. So,  the set is simple, yet creative in it own way.