Peter Larlham’s rendition of Paradise Hotel was truly a delight to see and exceeded any existing expectations I had prior to seeing the play. Paradise Hotel easily became one of my favorite plays that I have seen at SDSU, not only because it was hysterical and cast perfectly, but also because it was enriched with impressive design elements that contributed to the success of the play. I use the word impressive in explaining the design elements of the play because of how well the strict budget was utilized for Paradise Hotel. In my opinion, it is safe to say that someone outside of the theatre department wouldn’t be aware of any sort of restricting budget because of how beautifully the set was built and arranged on stage, how appealing and tasteful the costumes on the actors were, and the professionalism executed by the lighting crew in their light design throughout the play.
I thoroughly enjoyed the detail of the set not just in its design but the detailed thought that must have been attributed to how the scene changes would be orchestrated throughout the play. Participating in the scenery lab has given me a new respect for the crew behind the scenes. I am more aware of the thought, time, and effort put into the sets of the plays at SDSU. Each Thursday that I would attend the scenery lab I would be able to see the gradual growth of the set of Paradise Hotel, and being able to finally see the set onstage was moving. The set was very appropriate for the setting of the play and the time in history that the play took place. What made the set appropriate to the plays setting and to the overall script of Paradise Hotel was many contributing factors; color scheme that was chosen, building structure, spacing within the set, furniture that was chosen, etcetera. For example, the most important part of the set itself that kept the set in compliance to the script was the Hotel set, and the scenery crew nailed that crucial element of the scenery for the play with its inside view of the hotel. The scenery was successful in providing a visual of the recurring themes of hysterical chaos and mistaken identity between the characters with its overall view into the hotel and into a few of the rooms as well. The setting of the play takes place in 1908 in Paris, France and therefore the building structure, color scheme, and furniture had to obtain the characteristics of this part of Europe. This rendition of Paradise Hotel successfully remained relevant with its setting and script not just through the design of the set but also through the design of moving the set. The scene changes were a major contributor to keeping the set relevant to the script. The set itself would move forward, back, and side to side in order to keep pace with the scene changes within the play. Not only was the scenic design aspect a major contributor to the success of the play, but also costumes are just as essential and vital to the play’s success.
The costumes paraded around the stage were nothing short of artistic and well done. I have a great appreciation for not only the scenery crew of the show but the costume crew as well. The talent in the costume design of the play is immense; to be able to construct such beautiful costumes with the issue of a restricting budget is quite an achievement in my opinion. As previously mentioned, the time period of the play was set in the 1900’s. When I think of that era the first few words that come to mind are modesty and classiness; during those times the men and women dressed with a high level of modesty, conservatism, and class. Their clothes weren’t revealing; clothing showed stature and rank in society. The costume crew of Paradise Hotel truly captured the essence behind how people dressed during that time. Not only did the costume designers remain within the styles of the 1900s but they also brought the characters to life through the design of their characters. The costumes were also appropriate in relation to the script. Thomas Hodges’ character Benoit Pinglet had a lot of patterns and vibrant colors in his costumes. What I gathered from that observation was that his character was somewhat scatter brained and full of spontaneity, so therefore his clothing needed to be chaotic, loud and busy in order to better portray his character’s personality. Yet another design aspect other then scenery and costuming that greatly contributed to the success of Paradise Hotel was the lighting design element within the play.
One of the first times I took notice to the element of lighting design in the show was in the opening scene when it was supposed to be raining. Through the window the motion of the light was fluttering and appeared as rain falling outside in the world of the play. I thought that this was an extremely cool effect, to manipulate light in its motion and color in order to make it have a similar appearance to rain. Later in the play this lighting trick compliments the script because Shane Blackburn’s character Mathieu has a problematic speech condition when it rains. Another part of the show that I thought tied the lighting design into the script as well as the time that the play took place was the scenes in the Paradise Hotel. When the characters would enter into their individual hotel rooms they would use candles, or artificially lit candles, that were used as a tool to make the audience believe that the candles were serving to light the room, this is an example of isolating light. The biggest hint to this element of light design was the scene in which Bradley Sattler’s character, Henri Paillardin, mistakes a handful of little girls to be ghosts when the rambonxious girls have a tiff and ultimately blow out their candle, and use smaller lights to light their faces. In this scene certain cues of light have to be given in order for the candle effect to be believable for the audience. Also, this scene reminds the audience of the time that the play takes place in since candles are being used as opposed to light switches.
All of the design elements utilized in the production of Paradise Hotel are crucial to the success of the play. Each design element serves to enrich the play and compliments one another, therefore the show would be lacking without the use of all three elements simultaneously. The crew of each area of design not only did a beautiful job in producing their designs but kept their designs relevant to the script and setting of the play. Overall, I was impressed with the production of Paradise Hotel and appreciative of each design element. The play was very well done, and I am proud of SDSU’s theatre department as a whole for its efforts in making the production of Paradise Hotel possible. It was a beneficial learning experience for me. Being able to understand the labor that goes into designing a play has changed my outlook on theatre in a positive way and has inspired me even further to aid in the process of designing a play here at SDSU.
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