The setting, properties, lights and sound help the actors tell the play's story. Here are definitions and activities to help you learn how to be a designer and create these parts of a performance.

Click on My Vocabulary to write in the drama words you want to put in your dictionary.

environment – includes everything that surrounds the
actors in a play. This is what the audience sees and hears. All of this sets the mood and helps tell the story. It includes the sets and props, the lighting and sound. It also includes the costumes.

To get started, click on Environment Introduction for ideas and activities to create environments for dramas.

Or make a collage about your environment.

setting - where the play takes place. The playwright and
the actors need to know what that place looks like. What is there.

• If it is inside, what room is it in? What is on the walls, the floor and the ceiling? What is in the room?
• If it is outside, where is it? Is it a desert or a forest, a garden or a street? Is it summer or winter?

floor plan - a birds-eye view drawing of the setting. It shows where things are in the setting. Designers make a floor plan before they build a set. The floor plan helps them see the size and placement of the background and set props. Click on floor plan to find instructions for making your own floor plan.  

rendering – a colored drawing of a setting or costume.
Check out the list of materials you’ll need to make your own rendering.

Costume design by Galena Mahaleva

props – things that actors use. Big things like chairs and
tables are called set props. Smaller things like cups and spoons, books and pencils are called hand props.

hand props – objects that an actor uses on stage, like a
cup or book or telephone. Check out the form for gathering hand props.

set props – a piece of furniture or a big thing like a tree that is part of a setting

Check out the suggestions for Finding the Settings and Props at school

lighting – how designers use light in a setting to make certain that the actors and action can be seen. Lighting also sets time of day and mood. For instance, blue light suggests night, light yellow/amber suggests morning. Soft blue light makes a scene seem sad or scary. A light stage is more appropriate for a comedy.

sound – what the audience hears, other than the dialogue. Many plays and movies have music in the background. Often there are sound effects, sounds to make us think we’re hearing what is happening on stage. For instance sounds of rain, wind or water can be used. Sounds of crashes and falls are another example of sound effects. It is fun to make your own sound effects. For a bit more information, check out sound at the end of the "Finding the Settings at School."

costumes – the clothes the characters wear. The clothes need to fit the play – and the character. Old photos or pictures in books are a good place to check out what the characters would be dressed like. Click on costumes to find renderings for clothes people wore at different times in the past and for suggestions of where to find or make simple costumes.