Set Design
Designing oppression: timber, iron, and claustrophobia
Stage Space Simulator
1. The Proctor Farmhouse (Act 2)
Design focus: The ceiling beams should hang deliberately low to create claustrophobia. Sparse furniture and rough-hewn timber suggest hard labour and a joyless theocracy. This lets the audience feel how private guilt is amplified by a society designed to suffocate.
Exam Terminology Bank
Unit Set
A single, persistent structure used across locations. In The Crucible, it can trap characters in the same “wooden cage” while furniture shifts signal house/court/jail.
Rostrum / Levels
Raised platforms that create visible status. In Act 3, Danforth elevated forces the accused to look up — architecture becomes intimidation.
Sightlines
What the audience can (and cannot) see. Bars or framing can restrict sightlines so the audience feels imprisoned with Proctor in Act 4.
Rough-Hewn Texture
Unpolished, axe-cut timber. It signals frontier harshness and the “unfinished” brutality of Salem’s morality.
📝 Exam Builder: Set design paragraphs
Board-aware model paragraphs that connect set choices → meaning → audience effect.
Synopsis & Journeys
From whispered rumours to the gallows.
Context & History
1692 Salem, Puritanism, McCarthy allegory.
Characters & Acting
Status, control, and ensemble hysteria.
Key Scenes & Proxemics
Forest / farmhouse / courtroom / jail staging.
Themes & Quotes
Reputation, fear, authority — performance-led.
Design Elements
Set / lighting / sound / costume.