How does a scenic concept, so convincing from the audience’s viewpoint, fail on the stage? The answer often lies with the difference between an elevation and a floor plan. Elevation is looking at a set or a scenic design, from the audience point-of-view, from the front. Floor plan is looking at a set, from above, and seeing where the platforms, flats, doors, furniture, etc. actually go.
An elevation is helpful when you’re trying to understand the stage picture. It helps you determine the height, the silhouette, the proportions, the block of colour and the focal point of a design. You can look at the elevation and say, ‘This door is way too tall or way too short. This platform is way too high or way too low and won’t provide enough visual contrast.’ But the elevation may not show you the depth of the elements. Two scenic elements that look far apart in an elevation can end up on top of each other when seen on the floor plan.
A floor plan makes it much easier to see depth. Start with a stage boundary, mark entrances and exits, walls, platforms and key furniture. Then sketch in the paths your actors will take. Is there a way to walk from one side of the stage to another without any obstacles? Can performers move behind one element of scenery? Is there a way to a key piece of furniture or scenic element that doesn’t feel contrived or awkwardly placed? It’s a floor plan that helps you understand how much acting space remains.
A novice may have trouble understanding scale. Your doorway might look great in the elevation but is too tiny on the floor plan. Your platform looks fine from an elevation, but when drawn on the floor plan, it turns out to be so large that it restricts performer movement and the audience’s view. Using a graph paper and/or a scale ruler is always advisable if possible. If there is a body in the elevation and the floor plan, it will help you understand how a person might walk through a door, step off of a step, move around furniture and so on.
You should build your elevations and your floor plans together. If you change something on the floor plan, such as the placement of a wall, see how that affects the elevation. If you change the height of the platform on an elevation, think about how a person can get there, and how much action will be obscured behind this platform. This back and forth process is crucial for the designer to move from a nice picture to a more realisable scenic concept.
The following is an activity designed for you to practice drawing two-dimensional floor plan and elevation drawings. Select a specific scene in a play that needs one entrance point, one area of seating and one area of a raised level. Draw a very simple stage plan with basic geometrical shapes to represent the seating, entrance and raised platform. Draw the corresponding floor plan and add two paths for performers to walk on. One will walk from an entrance, to the seating area and another from the seating area to the platform. Compare the two. Try changing an element that doesn’t offer good clearances for performers, the design doesn’t feel interesting visually, the path for actors is very complicated or the design seems to confuse the audience as to what is foreground and background.
Look at the two drawings side by side. Select an element of the design, such as a wall, and ‘trace’ it between the drawings. Now can you tell the width, the height and the depth of the wall on stage and the path of how actors would move around it in this world? This can be understood and is clear without further explanation. When these two types of drawings work together like this, you are on your way!