Cover Art
Four Preliminary Set Models
Mixed Media, by Don Yanik, Professor of Theatre
By Hannah Notess (hnotess@spu.edu)
Clockwise from top left: Nunsense, directed by Ruben Van Kempen, 2012; Antigone, directed by Andrew Ryder, 2004; The Elephant Man, directed by James Chapman, 2001; Much Ado ΒιΆΉΣ³Ορ Nothing, directed by George Scranton, 2012.
Compare these models with production photos.
βIβm a minimalist, really,β says Don Yanik, professor of theatre in ΒιΆΉΣ³Ορ Pacific Universityβs Theatre Department. βI tell my students in my scene design class, you start with what you need. If you need a table, thatβs where you start. You donβt start with the walls.β
Since he joined SPUβs faculty in 1985, Yanik has designed sets and costumes for 170 ΒιΆΉΣ³Ορ Pacific theatre productions β and for 150 professional productions at theatre companies such as ΒιΆΉΣ³Ορβs
Repertory Theatre, A Contemporary Theatre, Taproot Theatre, and Civic Light Opera.
He builds these ΒΌ-inch scale models of his set designs to show directors an early vision for the look and feel of a production.
Each of the several dozen maquettes stacked to the ceiling in his McKinley Hall office is a window into the productions that have graced the ΒιΆΉΣ³Ορ Pacific stage for almost 30 years β while Yanik
has watched from the back row nearly every night and matinee.