Set Decorator Lance Totten SDSA creating realistic environments for DEAR EVAN HANSEN, bringing a Broadway musical of teenage angst to life i
Bringing a hit Broadway play to life, giving a 3-dimensional immersion into characters, time and place, is always a challenge... add in the aspect of it being a musical and a coming-of-age teen drama, and the demands for realistic visual portrayal are raised even higher. Director Stephen Chbosky wisely brought on Brandon Trost as Director of Photography, Beth Mickle as Production Designer and Lance Totten SDSA as Set Decorator to, along with their teams, give the audience opportunity to know the characters and their stories in more depth and definition.
The Hansen home...Because the palette was earthy and warm, we favored a blend of patterns and textures to give Evan’s mother, Heidi, a slightly eclectic vibe. A mix of rattan and wicker, along with some down-market midcentury items so as not to feel too curated, and a single “antique” bookcase that could be a family heirloom, set the tone for the furniture.
The Hansen home...The script mentioned a worn-out old Ikea sofa and we found a great used one on Craigslist—this is why I’m always having to fight to get petty cash on our increasingly “cashless” productions, not everything can be rented from a prop-house or purchased with a credit-card! To avoid seeming too “period", we included several contemporary touches in the form of inexpensive table-lamps from national retail stores, as well as a few raw-edge smooth wooden tables from World Market.
Evan Hansen’s bedroom...Mismatched bedding was a deliberate choice, as was the uncovered box-spring. We peppered in some random camping gear, a thermos, flashlights, found animal skulls, some inexpensive modern electronics, a laundry basket with clothing, used books, and even a couple “participation” trophies. I brought-in my own Mason jar filled with loose change from home to put on Evan’s desk.
Zoe Murphy’s bedroom...Buyer Lauren Adams Jones did a stellar job managing all of the lighting, furniture, character details and textiles for Zoe’s bedroom. Lauren’s bedding options were especially successful, as were the various cozy nooks and hangout areas we created with floor pillows and the custom-made window seat.
Zoe’s space is definitely that of a rich kid, but because her character is a musician and so well-layered to begin with, it actually gave us a lot to build on. The integration/clearance team at Universal was able to help us get many of the pop-music posters and albums that the creative team and Kaitlyn Dever, who plays Zoe, requested. So, artists like the Runaways, Morrissey, the Shaggs, Snail Mail, Ingrid Michaelson, and Mazzy Star were all able to be featured in our set.
West View High School, Principal’s office...We had the idea to pull drone photos of the actual exterior of the High School from the Location Department’s website (easily cleared BTW), so we had those printed and framed in-house. All this was done weeks before we actually prepped the HS itself, so it was important to think through what we would be doing there later and how to tie both spaces into each other. The taxidermy bobcat was a nice touch too!
Musical montage...Alana is a high achiever who’s won a lot of awards and trophies but still feels trapped in her assigned “role” within the High School hierarchy.
Jared’s bedroom was dressed in the actual garage of the Murphy House location! Jared’s character was a fun one to put together, and this set also had to happen way ahead of the original schedule due to the need for cover sets with fewer actors in them.
Jared is supposed to be kind of a techie with a video-game obsession, but we were somewhat limited in which actual computer games we could show, so that was challenging. I think the actor Nik Dodani did a lot to embellish the role of Jared, and that worked to make him an especially interesting character who added nice comic relief to some subject matter that could feel very heavy at times.
Connor Murphy’s bedroom...Even though Cynthia Murphy has crafted a carefully controlled environment of perfection, there was still something dark and troubling going on beneath the surface. To that end, we put son Connor’s somber bedroom of blacks and grays down in the basement of the house in a rec room that needed quite a bit of work as well.