Laying it out on stage

This is my first show at New Line and my design for the stage at Wash U South.  Saying that fitting anything on that stage is tricky is an understatement.  The pie-wedge shape is...interesting, to say the least.

After our first discussion, Scott and I agreed that the layout concept for the set seemed to be pretty straightforward.  We had three different levels in the house...

1. Most of the action takes place on the main level, the living room. The front door, the couch, exits to the "other levels" and the kitchen.  The living room takes up the majority of the stage. The kitchen is very secondary, with only one scene taking place there.
2. The upstairs doesn't require a lot of space. There are never more than a couple of people up there at once. But it does play a key part in the staging. They find the mutilated body of the old lady up there, they find the TV on which they receive the new updates and ultimately it is where Harry goes to toss Molotov cocktails to distract the zombies. I wanted it to connect directly to the lower level.  The actors start on the stairs in the living room and reach the top upstairs, the audience never losing sight of them.
3. Finally the cellar. The cellar is a funny place that is different from the rest of the house. It is about isolation. In the beginning, Harry, Helen and Karen are hiding down there. Karen remains down there, isolated from the adults, and ultimately it becomes the last safe place for Ben to hide until morning.  It needed to feel cold, musty and cramped. For this reason, actors exit the living room through a short door under the stairs and reappear on the cellar landing, descending into the cellar.

The initial idea was to put the band up on a platform behind the set...5 feet in the air, overlooking the action.This was a serious build and I am sure would make the musicians nervous. It also added a lot of cost to a design that was already expensive. I reconsidered and put them on the floor behind the set. Of course, this decision causes another problem, the band can't see the actors. So, the upstage wall will be a scrim, painted to match the plaster walls.