The importance of set

“IN an act of alchemy, they can use a simple piece of fabric to transform a mere mortal into a god, or a plank of wood into a prison or even a palace; they can conjure a sound to create a storm, or play with lights and shadows to suggest a crime scene.

Even before a single word is spoken they can invoke time, place, mood and meaning in ways that make fiction real,” Edwin Erminy, Design for Performance TT (DPTT) coordinator said in a press release.

Erminy has always had a love for set design. The Venezuelan, has been living in TT for the past five years and working with the Academy for the Performing Arts, University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT).

He told Newsday via a phone interview, “I started since I was a little boy.

I started by building houses and little cities with waste materials I found around in my backyard. I started populating those spaces with characters and those characters had stories. That was the beginning of my life as a set designer.”

Erminy said while growing up there was not a professional school to learn set design so he studied architecture instead.

“But all my life while studying architecture, I dedicated my life and spare time to designing for my friends who were actors and dancers,” he said. Erminy then went over to the UK where he studied set design and made his professional life in that field.

For the past five years, he has been training young people at the Academy in set design and is amazed at the talent he has found there.

So it was no surprise that he envisioned DPTT- an event centred around celebrating the contribution “of set, costume, light and sound designers have made “to the world of arts, entertainment and corporate events in TT.”

The three-day event will be held at UTT’s National Academy for the Performing Arts campus, Keate Street, Port of Spain from March 8 - 10.

It marks, the release said, the launch of the PQ2019 Initiative, a concerted effort to present a TT pavilion at the Prague Quadrennial 2019, the world’s most important exhibition of performance design.

Erminy added, “I became fascinated by the beauty and diversity of Trinidadian culture and really interested in ways that we can connect and work as designers to show the cultural heritage and background of Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean.”

The DPTT event would include a design exhibition and panel discussions. It is also being done collaboratively by The Academy for the Performing Arts at UTT and the National Drama Association of Trinidad and Tobago (NDATT).

Erminy said, in the release, he envisioned the event because the work of designers is often unrecognised, even though they play an essential role in engaging the senses of an audience and making performances uniquely relevant and exciting. “That is where designers work their magic. In the collaborative work that is the creation of a performance, they use the resources of art and technology to build the world we will live in for the duration of a show.

The event is open to the public. “The idea of the live performance is a strong and lively idea even with the whole onslaught of social media and mass media, nothing can take the place as being in the same place as a performer; hearing music live, hearing an actor performing for you, hearing the voice and getting the feel for the person, a dancer or even in the wider field of what it is to perform.

If you’re in a corporate event or Government function, nothing can take the place of being directly in contact with the other human being.

“What really gets the message across is when the space the performer occupies can speak in a way that enhances and underlines the message the performer is doing....” Erminy added.

“The association is in full support of the initiative, which aims to provide visibility for the design for performance sector, contribute to the development of the Visual and Performing Arts Industry and establish an international presence for TT. Both entities are excited at the prospect of presenting the work of local designers at the PQ2019 Initiative, the first time that Trinidad and Tobago will have a national pavilion at the event,” Safa Niamat-Ali NDATT’s secretary said in the release.