The Designer Decorator Or Dramaturg?

The stage designer's role is both within and without a performance company, a unique observer of the work in creation and a welcome problem solver, multi-tasker, the possessor of the 'design solution' when things don't go as planned, writes Stephen Curtis. The designer's collaborative role could be a model to others. He chooses three stage productions to give a picture of his work methods including the much acclaimed The Secret River (play by Andrew Bovell based on the novel by Kate Grenville), and concludes that today's designers are redefining their role and reshaping their careers through specialisation and focus on form over content as a way of exploring and understanding the work they interpret.