Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/834282
P E R S P E C T I V E | J U LY / AU G U S T 2 0 1 7 25 SERENA JOY'S SITTING ROOM As the Commander's wife, she is really the queen bee, so her sitting room needed to be special. I embraced the home's curved leaded-glass windows and their 12-foot height. Reed said, "Go bold with the colors," so Serena's room was plastered and then painted a peacock blue. The revolution had supposedly stolen all the paintings Julie Berghoff, Production Designer Evan Webber, Supervising Art Director Nicolas Lepage, Art Director Henry Fong, Concept Artist Sean Scoffield, Graphic Designer Jessica Terry, Trainee Assistant Art Director Karl Crosby, J. Ryan Halpenny, Shelby Lynn Taylor, Set Designers Sophie Neudorfer, Christina Kuhnigk, Set Decorators "Each room in the house was designed specifically to complement the colors of the wardrobe and the Handmaids' red needed to stand alone. It's all about the texture, the layers, the dead fly on the window sill." from the Boston Museum of Art, so set decorator Sophie Neudorfer printed all the art on canvas and had additional brushstrokes painted on top of them to give them texture and an appropriate sheen. Serena Joy's own watercolor paintings played off her emotions: colorful calla lillies when Offred was pregnant to dead flowers during her rage. THE MODERN WORLD The locations outside of the house allowed me to bring in the modern world. Reed wanted as many white sets as possible to showcase Offred's red clothing and to transport the audience into familiar medical environments, e.g., the gynocologist office and a hospital, sets with a shock value as the Handmaids are physically abused in both of these sterile environments. Developing the Gilead Rules and their attendant world was a group effort by the entire Handmaid's team. I'm grateful to have been a part of bringing Margaret Atwood's words to life visually and sharing such an important and poignant story. ADG Background image: CAD drawing of the third- floor stage set of Commander Waterford's house. Opposite page, center: The Handmaid Offred is questioned by Serena Joy in her sitting room onstage. Bottom: A photograph of Serena Joy's sitting room set onstage in Studio C at Cinespace in Toronto. This page, top: The interior of Serena Joy's bedroom, another stage set. Center: Offred's bedroom in Studio B at Cinespace is an all-white space platformed six feet off the floor to allow the Handmaid to spend time near the windows, viewing the world outside that she is denied.