Visual Rhetoric and Semiotics in Scenic Design: A Pedagogical Analysis

Scenic designers are professionals in theatre who design sets for the stage that communicate aspects of a performance, such as time of day, location, and era. Sets are supposed to lay a foundation to performances as they communicate information to audiences through visual design. Since visual rhetoric and semiotics play a big part in the successful completion of transmitting messages, knowledge of both concepts should be taught to scenic designers. This thesis provides a content analysis of ten popular books used by scenic designers and their respective education programs. The analysis provides a structured search for visual rhetoric and semiotic content as it relates to the literature on the subjects. The major problem to the scenic design books is the nonexistent visual rhetoric and semiotic content. Options are discussed for potential solutions to the lack of information problem among the texts.