Rumors images
Since I created the design, I'll begin with my plan drawing. The next page has a couple of photos of the scale model I built.
Charley and Myra live in an architectural treasure, an old round barn. See, Neil Simon wrote a classic seven-door farce—to say nothing of the picture window—and fitting seven doors right across our little stage, well, it would have looked like the iconic "corridor chase" scene from a hundred movies, only clunkier. So it's a round room.
In the drawing above, red represents parts of the playhouse; black, the walls and levels; blue, the masking (mostly black draperies or black flats, as I'll explain); magenta, the furniture in a provisional arrangement.
The only masking that's representational is outside the window, Stage Right, and that's only representational enough that we don't mistake it for part of the room. (Headlights shine in through the window from time to time.) I believe I've sold director Hope on the concept that adding "rooms" outside the seven doors would take away from the seven-doorness of the farce. Go through a door and you're out of the play, not inside a secondary space.
The first thing you do, moving into a house with a circular room, is you think "arena." So you break it into smaller, focused spaces for living and entertaining. We see two (aside from the balcony), one at the entrance and one at Stage Left. The entrance space is relatively open and contains the outside door, the powder room door, the window and the lower landing of the stairs. It focuses on a "conversation piece," which I think I'll be able to describe in a couple of weeks.
The second onstage space focuses on a kidney-shaped coffee table and contains most of the seating. Doors in this area lead to the kitchen and the basement. The balcony space (only about 2-1/2 feet above the deck) has three doors, to Charley and Myra's room, the guest room, and a hall leading to other rooms.
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