Talking Points: Rae Smith
How can we use drawings to transform a space?
Rae Smith uses drawing to explore ideas for her set designs. For War Horse, she drew horses, landscapes and rehearsals, exploring how the story might look and feel on stage. Her drawings became large-scale backdrops, helping to transform the stage and create different places for the story to unfold.
Using the videos and questions below, explore Rae Smith’s drawings and set designs for War Horse, and think about how drawings can help us develop ideas for our own sets.
Please Note:
This page includes links and videos from external sites, verified at publication but subject to change.
Teachers should review all content for classroom suitability.
Report any issues, and check school firewall settings if videos don’t play.
Rae Smith
Rae Smith is a British set and costume designer.
Smith worked as set designer on War Horse, a stage adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s novel about a horse on the Western Front of the First World War.
To prepare for the role Smith reviewed personal recollections, photographs and archives from the period, held at the Imperial War Museum. A key theme was the use of the backdrop as a giant sheet of paper from one of the characters sketchbooks, onto which she projected images that might have been drawn by the character.
Explore more imagery form the production here.
Watch the trailer for War Horse on stage and follow on by discussing the set design using the following videos…
Sketchbooks, Drawings and Mock-ups
Warhorse Animation Montage
“Working with the drawings by show designer Rae Smith, and creating new digital content, we were able to create an animated sketch book that travels from idyllic Devon to the horror of WWI battlefields.” – Peter Stenhouse, Animator
Questions to Ask Children
What materials do you think the artist used?
How do Smith’s drawings make you feel?
Do you think it’s hard to try and draw what a character see’s through their eyes? If you could see through a different characters eyes, who would you choose?
Describe the atmosphere of the set. How do you think this has been achieved?
Does this make you think of set design in a different way?
What do you think the role of ‘set designer’ entails?
This Talking Points Is Used In...
using sketchbooks to make visual notes
Show me what you see
