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When Matthew Rusten first read the play “A Number” aloud with his University of Virginia classmates, each voicing a different character, the 2022 British drama’s sparse and fractured language stuck with him. He decided his scenic model set should feel the same way. 

The fourth-year architecture major is enrolled in Scenic Design, a course that challenges students to transform a script into a fully realized physical world. Over the semester, students complete three increasingly complex projects, taking them through script analysis, visual research, sketching, rendering and building small-scale scenic models.

Assistant professor of drama Yi-Hsuan “Ant” Ma, right, guides fourth-year architecture student Nina Accousti during an in-class crafting session for Scenic Design. Ma integrates tools like laser cutters and 3D printers into the curriculum to give students more time for design exploration. (Photo by Matt Riley, University Communications)

For Rusten, who has spent years building models in the School of Architecture, enrolling in the course meant rethinking what design is for. “Scenic design creates something to be looked at, while architecture creates something to be lived in and explored,” he said.

The course is one of two scenic design classes taught by assistant professor Yi-Hsuan “Ant” Ma, who came to the University three years ago after working as a freelance scenic designer in New York. There, she worked on the design teams of Broadway productions including “Appropriate,” “Romeo and Juliet” and “Oh, Mary!” Ma first came to UVA during the pandemic to design a production for the drama department and has been teaching ever since.

In her classroom, Ma encourages students to view every design decision as narrative. The color of a door, the size of a room and the texture of a floor – all must connect to the characters and their journeys.

Fourth-year architecture student Lorena Maier cuts a dowel during an in-class crafting session for Scenic Design. The drama course draws students from the School of Architecture who are looking to explore storytelling through physical space. (Photo by Matt Riley, University Communications)

“I want students to learn visualization and discover how ordinary rooms, streets, parks, vehicles and other spaces of daily life can be transformed by storytelling and creative performance,” Ma said.

Ma assigns the script and leaves students to develop their own design concept. When visualizing his “A Number” set, Rusten chose to strip the design down rather than build it up. “I wanted to make the stage very abstract and partial,” he said. “The goal was for the imagination to fill in what was missing.”

To help bring visions to life, Ma has integrated tools like laser cutters from the Fabrication Lab and 3D printers from the Scholars’ Lab Makerspace into the curriculum – not as shortcuts, but to free time for deeper exploration. “If you have an efficient way to make your studio time shorter,” Ma said, “you will have more time to really dive into your design.”

Rusten began by constructing a model box, a to-scale foam replica of the theater itself with removable sides held together by pins. Inside, he built his design in stages, starting with a white cardstock iteration to work out scale and arrangement before the more detailed final construction.

Fourth-year architecture major Aya Leone spins her three-scene scenic model for the 2002 play, “A Number.” Leone repurposed a fidget spinner as the rotating mechanism beneath her design, allowing it to move smoothly between three different set locations. (Photo by Matt Riley, University Communications)

Flat elements like the floor and backdrops were printed on School of Architecture plotters, with photo paper for the wooden floor to add sheen and matte paper for the grass to simulate depth. Nearly everything else was laser-cut from chipboard, glued together and hand-painted.

The pieces he’s proudest of are the smallest: a park bench and a door, each barely a half-inch tall with details so carefully crafted that they appear lifelike.

Classmate and architecture major Aya Leone approached the script from an entirely different angle. Struck by the contrast between the cloned characters of “A Number,” Leone felt each one deserved its own space. Her solution was a rotating set featuring three locations – a living room, an alleyway and a café – divided within a single square base. She repurposed a fidget spinner to create a smooth rotating mechanism that allowed the set to spin between scenes.