In addition to the lights and costumes, when you go to a stage performance, the first thing you probably notice when the curtain opens is the set. When it’s done well, it creates a portal, taking the audience into the story. And the person responsible for overseeing everything from the backdrops to the props to the objects on the stage that the performers interact with is the set designer. The work of the set designer starts months before the show opens. When they’re first hired, they are given what amounts to basically blueprints for the theater: drawings similar to a floorplan you’d get from an architect designing a house. That gives them the special parameters they need to work within. Next, they meet with the director to get their vision and are given a script to start formulating their own ideas.