Northwestern Student Theatre

I'm inclined to say there's a difference between low-budget and low-tech. If a director wants the production to focus more on character or plot or what have you, then that's their decision, but I think to make that decision on a macro level (i.e. in terms of slot and budgeting) may be a mistake. By making a slot specifically structured in a way that limits designers financially, you make the slot less appealing for said designers. A simple set can be achieved on a low budget, yes, but with a full budget, that simple set can become an elegant set.

I also think pursuing this as a means of taking the load off the designer community may be somewhat misguided. Just because it's simple doesn't mean someone doesn't still have to commit time to design and build it, it just makes it a less appealing design opportunity in terms of resume, portfolio, creative satisfaction, etc. So what would likely happen there would be younger designers would pick it up, which is by no means a bad thing, but it'd be an additional burden on them to be not only having to discover what resources are available to them, but also to immediately have to figure out the most cost-effective utilization of those resources.