Theatre Design & Technology - Dec 1965 - 7

The major disadvantage of mechanical stages is
that the real show, the one for which the owners
spent the most money, is not presented for the benefit of the audience. Think how delightful it would be
to sit in the best seats and watch things go around
and up and down, or even be twirled about one's
self; it would be more interesting and certainly more
impressive than watching a mere play.
5.

Theatre as Sculpture
internal vacuity)

(external

form

covers

Because architecture as an art is as difficult to define as painting or music and causes as much controversy, there have been as many lapses in taste as
there have been appropriate buildings. One of the
more common mistakes is that of conceiving a building not as architecture, with a sca Ie appropriate to
its function and organization, but instead as sculpture, meant to be viewed at a distance and not related in scale to those occupying it.
One of the many current vogues in theatre architecture is that of sculptural buildings, views of which
give no clue to their size, and sometimes not even
of their function,as with the Lincoln Center complex.
Interna I shapes are determined constrictively by
external form (Figure 5.). Most modern architects
regard as quaint the concours of the Ecole des
Beaux Arts, in which all the arts were jumbled together with a great deal of form but without much
meaning. Serious attention, on the other hand, is
given to such proposals as those for the Canadian
Center for the Performing Arts, Ottawa, and the arts
complex proposed for the University of Illinois. In
the lotter, four holls for the performing arts are
pleasingly juxtaposed and cleanly formed, with all
elements harmoniously articulated. The forms in
either instance, however, have nothing to do with
the requirements of each bui Iding, except in the
most liberal terms. Stage houses are made to seem
appropriately monumental by the excision of stagelevel service areas, and offstage scenic areas are
trapezoidally shaped to conform to the sculptural
design desired.

Severa I of the" Idea I Theatres" of the" Eight Concepts" circulated by the Ford Foundation were
frankly sculptural in form, a tradition that goes at
least as far back as Ribart's "T riumpha I Elephant"
of the Eighteenth Century and is as c lose to usa s
the new Sydney Opera House. Such arrogance was
typical of Frank Lloyd Wright, and of persons who
would imitate him in nothing else than this.
Theatre (or any architecture) os sculpture assumes
that the arch itect is a good enough scu Iptor to make
it come off. This has been the case so rarely that
instances of effective sculptural architecture may
be numbered on the fingers.

6. Theatre as Nothing At All (we are alone!)
A stock i Ilustratiofthat serves as a theatrica I ideogram is the drawfilg of an actor caught in the beam
of a spotlight, silhouetted in a void - no audience,
no theatre, just an actor a lone. Actors do sometimes
feel as if they are reciting to a great black hole,
beyond which can be heard the shuffle of feet and
the rattle of programs. The Actor Alone has been
used as a symbol of the lonely position of the interpretive artist, ever-dependent upon himself but responsible to all. The Western cultural extension of
self determination has reached its logica I end, in
which we are so individually sensitive that we can
no longer be part of the group - so, Alienation. Being
a mirror of civilization, theatre has reflected this in
the drama of the absurdists and in dramatic dadaism.
Theatre architecture, too, is beginning ta take cognizance of contemporary phi losophical trends. Sti \I
in project form are several new theatre designs that
propose to fragment the audience as well as isolate
the actor. The contemporary cinematic fluidity of
form in production is, apparently, planned to give
way to television, in which the individual in a single
seat watches others through a barrier of space if
not of time. "Universal" theatres of the type illustrated in a recent issue of Architektury SSSR (trans.
in Theatre Design and Technology, May 1965) are
architectural extensions ot social and psycholoaical
Figure 5: Sydney Opera House, by Jarn Utzan. Center
section through Minor Hall. Photo: Zodiac

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Dec 1965