Theatre Design & Technology - May 1968 - 4

Colombian actors (and apparently most Latin American theatre
people) became much more adept at home manufacture and
experimentation with makeup than do their U. S. counterparts. Pure lanolin is easily available, and an ideal base for
greases. Human hair is processed and sold in place of crepe
hair, as is the fibre of an agave plant (fique). Liquid latex
would probably be worth its weight in gold-if any were
available.
Night clubs and a very few cinemas are more likely to boast
resistance dimmers or auto-transformers than theatres. The
majority of theatres and movie houses dim their auditoriums
with rows of lamps parallel to the proscenium which are
switched off a row at a time 10 prepare the audience-I
found the convention very satisfactory. Most of the civic
houses in which our university shows were produced (some
twelve 10 fifteen) were 45-60 years old, and stages were in
poor repair, having gravitated to use as movie houses.
Film palaces are just that, and compare favorably with the
newest in this country-including Bogota's Olympia, which
is a beautiful Ben Schlanger consultation. Admission to
Hawaii, shown about simultaneous with its road premier in
the U.S. cost $.45 in Bogota. Films of all sorts and ages
are heavily attended by all social strata. The North American
might find the attention to emergency exiting a bit relaxed,
bur he would recognize much of the projection equipment
and most of the films.

National University Theatre Drama Festival in Ibague. Rigid casters
for S.R. unit are bamboo poles under platform. Designer-director:
Carlos Jose Reyes, Universidad Externado de Colombia.
1" Dia. bamboo poles under platform (runs 10' - 12')

The Teatro Colon in Bogota is a jewel of Italian export architecture, last reconstructed at the turn of the present century by an imported Italian architect. It boasts three tiers of
boxes and a gallery above, with exquisite carving and gesso
work throughout. The hall is lit by electrified, Tiffany-like,
tulip-form glass shades, producing an ambient glow not unlike that in Chicago's Auditorium Theatre (where the secret
is carbon filament lamps). The Bogota hall sports a Kliegl
autotransformer board, vintage circa 1957, and an incandescent follow spot---one of the few houses in the country
with wiring of any sort in front of the proscenium. It would
be safe to generalize that, although considered desirable,
front lighting has not yet arrived in Colombia.
Both Medellin and Manizales boast new civic theatres which
compare favorably with their counterparts here. They are
under-consulted and not sufficiently used, except as cinemas.
There is virtually no commercial or civic theatre of any sort:
groups are born and die, but continuity simply doesn't exist.
Barranquilla, on the Atlantic coast, has a shell of a civic
theatre seven years under construction, and still not glazed
in. (The same booming port community is having equal difficulty financing the completion of a cathedral.)
Charming old tiered-gallery houses may still be found, in
addition to Bogota's Colon, in Cartagena, Cali, and Popayanand probably in half a dozen other towns in the country.
Cartegena's is a tarnished Caribbean jewel, unique with its
lacy, latticed decoration to suit the tropical climate. Although a civic property, the building is reportedly being systematically gutted---by the elements, by vandals, and by a
caretaker who trafficks in carved ornament in exchange for
life's essentials.
The majority of TD&T's university theatre readers are not
likely to consider using bamboo poles rolling under a platform in I ieu of casters, nor will they probably be involved
in so many blatantly anti-establishment (and frequently antiU.S.) plays as their Colombian counterparts. But each would
easily recognize the other's working methods and daily
problems.
Ned A Bowman

A neighborhood theatre built recently by a community-action cooperative in Ibague, Tolima. Thatched roof is supported by bamboo
structure. Poured concrete floor, adobe side walls. Packing crates
used for rehearsal furniture.

THEATR£ DESIGN AND TECHNDLOOY

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