Theatre Design & Technology - May 1973 - 50

relationship between the time of Renaissance and theatre.
Since its origin Lincoln Centre has seen the ultimate in
great performance successes and brilliant works but few
other theatres with similar equipment have achieved these
heights in utilizing their equipment to the fullest.
I was greatly impressed at my meeting with Mr. Len
Auerbach in San Francisco where I had the opportunity to
see the planning and design work done before the actual
beginning of construction of a new modern theatre, and
its stage and stage lighting in particular. The careful
design wherein function, possibilities and flexibilities
were carefu lIy itemized make it possible for speedy
construction and completion.
Finally, I must state that it is almost impossible to
learn everything about a great and wonderfu I country,
its culture and theatres in so short a time. From what I
have seen I believe that all the outstanding theatres,
cultural centers, and TV studios offer the greatest of
possibilities to performers and other professions in theatre.
It will be very interesting to see what the true function
of theatre will become, what it will relate to, and who will
be beneficiary of its fruits. All of us know that all the
theatrical equ ipment in the world is incapable of creating
a great performance without the professionals who work
with it to make it a tool of communication.
*

IMPRESSIONS OF THE UNITED STATES
ZENOBIUSZ STRZELECKI
TRANSLATED BY Z-P BASS
Dear Mr. Rubin,
You asked me to describe for you my impressions of
my journey through America, a journey on which I and
some of my colleagues from socialist countries were invited by you. Or rather I should say, I was invited by the
U. S. Section of OSITT of which you are president. The
occasion for the invitation was a publicity committee
meeting of OISTT under the leadership of N. Bowman
of the University of Pittsburgh.
This was my very first contact with America. A visit
of almost three weeks conveys certain ideas about a country; however, ideas which are only very partial, and can be
questioned by anyone, particularly, if the country in question is as large as America. Besides, of what value are
impressions of an European to an American - two different worlds, two different cultures, and possibly two
different mental ities, ideas . . .

to say that it can completely satisfy a child; children do
love the ethics of Andersen, the imagination of Alice in
Wonderland, the wit of Winnie the Pooh, and possibly
even the poetry of the Little Prince, even though it can be
read by both children and adults. (I should like to suggest
that when you visit Poland you might investigate our
books for children - they are poetic, clever, metaphoric,
surrealistic, paradoxical, imaginative, in text as well as in
illustrations. Instead of a tail you may end up with a rainbow, and trees may be multicolored blotches.)
In Disneyland, I was impressed by technology. I am a
man of the theatre, and I kept asking myself, how is it
done, is it real, or is it artificial? This question grew by the
end of the game to such proportions, that I had to touch
every leaf and flower, in order to discover whether they
were real or artificial. (I did not have enough nerve to
touch an American woman to verify whether her body
was also artificial.) I also wondered whether the Gettysburg Address touched the hearts and minds of the spectators, or whether everyone was just looking at the
mechanical doll the way they were just looking at the
dancing and singing bears. This is fantastic theatre with
excellent decorations, clean and fresh, extremely imaginative - burning cities, and pirate ships, ghosts coming out
of graves, and flying through space, excellently mechanised - everything almost alive and as full of possibilities
of motion as the machinery that propels them.
I accept that in Disneyland - the happy town - people
should not be pursued by problems; I found everywhere
in America a fascination with technology and at the same
time a sidestepping of depth, of search for meaning and
ideals.
We were shown many University theatres. Each one of
your Universities has theatres richer than those of our
cities; in each there are many more lights than in our
professional theatres. However, you must excuse my sincerity, there are either no productions in those theatres,
or they are very uninteresting. There is nothing that could
be described as truly contemporary art. You might think
that I am mistaken as to the quality of the plays, as well as
the acting. However, I think that I am not mistaken as to
the quality of staging, decorations, costumes and lighting.

If someone were to ask me what seems to me to be
most representative of America, I would say Disneyland.
This is neither a joke nor a quip. To the contrary, in
Disneyland I found history of America, and history of the
cinema, and love of great technology, which does not fail,
and order, cleanliness, newness . . . It is an excellent
game not involving the mind, a child's game. I do not want

Everything is very commonplace and old, even though
the theatres are new and clean. When I see your stage sets
I do not know whether I am at the end of the 19th
century or in another time of history. At any rate, nothing indicates that we are in the 70's of the 20th century.
In Poland, each theatre, each actor, particularly each
scenographer wishes to create the today, the new. (I must
admit this effort is not always successful.)
What did I like? Henry IV (Shakespeare) in the Forum
Theatre in Los Angeles. The stage sets of Ming Cho Lee
and costumes of Lewis Brown were excellent. The sets did
not give the impression of being canned; they had meaning. Here the tavern penetrated the palace and the cathedral. Things seemed to be many-layered in the sense of
space which brought out the light in such a way that at

THEATRE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

MAY. 1973

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