Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1975 - 32

director of avant-garde productions in Brno and Olomouc,
and in 1933 -, devoted to the left in pol itics and to lyrical
sy·nthesis in the arts -- he launched his own Prague theatre,
o 34. (The 0 stood for "divadlo," the Czech word for
theatre, and the number indicated the particular year of
operation, starting fresh each fal!.) Burian was above all a
poetically endowed theatre artist who constantly experimented with theatrical synthesis, a form of production in
which text, acting, lighting, music, and other production
elements are variously and flexibly modulated -- like a
musical score -- by the master creator, the director. The
concept was first articulated by Craig, but Burian was one
of the few, and probably the first, to apply it consistently
and systematically. In this he was served not only by a
relatively stable acting ensemble but also by a faithful
staff of capable designer-technicians, chief among whom
was Miroslav Kouril (1911-). The self-consciously
thorough, systematic nature of the 0 Theatre's operation
was evident even in its peripheral activities: a monthly
theatre bulletin of wide- ranging scope, special workshops,
lectures, and Burian and Kouril's several design projects
for new forms of combined theatre and cultural centers.
Although Burian's theatre was ostensi bly operated on
the basis of democratic team work, there was no question
who was first among equals. The celebrated Czech
aesthetician, Jan Mukarovsky, who had a special interest
in Burian's theatre and its techniques, put it this way:
"There are in fact only two sides to Burian's theatre: he
himself and his public. Everything else that is between
these two, is his instrument."26
Typical of Burian's synthetic approach is that most of
his notable productions were either adaptions of nondramatic works, or existing dramatic texts radically
adapted for production. He created scenarios for each
production, which allowed him to give full rein to his
multiple talents; the text as literature was often subordinated. His productions were not without flaws: occasional indulgence in lyrical pathos and sentimentality,
certain overdoing of some scenic or textual or acting
"effects" that bordered on preciosity. In spite of the
occasional flaw, he created some of the most nota ble
experimental theatre of the 1930's, not only in Czechoslovakia, but in all of Europe.

M. KC'uril: Sceno .Lozebniko sevillskeho<.

with a raised, usable acting area of less than 35 square
meters, a 6.5m x 4.7m proscenium opening, and no fly
space. The challenge to ingenuity was unmistakable. One
relatively traditional example of how the challenge was
met by Burian and Kouril is evident in the production of
Beaumarchais' The Barber of Seville (1936) (Figures 50a
& 50b). Kouril's setting was based on a practicable
larger-than-life image-symbol of the body of a guitar lying
athwart the proscenium opening on an oblique angle
down over the edge of the forestage, the upper part of the
torso elevated by several risers on the stage proper behind
the proscenium. Complex area lighting helped shape the
stage space, and abstract projections were used on a
partially closed front curtain to add texture. It was a
clever, metaphorically based solution typical of others by
Kouri!.
The most impressive scenographic innovations of
Burian's theatre, however, were based on lighting,
projections, and, finally, on the fusion of projected image
and stage action in the Theatergraph. For Burian and
Kouril the significance of lighting was central in the new
theatre. Kouril's observation speaks for Burian as well:
In the relationship of light to the dramatic figure and to the
surfaces that divide the dramatic space, and in the placement
of the lighting instruments and the color of their lights lies the
fourth dimension of the new theatre, and it is multiplied by
others: sound, film, projection. 27

"Theatergraph," the name given to the particular
technique employed by Burian and Kouril in combining
projection and live action, was defined by Kouril:
It is theatre with static and film projection, coherently and
dramatically integrated into the directorial-scenographic conception. It depends on the state of film technology around
1936-38 and the discovery of transparent projection screens
covering the front of the stage and allowing for a simultaneous
viewing of the actor and the filmed image on the screen. 28

Fig. 50a, 50b. M. Kouril, Barber of Seville (Beaumarchais), 22
Sep. 1936, 037 Theatre, Prague, dir: E. F. Burian. 50a-Plan,
50b-Elevation.

Burian and Kouril had to work in deplorably inadequate surroundings, a small concert hall (the Mozarteum)

What might have been added is that the actor seems
enveloped by the screened image, not simply placed next
to it. The technique was fully used in three productions,
the first of which was Wedekind's Spring's Awakening,
(Figures 51a & 51 b) in 1936. The front of the stage was
covered by a transparent gray scrim on which both film
and slide projection were used. A smaller, opaque screen
was placed at an angle in the up-left part of the stage and
received frontal slide projections from off-stage right. The
floor and rear of the stage were covered in black, with a
masked opening at the rear of the stage for entrances and
exits. Even without projections, ingenious lighting from
both sides of the frontal scrim provided a number of
poetically suggestive effects, from a hazy sense of distance
and the gradual emergence or disappearance of a character

USITT

THEATRE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

FALL,1975

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