Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1975 - 15

many of them theatre was not a sole, or even
primary, activity. To put it another way, most were
not full-time, professional stage designers. None, in
fact, was trained for stage design as such. Their
rigorous training in painting, fine arts, and architecture gave them a discipline, a mastery of necessary
crafts, and a broader perspective on stage design as
an art.

a clean cut, lyrical elegance achieved by essentially a
painter's means. 3

Representative Czech theatre after the turn of the
century was marked by a form of conventionalized,
monumental realism with impressionistic overtones.
General historical accuracy was the basis but detailed
exactness was excused in favor of atmosphere and
mood (Figure 1). Josef Wenig (1885-1939) was the
outstanding exponent of this mode.

Fig. 1. J. Wenig, Macbeth, Shakespeare, 26 Feb. 1916, National
Theatre, Prague, dir: J. Kvapil.

Figs. 2a, 2b. F. Kysela, The Schooling of Don Quixote, V. Dyk, 4
Ju·ne 1914, Vinohrady Theatre, Prague, dir: F. Zavrel.

A milestone in the evolution of modern Czech
scenography was the 1914 Prague production of
Viktor Dyk's The Schooling of Don Quixote
[Zmoud'fenr Dona Quixota] (Figures 2a & 2b),
designed by Frantisek Kysela (1881-1941). Here for
the first time in Czech theatre was a decisive break
not only with traditional realism but also with the
rather tame, atmospheric impressionism that was its
successor. The real ity of thean:e as conscious artifice
was underlined by the stylized frame of the setting as
well as by the deliberate stylization and disproportion
of the actual setting itself in relation to the human
scale of the actors. Three ornamental portals filled
the regular proscenium arch, each of them with
drapes to reveal or close off what lay behind them.
Backing these arcades were painted exterior drops of
charming simplicity and no trace of realistic detail.
Between the painted drops and the front arcades
were simple, mostly two dimensional, stylized objects or indications of locale that ignored illusory
perspective and realistic proportions. The result was

Dominating Czech stage design and scenography
during the entire period between the wars was
Vlastislav Hofman (Figure 3) (1884-1964), by training
and talent both painter and architect. While steadily
engaged by the two lead ing, official theatres of
Prague (the National Theatre and the Municipal
Theatre) he also functioned as a municipal architect,
graphic artist, and designer in industrial arts. Of
enormous significance to his work was his sustained
association with Karel Hugo Hilar, the most forceful,
innovative, far-ranging director-producer of large
scale, official theatre in Czechoslavakia in his own
lifetime (1885-1935). Hilar raised Czech theatre to
world standards, and Hofman contributed in great
measure to that achievement. In turn, many of
Hofman's most impressive works were obviously
prompted by suggections from Hilar. Both men were
essentially expressionists by artistic temperament,
and that powerful shaping force was rarely absent
even from their most controlled work in this period.
Hofman himself expressed this characteristic tersely:

USITT

THEATRE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

SUMMER. 1975

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