Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1975 - 35

Exploration Gap ... Continued from Page 8
operate on its own generator, providing its own
energy. There must be, within the productive center,
a nuclear reactor: at the heart of theatre we should
maintain not a think-tank, not a Rand Corporation
study, but a practical laboratory where the concern is
not next season but just the search, for its own sake.
We have not the scope to re-establish rewards in
society for excellence, so that our best young people,
when they are qualified, continue their research
wherever it lies, instead of applying their ideas as
quickly as possible to the current market. But we can
do this within the industry. We can encourage the
drama student, when he comes into the business, to
pursue his own work and thoughts, rather than using
himself up as a ten-minute sensation, if he's lucky.
(What happens to successful young talent is frightening. Will anyone ever know whether Linda Blair
can act? She's had her head screwed around by
demons. She's been otherwise violated with a
broomstick in juvenile prison. She's been a teenage
alcohol ic hooker. Where does the poor ch iId go from
there?)
We need three things. We need a supply of
money to keep research going as process only. There
will be produce, but it could be indirect and it might
not be the product we expected; the money should
not depend on it. Second, we need space, suitable
space. Third, we need the explorers themselves.
Who are they? I think they are probably already
theatre practitioners at some level, both qualified
and deeply dissatisfied. I think they are people like
myself to whom questions are a way of life. I think
they have vision and discipline. In other words, I
th ink the research shou Id be cond ucted by all of us
who progress our careers in the theatre and have a
need to continue doing so.
We think of ourselves as creators, a term which
has been somewhat abused and properly belongs to
the Almighty. We could happily lose the word, with
its implications of beginning allover again, starting
from scratch and making something out of nothing,
In our laboratory we ought to be developers,
experimenters, researchers, explorers - drawing out
the line of progression and opening up new areas of
search. The creator makes a six-day world. Nice, but
it needs work in the second act. Process, truly, never
ends, never settles, never stops moving.
We have to do it. If we don't, no one else will.
You can make money being mediocre, but you can't
make it long. In order to be as necessary as we have
made ourselves, we have to feed back into theatre as
much, or more, than we take out.
In the economy of ideas, theatre has to be in good

USITI

THEATRE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

SUMMER. 1915

shape; we have more ideas than almost anyone. But
there's a difference between an idea and a notion.
With proper usage, an idea can become a concept
which can change perception, alter life, lead to
extension after extension. Or we can throw it away
for a fast cheap effect.
Let's resist the push and the pressure. The show
must go on, but nobody's ever said it has to be
immediately. Take the time to work, thoroughly; we
should recognize, and protect whatever is an
evolving process, whether it's our own or someone
else's. In either case, ultimately, the energy you
waste is sure to be your own.
*
Czechoslovakian Stage Design ...
Continued from Page 23
1930: V. H. Brunner, J. Gabriel, J. M. Gottlieb, V. Gottlieb, A
Hoffmeister, A. V. Hrska, L. Hradsky, C. Jandl, J. Kroha, J.
Lada, J. Ladvenica, K. Lhota, O. Mrkvi~ka, Z. Rossmann, Z. Rykr,
J. Sladek, K. Sourek, J. StYrskY.
2Frantisek Troster, "M~reno dneskem"
Divadlo (Theatre) (December 1964), p. 62.

(Measured by today),

3Kysela was a graduate of the Academy of Design Arts and
subsequently a professor of Fine and Applied Arts from 1913 until
his death. He designed over forty productions, mostly opera for
the National Theatre. His work evolved toward cubism and a
certain monumentality but was not as innovative or striking as that
of his contemporaries.
4Vlastislav Hofman, from an article originally appearing in Jevisl~
[The Slage], I, 1 {1920{, reprinted in Vlaslislav Hofman, ed. F.
Musil (Praha: Osveta, 1951), p. 19.
5Hofman. "0 konstruktivnl realism us" (About constructive realism), Nove ceske divadlo (New Czech theatre) (Praha: Aventinum,
1927), p. 49.
6Hofman, "Od iluse k proto,u" (From illusion to space), ZivOI
(Life), vol. 15, nos. s-c (1937), p. 75.
7Hofman, "0 konstruktivnlrealismus," p. 49.
81n relation to this production it is hardly possible not to recall
Gordon Craig's prototypal staging of HamIel in Moscow, 1911. An
equally striking analogue is Svoboda's Prague HamIel of 1959. Of
course each production approach had distinctive features, and
screens or panels on stage are hardly unique. Nevertheless, the
echoes are fascinating.
9Hofman, in Vlaslislav Hofman, p. 25.
10Hofman, "Od iluse k prostoru," p. 75.
11 Hofman, "0 konstruktivni realism us, " p. 45.
12Antonin Heythum, quoted in Jaroslav Svehla, "Heythumova
Vyprava Lenormandovy hry, Ai ilie divadlo "
(Heythum's
'
setting for Lenormand's play, Long live the theatre!), Inlerscena
71,3-1 (May 1971), p. 55.
13Heythum, "0 jevistni konstrukci" (About stage construction),
Pasmo (Program), 1,516 (1928), p. 2.

Part II will appear in the fall 1975 issue
Information Needs ... Continued from Page 26
In spite of current international economic problems, there is an underlying suspicion - if not an
overt belief that the foreign market holds
materials either better or cheaper than those avai 1able domestically. In fact, there is a strongly
expressed need for materials samples generally,
which manufacturers might address more effectively.

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