Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1976 - 21

TEACHING STAGE DESIGN IN THE UNITED STATES,
CANADA, AND CZECHOSLOVAKIA, 1978: A DISCUSSION
AT PQ'75.
An informal discussion took place between representatives of the United States, Canada and Czechoslovakia
on the last morning of the OISTT Congress in Prague.
The following statements have been edited from a tape
recording of that session and from a statement of the
history and philosophy of the stage design program at
the Academy of Creative Arts of Prague prepared for the
Congress by Professor Jindra. The Department of Stage
Design of the Theatre faculty at the Academy of Creative
Arts operates under the proposition of the late professor Frantisek Troster, who insisted that all the disciplines
which make up a curriculum of the dramatic arts must
be concentrated in one school. Although stage design had
been taught for years at the Academy of Industrial Design, Troster believed that a scenographer cannot neglect
actors if he wants to create a un ified conception of the
dramatic work and, therefore, that stage design had to be
taught in context with other creative arts.
Although most of the specifics relate to costuming, the
major thrust of the conversation was relevant to all facets
of training in theatre design. The participants were:
Dr. Vladimir Jindra, a scenographer and teacher of the
history and theory of design and dramatic art at the
Academy;
Martin Zboril, scenographer, recent graduate of the
Academy and newly-named designer for the three municipal theatres of Prague;
Francois Barbeau, scenographer, art director for films
and head of the design program at the National Theatre
School of Canada;
Millia Davenport, retired costume designer and historian,
internationally-known for her THE BOOK OF COSTUME;
Van Phillips, scenographer and head of the design program
at Purdue University;
Brigitte Sitte, costume designer at San Jose State University, California, but trained in her native Germany;
Dr. Don Stowell, Jr. costume designer at Florida State
University and Costume Commissioner of USITT.
Also present at the discussion were Michael Romberg, costume designer and head of the area of stage
design at the Academy in Prague; Zoran Krizek of Yugoslavia, Oldrich Schuller and Petr Kolinsky of Czechoslovakia, all students at the academy; Joyce Fairman, graduate student in costuming at University of Louisiana at
New Orleans; and Dagmar Goldhammerova, who translated Dr. Jindra's remarks into English and French.
DR. JINDRA: For the past thirty years we have tried to
define the specific character of scenography and of
theatre work. We seek to create the mise en scene as a
model of the world of drama which has its own rules

USITT

THEATRE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

and principles. In a playscript the basic idea is artificial,
and it is the job of a scenographer to find some artificial visual creation to express that idea. Underlying the
basic elements is the actor - it isn't a human being, but
it is an actor, a dramatic person.
VAN PHI LLlPS: In the United States most directors
feel they can complete the whole work alone, without any
other means of expression. Scenographers, on the other
hand, know they need a total concept, a synthesis of the
ideas of the director, the actors, and the whole artistic
staff .
DR. JINDRA: The artificial rules and the artificial relationships in the world of a drama derive from the principal that a human being can't die, can't live, can't represent all his life in two hours as a dramatic person, as an
actor does: nor can human beings be transported from
one place to another with the ease of dramatic characters.
There is a very simple conclusion we can make from these
facts: each dramatic piece has its own unique rules,
determined by the space, by the time, by the movements,
and by the dramatic personalities involved.
DR. STOWELL: From listening to your students yesterday at the Academy, I find that they understand these
concepts and articulate them verbally and visually in
ways our students do not. I think these principles are
taught more clearly here than in our country.
VAN PHILLIPS: I agree completely.
MILLIA DAVENPORT: In your teaching here, how do
you relate design to the playscript7
MARTIN ZBORI L: I would try perhaps to explain
something about this problem. Now we thought, for
instance, that the painter has his own material, his colors,
and his paper, and when he painted something, it is ready,
it is finished, it is a finished work. When you are a designer of the theatre, your work is not finished when you
finish your designs, and so you need other means of
expression, and that is the actor, mainly.
MILLIA DAVENPORT: You're still not talking about
the play.
VAN PHILLIPS: Some of us feel that one of the problems
is that what we teach is ornament or decoration, rather
than the visualization of non-verbal communication to
an audience through design. How do you deal with that
at your schoo 17
DR. JINDRA: It isn't easy to respond to this question.
v
MARTIN ZBORIL: I will try to explain. Well, we start
from the fundamental elements that we began to talk
about - space, movement and rhythm. We are dealing
with elements that have been there from the beginning,
since the Greeks. We don't want to pretend that we invented them; we just want to use them again to find
further relations, new relations of these principals, thesa

FALL.1976

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