Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1979 - 14

scene. The traditional Brechtian curtain that travels laterally
at the lower half of the proscenium opening was used in a
special way: to distinguish the private or domestic Galileo
scenes from the official, public scenes, when the curtain
would be eliminated. In Vychodil's own words, the production
was a deliberate attempt "not to observe Brechtian esthetics
but to apply slavic dimensions[to it)."
*
A more expressive, metaphoric note was struck in Capek's
The White Disease (Fig. 7). The text, written in the 1930's,
dealt with the imminent threat of Fascism, but this revival in
1958 sought to evoke the contemporary threat of atomic
energy. The cyclorama was formed by the inner surface of a
globe that extended beneath stage level at the rear and represented the Earth, with continents indicated by enlarged
newspaper clippings dealing with atomic power. The only
additions to this basic setting were a deep-piled rug and
essential articles of furniture or other functional objects. Entrances could be made from below stage level at the rear as
well as throug h stage-level entrances at the sides.
A View from the Bridge (Fig. 8), Bratislava 1959, marked a
further development in Vychodil's methods and style during

this period; indeed, it forms a transition to his next main
period. Dealing with an essentially realistic psychological
play, Vychodil opens up and extends the setting indicated in
Miller's stage directions, which call for a simultaneous scene
of a domestic interior, the street outside, a lawyer's office, and
one or two other sites. Vychodil added a documentary tone
with two greatly enlarged photographic transparencies in the
cyclorama positions at stage left and right; measuring three
meters by twelve meters, one provided a glimpse of tenements, the other of dockyards. Developing the setting still
further were several sets of stairs in a plane just forward of
the transparencies, and forming still another, thin layer in
front of the stairs was a series of intersecting cords. They had
no realistic basis but were a poetic image of the tensions
pervading the atmosphere. Lighting became increasingly significant and complex as it picked out the different parts of
these several elements while reducing the others to a blank
void.
Equally important as a demonstration of further technical
development and as a transition to the next period was a
production several months later of J. Pauer's opera, Zuzana
Vojirova (Fig. 9), Bratislava 1959. Here Vychodil drew upon
E. F. Burian's Theatergraph projection technique of the
1930's, the essence of which was the use of frontal projections onto a scrim that covered the proscenium opening, in
conjunction with tightly focussed lighting that picked out details of the action behind the scrim, the result being a blend of
real and projected images. Vychodil's variation of this principle consisted of adding a second scrim behind the first
about halfway upstage, and then constructing a set of platforms behind that second scrim for various groupings of
characters, thus supplementing the main action that occurred
between the two scrims. Although Vychodil has never leaned
very heavily on projections (certainly nothing comparable to
Svoboda's use of them), he has used them to good effect
when they seemed appropriate.

Early 1960's

Figure 8

Figure 9
12

Theatre Design & Technology

The fourth period in Vychodil's creativity occurs in the early
1960's. A number of his previous methods and techniques
were refined and further developed, the most important of
which was probably his work with the cyclorama as an expressive and versatile scenic element. Related to this was his
increasingly sophisticated work with lighting and color.
A production that combined most of these developments
was J. Siowacki's Balladyna (Fig. 10), Bratislava 1960. The
basis was a rather elaborately segmented and multileveled
stage floor that recalled some of Vychodil's very earliest work.
Downstage, stairs led from the orchestra pit up to stage level.
On the stage itself, a number of irregularly shaped and
slightly raked platforms were raised at different heights above
stage level. The surface of each of these platforms consisted
of a grid that allowed for light coming through it from below.
Extending up vertically from the stage level was a cluster of
four leaf-like forms of various size. Backing these elements
was a blue-green cyclorama. Two of the leaf-like forms, at
stage right, were the same color as the cyclorama, while the
other and larger two at stage left were used as primary projection surfaces, the front one of scrim, the other opaque.
Neither the complex lighting nor the basic architectonic arrangement of the raised grids corresponded to a realistic
representation of specific locales or actions, but reflected
USITT /Summer, 1979

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