Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1982 - 8

Son of Man and the Family
scenic environment encompassed the audience as well as the
performers. The entire performing and spectator area was
surrounded by walls made of old planks and doors, reminiscent
of a child's treehouse or fort. Audience members had to stoop
down and bend over to enter the space through a small door.
Old wooden chairs, minus their legs, were fastened to the
bleacher-like seating area randomly so spectators could sit on
"chairs" or bleachers. (The original idea was to have all sorts of
seats such as barber and dentist chairs to encourage the
audience in its fantasy world.) Both audience and performer
space were covered with a large parachute. Thus, while intimacy and a sense of participation in the fantasy world were
created, there was never any direct contact between the performers and spectators.
Lee does not create environmental sets gratuitously. Instead,
he starts with no preconceptions about the theatre space and he
lets the setting evolve out of his conception or understanding of
the script. If this means creating a total environment in a
normally proscenium theatre, so be it. At root is the belief that
the space informs audience perceptions and is inseparable from
any other aspect of the production. The 1969 production of Amiri
Baraka's (LeRoi Jones) Siaveship at the Chelsea Theatre
Center amply demonstrated this point while bringing Lee some
measure of recognition.
In what was to become a trademark of sorts over the next
several years, Lee, in designing Siaveship, ignored the proscenium and redesigned the entire theatre to become the setting.
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Theatre Design & Technology

He platformed the raked auditorium of the narrow Chelsea
Theatre at the Brooklyn Academy of Music to create an environmental/arena space. In the center of the space was a two-level
platform which, for the first half of the production represented
the ship. Benches for spectators surrounded this platform on
four sides. Other raised platforms where other scenes occurred
were constructed along the four walls behind the audience
areas. A ramp extended from one such platform to the central
playing space. As with "Alice" there was a proximity and a
potential for spectator-performer contact. This potential was
exploited to create terror, tension, and guilt but the actors
stopped short of direct contact. Critic John Lahr, in his introduction to the play in Life Show described the set as
an environment where humiliation cannot be escaped. ... Blacks are
chained to the floor, the ceiling is three feet above their bodies . ..
nothing is more shocking, revolting or obscene than the fact of the
cramped violence of the space. ... The actors crawl beneath our feet;
their shackles clink as they move. . . . They surround the audience
with their madness and their despair.

Meanwhile, with Lee as resident designer, the destruction of
the proscenium and the reconstruction of the auditorium had
become commonplace at Trinity Square. When their production
of Wilson in the Promise Land was done at New York's ANTA
Theatre in 1970 the auditorium was again platformed over and
scaffolds and platforms were erected throughout the space. A
similar, though more elaborate operation was performed on the
USITI/Summer, 1982

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