Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1991 - 47

991 PRAGUE QUADRENNIAL

DESIG S FOR A TH EATRE
IN TRANSITION
BY DELBERT UNRUH
he Czechoslovakian
Exhibits at PQ'91 were,
as might be expected
from the host coun rry,
large and comprehensive. Seven exhibits
comprised the Czech and Slovak comriburion ro PQ'91. Four separate locations
in Prague housed six of the exhibits. The
Official Czechoslovakian PQ Exhibi t, the
Czechoslovakian Mozan Theme Exhibit
and a studem exhibit from the DAMU
studio of Jaroslav Malina were all contained in the Palace of Culture. A separate Salon of Czech Scenography was
moumed at the ova Scena (one of the
performance spaces of the National Theatre and home of Laterna Magika). A retrospective exhibit of the work of Frantisek Troster was exhibited at Vystavni
Sin Uluv on Narodni Srreet (an independem Prague theatre) and another exhibit
of student work was arranged at the
scenography school, DAMU, on Karlova
Street. The seventh exhibit, a separate
showing of Slovak Scenography, was
moumed in Bratislava and was available
by a bus rour following the awards ceremony (Editor's note: the author was unable
to visit this exhibit, so the briefcomments
Oil the Slovak exhibit ill this article were
supplied by Eric Fielding). The rotality of
the exhibits presemed, in effect, the hisrory, development and presem rransitional state of Czechoslovakian Scenography.

TH E CZECHOSLOVAKIAN
NATIONAL EXHIBIT
The Czechoslovakian ational Exhibit in
the Palace of Cui ture illusrrated best the
presem state of rransition in Czechoslovakian stage design. This exhibit, conceptualized and designed by Vera Ptackova and Milan Ferencik, rook the form of
V-shaped walls enclosing a cobblesrone
street. Enuance ro the exhibit was

through a door at the narrow end of the
"V". The walls then widened and ended
at the windows of the Palace of Culture
with a panoramic view of Prague. The
walls were finished on the inside ro suggest the dark, soot-stained architecture of
the srreets and alleys of Prague. The ourside of the walls were left as the typical
stage flats that they were with jack braces,
etc., all visible. The sense of the exhibit
was that of a sueet or
alley in Prague, entered
through a small, narrow,
resrricted opening and
then expanding rapidly,
one would surmise, imo
all of Prague or inro
infinity. The items on
exhibit in this street were
all models of stage settings (no sketches or costume drawings were
included) arranged in a
seemingly haphazard
manner along the two
walls that enclosed the
cobblesrone street. Models were hung from the
walls, stacked on rop of
one another, set on and
under utilitarian tables,
or simply placed on the
floor. The effect seemed
ro be that of a kind of
flea market of stage
design, or of the flotsam
and jetsan1 that one finds
in alleys or perhaps of theaue in the
srreer. This sense was heightened by the
fact that the exhibit was a rerrospective.
Much work was included from the past
even as far back as 1967. Accordingly, the
exhibit seemed ro be a bit of a disappoimmem ro our eyes, accusromed as we
are ro the high-powered, well-crafted
Czechoslovakian exhibits of the past and
the leading position that these designers

have held in international scenography
for so many years. Some commems were
made ro effect that the exhibit was "just a
rehash of the past" or "an exhibit of a lot
of old ideas."
However, a differem reading of the
exhibit, not as a museum space bur as a
metaphorical environmem connected ro
the changes in Czechoslovakia, reveals a
new richness. The connection of the the-

atre ro the sueet is a powerful one in
Czechoslovakia. We may remember that
it was at the thearres in Prague-most
notably the Realistic Thearre and the
Cinoherni K1ub-that the first meetings
of what was to become Civic Forum
began. It is from these meetings that the
organizational and philosophical commitment came that made the "Velvet
Revolution" of the srreets a reality. And
TD&T

1991

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