Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1996 - 46

NEW QUESTIONS
ABOUT TIME AND SPACE

DELBERT UNRU«~

n April 18, 1995, TbeAdding Macbine, A Virtual
Reality Project opened at The niversity Theatre
on the campus of the University of Kansas, in
Lawrence, Kansas. The production combined live actors
and an established script interacting with computer generated virtual reality environments, stereoscopic slide
projection, and live video projection in real time. The
production represented the culmination of approximately three years of research into the possibilities and
combinations of Virtual Reality (VR) and live theatre by
Mark Reaney, the designer and technologist of Tbe Adding Machine. Ron Willis, the director; and a cast and
crew of KU Theatre and Film Department students collaborated \vith Reaney to bling the production to the
stage.
An acknowledged leader in the field of computer
applications in the United States theatre, 1ark Reaney
has been investigating the application of computer technology to live theatre since he canle to the Unjversity of
Kansas in 198 . fijs disciplined research has explored
the profitable artistic links between computers and theatre and resulted in the production of The Adding Macbine, whjch inevitably raised more questions tllan it
answered. Truly experimental tlleatre pieces are supposed to do tllat. Of course tlle production illustrated
tllat tlle performance experience would be greatly enhanced by more sophisticated hardware and technology.
However, tllOse deficiencies nOt\vitllstanding, the production raised a host of fascinating tlleoretical and aes44

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tlletic issues. Most interesting of these, I believe, are the
questions tllat are raised relative to tlle current perceptions of space and time tllat are emerging in tlle theatrical world and a subsequent re-definition of tlle
relationshjp of design to tlle performance.
Agrmving body of evidence suggests tllat perceptions of space and time in the theatre are shilling away
from tlle commonly accepted view tllat is our direct inheritance from Appia and Craig. The view of space and
time espoused by tllese two revolutionaries at tlle end of
tlle runeleenth century held tllat space on stage needed
to be created sculpturally. Rather tllan space being represented in a pictorial fashjon, as was tlle tradition of
design in tlle tlleatre up to tlus time, Craig and Appia insisted that space on tlle stage needed to be created
through actual three dimensional environments, inhabited by tllree dimensional actors, and revealed by tllree
dimensional light. In addition, changes in tlle stage
space generally occurred, they believed, in tlle normal
sequence of linear time. Their views conditioned tlle
revolution in design and production tllat canlC to be
known as ''The New Stagecraft" in the ruted States and
formed the basis for a hundred-year exploration of tllree
dimensionality, volume, sculpture, and linear sequence
in tlle European and Anlerican Theatre. The Scenographjc Revolution of tlle 50s and 60s and the bold experiments in Action Design in the 70s and 80s are in the
mainstreanl of this tllinking and a direct outgrowtll of
tlle pioneering work of Appia and Craig.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1996