Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1999 - 29

involved included Sir Lawrence Olivier, Tyrone
Guthrie, Peter Brook, and Sir John Guilgud.
Pilbrow said, .., felt like a sort of junior teclmician in those days. Even so I began to suspect
that there was something tenibly wrong \\~th
the spaces. I've a little cottage in the Hebrides
in Scotland \vitll a huge beach. When tlle Olivier
had been designed' drew it out in full scale on
tlle beach. There is rock incline above tlle beach.
I climbed up about forty feet and looked down.
And I realized it was a barn. It was built two
years later and opened to a lot of hoopla. Then
people began to say it's really too big and all
that stuff. It was really a bad period."
Ironically, several years later, Pilbrow's
awareness of the possibilities created byemulating the architecture of Shakespearean public tlleatres canle as he sat in a pelformance in
a Nottingham pelformance space. The theatre
had originally been constructed in the 1860s
and Theatre Projects had restored it to its
original glory.
As Pilbrow sat in one of the box seats
he remembered an incident from his early
days of designing for England's National
Theatre. Sir Lawrence Olivier had announced that he could not effectively act to a
person sitting more than sL\ty-five feet away.
Pilbrow realized it was possible to emphasize the communal aspects of attending a
performance and meet ever-present needs
for fiscal responsibility, He simply needed to
layer the audience seating vertically.
He describes the moment of clarity: "It
was like being hit on the head on the road to
Damascus or whatever Biblical story it is. I
looked at the stage and I thought about it. As
a producer, as a lighting designer on Broadway and the West End, 1 worked in theatres
and never thought of building one that
looked like this Victorian beauty." Pilbrow
continues by saying, "It is magic. And it was
not just the gold decoration. It's the people,
the faces. Somebody laughs here and somebody else glances across. Everyone is aware
of everyone else. The boxes tie the auditorium to the stage, but they also tie the
people level to level. It strikes an enormously responsive reaction in the people.
When a great theatre turns a group of individual people into an audience, that mystical
beast that is warm and fed; theatre is an accelerator of emotion."
In an article for tlle May~une 1983 volume
of Architecture CalijOl'llia Pilbrow wrote:
We ill the arts 111USt set our sights
on excellence. It is probab6' easier

to build a building successflt/~"
than to create that special brand of
magic that success in pelfol'lnance
requires. Furthermore, flexible use
ofan auditorium, even more
intense use, places new demands
on artist and technician a/ike, But
architecture can and must help.
From all that demanding myth of
effiCiency we must tUI'll toward
buildings that reflect that essence
oflive petformance: its liveness.
Theatre and concert halls nl/lst
provide that unique meeting place
between living people where a vivid
live pelformance can enrapture
spectator and pelformer a/ike.
A clarion callfor theatre
architecture-but also a call of
relevance to all architecture today.
Theatre has often "held up a mirror
to nature." Perhaps the needfor
human scale spacefor performance
finds an echo in man's needfor
livable space ill life.
Pilbrow's contention was that surrounding tlle performer with tlle audience created a
more intimate experience, emphasizing tlle
personal aspects of live tlleatre. As he says, "It
is all about communication. !fyou are going to
build a barn so it is like looking through the
end of a telescope, you may as well slay at
home and watch it on tlle telly."
Successfully integrating tllis aestlletic pllilosophy \vith state-of-tlle-art technology made
Theatre Projects one of the busiest theatre
consulting firms in the world. Projects have included restoration of existing venues and tlle
creation of new arts centers.
"Sightlines and acoustics are only half the
story," Pilbrow says. "Most of the story is creating tlle power of concentration and C01Uflmnication. Participation is why theatre is never
going to fail. We don't need to worry about tlle
influence of tlle World Wide Web or movies because people want to be part of a living,
breatlling community."
Tllis philosophy has attracted praise from
those in architecture and tlleatre alike. Since
1990 projects overseen by Theatre Projects
Consultants have won:
* fifteen USITT Arcllitecture Honor and Merit
Awards, tlle most of any single firm in tlle
world;
* tlle NY State Historic Presen'ation Award
from tlle NY Office for Parks, Recreation
and Historic Presen'ation;

Richard Pilbrow &
THEATRE
PROJECTS
CONSULTANTS

TZ>&T

SUM

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1999