Theatre Design & Technology - Oct 1967 - 52

ance. Even if you watch a concert by John Cage, you will discuss is whether those techniques, those methods, whatstill find that it is a very structured performance. In the Nine ever you have discovered, should be introduced into techEvenings, we used the word theatre deliberately, just to nical aspects of theatrical production. I rather agree with Mr.
get away from these problems that Michael Kirby was talking Reiback that technology or engineering or whatever has in
about. We wanted to go back to the word theatre. There is some part or degree to come back to an artistic intention.
What do we do here to serve an artistic intent that is also
no reason to make these separations.
part of the theatre?
REI BACK: I have always thought of a happening as something where you are not quite sure, nor are the actors sure, Theatre people have a certain narrowness or specialization.
of what is going to occur next; because you are dealing with (I guess it's not completely limited to theatre people.)
an interplay of adverse and interacting elements. Part of the Theirs is a society of specialization and therefore people in
excitement is generated by the uncertainty of what will oc- the theatre tend to design or direct either for spoken theatre
cur. People will watch for these occurrences because of or for opera. If they design for opera, they feel they should
their unusual nature. A happening in a theatre is different not touch the dance. It is that kind of a separation. Ought
from a film in that the unexpected can occur.
the designer to have artistic creativity and technological skill
in order to meet the requirements?
KIRBY: But you can intentionally build in the unexpected as
a structural element. You can attempt to give this audience BOWMAN: He would love to, but it is damn difficult now.
a structured view. Bob Rauschenberg does this to an ex- In fact, is it possible?
treme. Each succeeding image is just what you would not
KLUVER: Let me go back and say that the unique thing
expect from the preceding one, and this is a structural deabout the Nine Evenings was the separate but equal colvice. He knows and the performers know what is going to
laboration between artists and engineers. We had a few engo on, but the audience does not. This is exactly the opgineers who wanted to be artists, but it didn't work at all.
posite of flipping on the TV and glancing at it and realizing
But that back and forth, ping-pong match that develops when
what will happen in half an hour, if you bother to watch the
something happens, that is the situation out of which the
rest of the program.
Nine Evenings grew. One reason that the artist is interested
SMITH: Which of them is theatre and which is not?
in technology at all is because it is part of the present society, and is growing at a rate which is unbelievable. All you
KIRBY: They are all theatre. I don't think that the definition
have to do is go to a laboratory to realize what enormous
of theatre is based on a value judgment.
difference there is between inside and outside, and the caSNYDER: I don't think that any of these things are merely a pacity for doing things is growing at an equal rate. This
random collage of events. As you said before, I think that technology can be used for an infinite number of purposes
they are structured. Possibly the "be-in" is more essentially different from those the engineers would imagine. In other
along the lines of a happening than is a happening, because words, the artist sees the technology material; some aspect
the latter is essentially unstructured.
he might be interested to use. We are not going to try to
take over the artist; he can always leave. I think that the
SMITH: What is a "be-in?"
attitude should be one of working together.
SNYDER: In the last several months, quite a number of peoOne element in the happening was the interest in processes,
ple have attempted definitions of a "be-in." The Village
how things come about.
Voice ran about thirteen different definitions, all of which
Another aspect is that all of the arts are coming together.
are equally confusing.
Keeping them separate but equal, keeping your identity, will
To attempt a definition: a be-in is a conglomeration of peoproduce something much more interesting than trying to
ple meeting spontaneously, somehow, because through word
jump all over the place.
of mouth, perhaps psychically getting a message to appear at
SITNEY:
I would like to make a couple of observations
a certain spot at a certain time, with nothing being expected
other than their physical presence, and in any particular which perhaps will be the most conservative statements of
dress or game roles that they desire. Recently, there was a this afternoon. It has always been my notion-and perhaps it
be-in at Central Park. A few people claimed to have organ- is a very outdated one-that the primary artist of a work of
ized it by simply spreading the word around. Some 10,000 theatre was the writer or the author of the work. Then, the
people showed up. During this be-in, there were spontane- director and designers and so on were, to some extent, subous expressions of a kind of happening. People would hold ordinates-to bring forth, to produce that work. I know that
hands and form huge rings and pulse inward and outward. in film it cannot be otherwise. All that the talk of collaboraThere were kites and flowers. People would give each other tion in cinema has produced, with very few exceptions (a
candy. Expressions of love and mutual trust occurred. Essen- couple of extraordinary exceptions in Russia in the Twenties)
tially the be-in is, as I see it, a happening in the true sense is worse films than when one man produced the work.
of the word. That is, it is a rather random occurrence, and I can cite one example of where film is being used in the
what does occur is something which is unfamiliar.
theatre where it is fruitful-and this proves at least a slight
point. Kenneth Kellman, an educated gentlemen who works
ARMSTRONG: But what does that have to do with the
in the Film-Makers Cinametheque and who was a playwright
theatre and with technology?
by profession (I think his first play will be produced next
BOWMAN: We assume that there are some things going on
year), has written a play, the only play that I have ever read
that appear, on the surface at least, to relate to the theatre,
that uses cinema in a truly creative way. In it, there is a
but which are happening, indeed, outside of the theatre.
constant theme of the theatre's burning, and at one point
These are the things that are being discussed rather than
the audience is shown a film of the theatre they are in,
what actuaily occurs within the theatre. If one were to read
burning from the outside. This is something that could not
theatre critics, one would be led to believe that the theatre
be done, so far as I know, in any other way-without doing
is peacefully asleep.
a certain degree of violence to the audience. Nevertheless,
LEE: I have a feeling that perhaps what we are trying to the reason it works as art is because one man decided to

Iusm I THEATRE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

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