Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1977 - 10

twentieth century. These are the Bayreuth Festspielhaus,
the Prinz Regenten Theatre in Munich, Gropius' Total
Theater and Werner R uhnau's design for a theatre in
Dusseldorf. Although his choices point toward a certain
Germanic chauvinism, no one argued strongly that they
were poor choices though certain other designs of a nonGerman origin were looked upon as equally important.
Prutting discussed, "The Normative Genesis of Theatre
Areas." This paper set forth a systematic approach to
specific "Theatre spaces" that serve three groups; the
performers, the audience and "the producers."
In the remaining time on the first day, we heard
from speakers whose topics dealt with that day's major
topic, "Historic Theatre Construction - Its Development
and Sociological Basis." Speakers included: H.C. Baldry,
University of Southampton, Harold Zielske, Free University, West Berlin and George C. Izenour, Yale School
of Drama. Baldry discussed the theatre of antiquity.
Zielske offered some fascinating new points of view on
the origins of the multi-tiered Baroque opera house and
Izenour, departing from his original paper which had
been printed in the pre-conference volume, spoke of the
"nuts and bolts of seeing and hearing." Using three slide
projectors he analyzed, through simultaneous projection
of plan, longitudinal perspective section and seating geometry analysis, a number of contemporary theatres in
the United States and in other countries. Admittedly,
theatres for which he has served as a consultant got
high marks for good visibility and good audibility. In
his remarks Mr. Izenour noted that the wedge shaped
fan was an ideal geometric plan for good sight lines and
hearing. In planning - and designing - their shape into
mUlti-purpose and multi-form halls, Izenour stated that,
"Solutions to [auditorium design] problems lie in engineering, not architecture. These problems are solved
by [the engineer's] expertise." In the discussion following Mr. Izenour's talk, there were several dissenting
opinions stated by the architects present.

Manfred Rehbinder
that many of the legal restrictions are outmoded and need
to be changed. On the other hand, he acknowledged that
certain restrictions exist for our own safety and to bypass
them through design or carelessness is to invite trouble.
[CF. Randall Davidson's article on p. 28 Ed.]

Tuesday's subject area dealt with theatre planning and
architectural development in widely differing parts of the
world. Lee Tae Ju talked about "Theatre Areas in Asia"
while his Korean colleague, Han Ki Chang covered, "Space
of the Korean Folk Play." Michail Barchin of the Soviet
Union was, regrettably, not present but his paper dealing
with the "Development of Theatre and Club Buildings in
Soviet Architecture, 1917-1940" is published in the preconference book.

Wednesday's session produced several papers on
"Psycho-Physiological Conditions in Theatre Construction." The first paper was by Joachim Herz of East
Berlin's Komische Oper. Herz discussed the topic, "Contents of Theatrical Communication." Essentially, he
discussed the basic question, "Why do we need theatre
and of what use is it to us?" It was a fascinating tal k
and I noted at the time: "there was no discussion, everyone agreed with him (Herz)."

The highlight of this session were several papers collectively entitled, "The Special Case of the Federal Republic
of Germany - Creation of a New Theatre Landscape."
Manfred Rehbinder spoke on "The egal Restrictions on
Theatre Construction." Rehbinder's paper was a revelation for this reporter. Having served as a planner on more
than one occasion, I sometimes wondered if the plan
could ever be brought to fruition because of an endless
number of changes required by building codes, insurance
practices, height restrictions and so on. For all of you who
have suffered in like fashion, smile! It's worse in West
Germany. Admittedly, Herr Rehbinder, a member of
the faculty (Law) at the University of Zurich recognized

The second and third papers were more scientific
in their approach. Walter Schonwandt and Heribert
Vogt delivered a work co-authored by Lenelis Kruse
and Carl F. Grauman entitled, "The Theatre as Interaction and as Interaction Space." This paper attempted
to set up criteria for theatrical interactions in a variety
of modes; 'Behaviour as a Game with Rules and Roles:
'I nteraction as Episodes: 'I nteractions in Settings: 'Certain Conditions for the Communication Between Actors
and Audience,' and so on. I must admit that this did not
inspire me to head for futher psychological explorations.
Perhaps the largest number of questions raised in the discussion here were based on the difficult question of

WINTER. 1977

Others in this group included Karlheinz Messelken
whose topic was "Social and Social-Political Structures
and Developments," Eckehart Nolle of Munich's Theatre
Museum with a descriptive paper on "Theatre Construction in the Federal Republic of Germany," and Gerhard
Weber, architect of the National Theatre in Mannheim
who discussed his career as a free-lance theatre architect.
He dealt at length with the problems of developing a
workable design for any given commission noting that
every theatre on which he had worked presented an
entirely new set of problems.

THEATRE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1977