Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1982 - 17

audience through exposition, a high degree of selectivity, and by
performance techniques such as a single focus, actors facing
the audience and pointing lines, etc. All but the central action
tends to be suppressed. Actors focus on the dominant stage
interest rather than on the preoccupations of their characters. As
spectators we have become so accustomed to this style in the
theatre that it seems natural even though highly theatrical. In
hyperrealism the apparent lack of selection and the abundance
of detail is actually more natural, but because it is unusual in the
theatre, the performances seem theatrical.
The setting was the starting point for each of the three
hyperreal plays. In order for the productions to function in the
hyperreal way intended it was essential to develop the selling
from closely observed reality because imagination is not sufficiently detailed and is too influenced by mediated experience.
Sunset/Sunrise (1979) is set in the backyard of a modern
California house with swimming pool, patio with redwood deck,
barbecue, grass, and a car in the carport. One can also see
through sliding glass doors and large windows into the kitchen,
family room, and master bedroom. The selling was based on
observations made by the designer Darrell Winn in Davis,
California, where the play was first presented. For Winterplay
(1980), set inside the same house, John Ammirati designed a
family-room-dining-room and kitchen with redwood beams and
a view of the patio through a sliding glass door.
Originally, the playwright had conceived of Stuck being presented on a proscenium stage with the cars facing the audience
on a three-lane freeway. A staged reading using this arrangement was presented in a warehouse in the fall of 1980. While
taking photographs of the actors and cars from a catwalk, I
realized that the best perspective for the audience would be
from above. When we began making plans for a production at
the Magic Theatre, it was immediately clear that the production
could not be staged in either of its two theatres as there was no

ally coming to understand how they are related and why they
behave as they do. Although interested in the fictional situation,
the spectator is not made to want a particular outcome because
each spectator is a detached observer.
Several writing techniques are used to keep the audience
from becoming too involved. For example there are moments
when the audience is temporarily pulled into a sUbjective
relationship with a character, but these are immediately undercut by an ironic shift of perspective. Rarely do characters
express their feelings or otherwise reveal their emotions, but the
audience deduces what the characters feel. Character A says
something we expect to have an impact on Character B. We
look at Character B and, even though we see no reaction, we
know how Character B feels. This cognition on our part helps us
maintain our distance because it is active rather than passive.
Other techniques have been used in rehearsal and designing
to increase performance detail. One of these involves an
unconventional focus for the actors. Rather than focusing on a
single center of interest, each actor focuses on the specific
interest of his or her character at each moment. Sometimes
these focuses coincide, but often they are different making for
several simultaneous centers of interest thus creating an impression of complexity and the absence of dramatic contrivance.
The more-than-usual detail, the lack of an obviously-directed
focus, and the use of simultaneous conversations and actions
gives the audience the impression that they are discovering the
details of action and selling for themselves as they do in the real
world. Because the spectator's focus is not forcefully drawn to
each detail that is seen, the details seem not to have been
contrived for perception but left to chance discovery. And
because the spectators are put into a frame-of-mind for observation rather than emotional involvement, they are able to make
these discoveries.
The theatre style called "realism" is quite different from
"hyperrealism." Realist plays present characters behaving in a
theatricalized manner which oversimplifies the work of the

Cross section of performance and seating areas.
II

,-.

Pier and warehouse in which Stuck was produced.
'~ ..>~.

Plan with cars arranged for Act Two.

A moment from Act One.

USITI/Summer, 1982

Theatre Design & Technology

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1982