Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 1988 - 52

A MER/CAN

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American Women Scene Designers
continued from page 6
provided by the director. He has the power to reveal these
things, but not create them. In essence, his craft is to
complement and to support the more concrete theatre art
already in place, just as the interior designer mediates the
empty impersonal space of a room with the day-to-day
needs of its inhabitants.
The costume designer also plays the role of supporter
and mediator. Although the costume designer plays an
important part in visually defining characters and character relationships, those costumes need a context to have
meaning. For example, a Hamlet dressed in black in front
of a dark gloomy set is in harmony with his environment:
we understand his gloom in such a depressing world. If,
however, the set designer creates a bright and sunny environment, suddenly Hamlet in his black is a disturbed
character, a character in a state of discord with his world.
The set designer controls the visual context, if only by
virtue of sheer scale.
The roles of supporter and mediator have been traditionally feminine. The roles of controller and director (in
the largest sense) have been masculine. These represent
two ends of a scale. The more powerful the position, the
less women will be seen occupying it and vice versa.
Therefore, women would be likely to find less resistance in
the professions of lighting designer and interior designer
than they do in the more powerful, hence traditionally
masculine, profession of scene designer and architect.
This amount of power represents a risk, both financially
and artistically, for the producer and director. Kellogg
points out:

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The scenery, as far as the director is concerned, is an
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risk. If you were a man, would you choose a woman to
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In many cases, apparently not.

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If a male director demands a male set designer to "guard
his back," why doesn't the set designer insist on having the
male lighting and costume designers for the same reason?
According to Helen Chinoy, women only managed to get a
foothold in costuming and lighting because the potentials
were not yet fully understood when women began to practice these arts. As she states in Women in American
Theatre:
If the job is lowly, the organization experimental or
co=unity oriented, or the artistic skill is new,
women are likely to be found doing the work. Once
the job becomes an executive or top administrative
one or the organization successful or nationally important, or the skill formalized into a profession,
women's role seems to diminish and their original
pioneer work often ignored or forgotten. This process
is not peculiar to theatre, but is endemic to a woman's
participation in American life .... 9
Women were able to move into these design areas because there was no great male tradition to keep them out.
This is not true of scenery, which has been steadily gaining
recognition since the Bibienas. It is revealing to note how
many women, considered successful in the areas of costume design and lighting design, were also involved in
scene design early in their careers. They then dropped that

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 1988