Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1991 - 24

"Mozan in America: Design for Opera."
Ir is a very impressive showing of
Mozanean opera producrion in rhe US.
The planners had much cooperarion
from many civic opera organizarions,
universiries and rhe major urban companies as well as rhe designers rhemselves.
One could nor help being muck by rhe
very high producrion srandards seen in
rhe many renderings, phoros and models
plus rhe several cosrumes for The
I\farriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni and
The Magic Flute. More cosrumes would
have helped. I would like ro have seen
Cherubino's cosrume-and associared
props-for hislher firsr enrrance in Perer
Sellars' Figaro. Thar is somerhing you
have ro see ro believe! I liked rhe video
showing of Perer Sellars as he held fonh,
wirh excerprs and backup from his principal singers, on his approach ro Mozarr.
Bur did we really need ro see ir on rhree
TV screens? One finds oneself looking ar
rhe screens and lirrle else-and rhere was
a lor more ro see.

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rom rhere, my video muse
led me on ro lew Zealand
where I was raken wirh
David Thornley's design for a
play called AlVa] Ir was done
on a rhrusr srage [Coun Thearre,
Chrisrchurch, 1987] and mainly consisred of several asymmerrical ramps. Ar one
side of rhe rendering were several large
producrion phorographs. One could see
how rhe acrors were using rhe space creared by rhe design very clearly. In my
opinion, rhis is whar exhibirions of rhis
kind should be abour. Thornley's lew
Zealand colleague, Tony Geddes, was
represenred by designs for Saint joan and
The lvferchant of Venice. His Saint joan,
also produced ar rhe Coun Thearre rhis
year, used whar seemed ro be mechanized
levels in rhe rhree quarrer-round space.
Like Thornley, he backed up rhe renderings wirh producrion phoros. Someone
had rhe nor-so-brighr idea of blowing up
a 35mm srrip of color shors and placing
rhem under rhe renderings. There were
roo many of rhem and rhey were roo
small for rhe viewer ro see derail. They
were also scenes in which rhe lighring,
rhough probably quire suired ro rhe
momenr, did nor ler us see enough ro
recognize how rhe design helped rhe
acrors bring Shaw's rexr ro life.
Carry corner ro ew Zealand was rhe
Polish exhibir. This one puzzled me ar
firsr bur I finally decided rhar rheir nighrmarish fun house was relared ro rheir ulrimare liberarion from rhe consrrainrs of
rheir large Easrcrly neighbor and ro a
phoenix-like sense of rebinh in rhe coun-

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1991