Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1992 - 26

technology in our particular fields. Much
of what nw collaborators and I have done
is history. Bur I also think ir's important,
For it reminds us of how change can
bring results we ma\' nor alwavs Foresee.
ow did I get involved in the
theatre in the first place' I
wasn't raised in a trunk back
stage bur I had a maternal
grandFather who wished he
might have been. He was an accomplished amateur flautist who absolurely
loved playing in pit orchestras. Pits were
shallow in his day and he saw a lot of the
perFormances from them. He told me,
"Edwin Booth didn't play Hamlet l He
IlIfTS Hamlet l "
My mother had the bug as well, as did
her sister, my Aunt Kay. She perFormed
in the first play I ever saw, a production
of Robill Hood at The Cleveland
Playhouse. One of the scenes was set in
Sherwood Forest and I remember being
intrigued by the actors and actresses eating real food from a POt suspended over a
prop fire. When I asked her what they
had ro eat, my aunt replied, "All of the
Merry 1en and \X!omen had corn flakes
and Friar Tuck had a cold chicken drumstick. " Oh, boy! How neat," I said ro
myself. That prop fire and food, perfect
illusions of reality for my five-year-old
mind, had grabbed me.
From seeing, it's bur a short journey ro
doing. r.ly sister and I worked up an ad
lib romanric tragedy which brought us
both our first published review. It came
From a family friend who wrote a daily
column for the CLeveLalld PLaill Dealer.
She witnessed us in this epic as I played
the king to my sister's messenger. The climactic moment came when the messenger burst into the throne room with some
bad news for the king. Messenger: "Your
Majesty, the Queen has JUSt died of the
plague, the Prince has been taken captive
by your enemies, the Princess has been
sold inro slavery, and the people are in
revolt!" The King's response: "That's roo
bad."
We kept at it throughout junior high
and inro high school but in my sophomore year I fell out of love with making
play and in love with swing music and a
trombone.
I carried the horn along when I was
draFted in to the Armv earlv in 1943.
Later that year the Army sent me to
Indiana University as a srudent engineer.
In the spring of '44, Sidney Head and
Lou Safford wrote book and music For a
grand musical comedy enti tied Soldiers ill
the Dark. This was produced in the large
audirorium theatre at IU and there I was,
24

1992 SUMMER

TD&T

playing second trombone in the pit, having a grand time JUSt as nw granddad had
done. Shortly thereafrer, real wartime
dury called, I went overseas, had a relatively safe time of it in an engineer barralion, came home, enrolled as a GI bill vet
in the Februan' '46 class at \'('estern
Reserve University in Cleveland, and met
Hank Kurth for the first time.
He was a revelation: Theatre was not
JUSt fun and games, it was an art form ro
be srudied, practiced, and revered. He
loved his work as a designer and teacher
and made sure that we, his srudents,
shared his passion. He did not abide foolish or lazy srudenrs, but iF you were willing ro devote your life ro it, )'ou could
gain a liFe in the art of the theatre.
He taught me stagecraFt and
scenic/lighting design. We read Appia.
Trips ro the Cleveland Museum of Art
were mandatory For new exhibitions and
growing familiarization with the permanenr collections. \X!e learned to render in
perspective so that it looked on paper as
it would on stage, and we were taught ro
juSt{v our design srudies in good wrirren
English. \X!e listened to a lot of music
that ranged from Gregorian chanr to
John Cage plus much of what come
berween, and we built, set up, ran, and
struck every production the departmenr
produced. He was, and is, a great teacher.

frer I graduated, it was oFf ro
New York and some additional
night school srudy at Erwin
Piscaror's Dramatic \X!orkshop
of The ew School. As an
evening srudenr, I srudied scenic design
with Heinz Condell and lighting with
Hans Sondheimer. I remember classes
with Herr Condell as something of a
trial. The problem, of course, was mine.
Fresh From Hank's Appian approach
where three dimensionality was solid and
everything on stage should relate directly
to the acror, I Found it diFficult to make
anv aesthetic or practical connection ro
Condell's Mittel Europa sryle.
Classes with Hans Sondheimer were a
diFFerenr story. He, like Hank Kurth, was
a man of humor and of complete devotion ro what he did. Hans had come ro
this country From Hitler's Germanv
where he had worked with Adolph
Linnebach at the Hamburg Opera as an
engineer and lighting technician. Hans
taught me the practicalities of lighting.
In addition ro his tcaching for Piscaror,
he was working as technical direcror at
New York's Citv Center on \X!est 55th
Street. ! n that mosque-like barn of a
house, he was doing the New York Citv
Center Opera Company and the City

Cenrer Ballet. Hans, with his German
thoroughness, made it all happen.
\'(/hene\'er we, his srudenrs, were Free, we
were in\'ited to observe take-in and
rehearsals. I learned a lot about gerring
productions in and working without hassles, watching Hans cope \\'ith roo much
scenery on roo small a stage and alwa~'s
come out of it with a smile and a good
word for his IA crew. The ke\' was organization, verY tight planning, and discipline, lessons that paid off later.

was luckv. l At the end of n1\'.
semester with Hans, the night
school srudenrs were auditioned
to design scenen' and lighting for
a production of The Tillie of }'I7IIr
Life. I captured the ligh ting design slot
and we did the production at the
RooFrop Theatre at Second Avenue and
Houston Street. I remember using several
Follow sPOtS from positions in the theatre's balcoll\'. These were a fixture in
Piscator's epic approach ro almost all the
work done by the school. It was a good
production, if memory serves. Hans
thought nw lighting "helped" the plar I
wish I could remember who played in it
but I was gerring rcady ro take the summer oFf and go back to Europe and
Britain seeing as much theatre as I could
get into, old Friends from 1944-45, and
new places and things.
Back ro New York in the fall to share a
flat with my sister who had spenr the
summer in a company at Antioch
College. The nigh t I rerurned, she rook
me to a party at the apartment of a
Friend, also a member of the Anrioch
Company. The Friend's name was Lois
and she worked at the Henry Street
Settlemenr's rheatre on Grand Stret. A
direcror and actress, Lois did children's
theatre and had plans for starting a series
of adult productions for the immediate
neighborhood. I worked for a woven
label company during the day and we
rehearsed Jilunke alld Sillg at night. Lois
cast me as r.loe A.xelrod and I must sav
that it scared hell out of me ro learn all
those lines and ro concentrate, concentrate, concentrate. It was also \'ery good
For me to see what SOrtS of problems
acrors and actresses have with all that
stuFf we designers put on the stage. I
know it's been said many times before
bur .vou have ro constantlv. think of the
performers as real people as you order
that stage space. That last phrase is parr
of Hank K.urth's deFinition of
scenic/lighting design: an ordering of the
stage space in such a wav that thc audience belie/'fs [italics mine] in the actor.
Jill'tlkl' IIlId Sillg had a modcst run in

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1992