Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 1993 - 13

over rhe passage of rime, have arrained
rhe srarus of "Holy \'{!rir"-which is,
afrer all, only appropriare when one is
dealing wirh "Erernal Trurh." Expressions such as, "The dury of rhe
designer is ro serve rhe play"and "Ger rhe
'personal you' our of your work, who
cares abour you?" and "Take rhe lirrle gifr
you have inro rhe hall of rhe gods"-are
all expressions of rhis idea. Bur rhere are
rwo problems wirh rhis idea which never
seem (Q go away:

PROBLEM ONE:
While we all agree rhar our dury is
ro find rhis erernal rrurh, we don'r
have any mechanism rhar allows us
(Q recognize an erernal rrurh-as
opposed (Q a cliche-when we see
ir. [rernal rrurhs rhar floar our
rhere in rhe erher are hard ro recognize. And, frequenrly, perfecrly
srupid or banal ideas, disguised by
rheir verbal packaging, are passed
off as "erernal rrurhs."

PROBLEM TWO:
While we believe rhar as designers
we are supposed ro be a passive and
invisible conduir for rhe rransmission of rhis erernal and universal
message (Q rhe audience, we don'r
know whar rhe message is, who is
sending ir, or even who is SLlpposed
ro receive Ir.
Ir should rherefore nor surprise us rhar
much of whar happens in our rhearres
roday is gurless and has no passion. Any
design process rhar makes makes a vinue
of passiviry and anonymiry will nor be
known for irs sense of passion. Passion is
a unique, individualized em orionwherher in personal relarionships or in
rhe ans. Our design process jerrisoned
individualiry from irs process a long rime
ago, and we shouldn'r be surprised by rhe
spineless resulrs rhar we see on our srages.
The currenr impoverished srare of our
rhearre and of rhe designs we do for rhar
rhearre is a direcr resulr of our clinging ro
rhese assumprions in rhe face of rhe profound changes rhar we see around us.
Our problem is rhe same problem rhar
Roben Edmond jones saw in rhe rhearre
of his rime when he wrore:
\X!e are in rhe midsr of a bewildering breakdown of our-worn convenrions and a slow and painful
growrh of new ones. The world is
moving, in agony, (Qward a new
consciousness. Bur for some reason your rhearre reflecrs lirrle of
rhis rension-rhe horrifying

"unawareness" of life in rhe face of
rhe drama rhar is being played our
on rhe fronr page of every newspaper. '
Our view of rhe rhearre is old-fashioned
and our of rouch wirh irs audience. Our
rhearre doesn'r have anyrh ing ro say ro
conremporary audiences because ir
doesn'r have anyrhing (Q say ro us. Our
view of rhearre is grounded in a world of
smug cenainry. However, we live in a
world of baffling relariviry. And rhis sense
of relariviry musr become rhe basis of a
new view of our work and our rhearre-a
view rhar, ir seems ro me, is based on rhe
following poinrs.

A NEWVIEW

Theatre Consulting
& Design

Architectural
Lighting Design

The rexr of rhe play does nor exisr unril ir
is apprehended. For our purposes rhe rexr
has no life, as rhearre, unril rhe designer
and rhe direcror encounrer ir. And ir is
rheir encounrer wirh rhe rexr, nor rhe rexr
irself, rhar is rhe mosr imponanr elemenr
in rhe crearive process. Ir is, in poinr of
facr, rhe basis for a real colla bora rive process.

Audio Visual

There is no such rhing as hisrory, or a
hisrorically accurare producrion. There is
only rhe presenr, rhe anifacrs rhar exisr in
rhe presenr, and our reacrion ro rhese
anifacrs. Ir is our reacrion ro rhese anifans in rhe presenr momenr rhar we
srudy, design, and presenr-norhing else.

Media Facilities

Srage design is an an-bur nor an an of
universal redemprion. Ar besr ir holds rhe
promise of specific, individual redemprion and as such ir is a process of confronrarion wirh rhe self. The process of
learning how ro design or direcr in rhe
rhearre is rhe same as rhe process of learning any orher an form: Ir is a process of
self-discovery-of finding our who I am
and whar ir is rhar I have (Q say. The grear
designers in our rhearre and world rhearre have always known rhis and always
worked rhis way-alrhough rhey have
nor always freely aclmirred ir. Designs by
Appia, Craig, jones, jo Mielziner, Ming
Cho Lee, josef Svoboda, or jaroslav
Malina could never be misraken for
designs by anorher person. They all
design from a unique poinr of viewfrom rheir poinr of view-from rheir
own selves. Thar is whar makes rhem

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TD&T

1993 SPRING

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 1993