Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1995 - 17

Landwehr poinrs our rhe irony rhar rhe rhrusr srage, which
srarred our in rhe rwenrierh cenrury as an a\'anr-garde form
relared ro rirual and mysrery, has become "rhe ulrimare
bourgeois rhearre, because you can counr all rhose rhings
on srage, and you can see rhe marerials; you know whar ir
all cosrs."

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~

~

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lVlISSING SOMETHING SPECIAL?

.... .
The differences in approach berween rhe open srage and
rhe proscenium come down ro rhe rasre of rhe rhearre
arrisrs involved and rhe pracrical necessiries of rhe archirecrural form. The proscenium does frame a picrure, does provide grearer focus and does enrail grearer disrance from rhe
audience as compared ro rhe open srage. In an open srage
rhearre, rhe audience is closer and wraps around rhe srage
more rhan in a proscenium. In addirion, sighrline problems limir rhe heighr, size, and placemenr of scenic elemenrs. These differences in rhe narure of rhe space will
enrail cerrain pracrical producrion choices rhar resulr in
differenr sryles. The proscenium producrion will rend ro be
more focused and more pictorial in irs effecr. The opensrage producrion will rend to be more environmenral, inrimare, and seen in grearer derail. Bur to label rhese pracrical
resulrs as "presenrarional" or "illusionisric" seems ro limir
rhe rhearre arrisrs' aesrheric choices and imply an archirecrural dicrarorshi p rhar does nor exisr.
The rhearre arrisr should be aware of rhe pracrical
requiremenrs rhar resulr from rhe archirecrure, and shape rhe
producrion accordingly. The Gurhrie approach, for insrance,
seems a sensible response ro rhe archirecrure: Deal wirh rhe
facr rhar rhe acror will be seen close up, bur avoid any gesrure
wward crearing an illusionisric ser rhar rhe open srage cannor achieve.

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beepr as nored, all quotes are from inrerviews with rhe .lllthor.
2

:--liehel Saint-Denis. The Redisfol'fl)' 0/ tyle (;-.Jew York: 1960) 58.

3

John Gassner. Foml illld Idm ill the ,Ifodem Theatre (:\ew York: Dn'den

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THone Guthrie. "Shakespeare.lI1 Production." TIl<' };'"rs Irork ill the

Tlteilll'<' /9-19-50 (London: Longnuns. Green: [1951]) 3
rephen Joseph, "Arenas ,1nd All Th.u." fir<'lltierll Celll/ll)' 169 (1961) 114.

6

Joseph 15';.

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\X'ILLL-\,\I F. CON DEE, PhD, is all associate proftssor ill the
School o/Theater at Ohio Ulliversity This article WflS origillalLy
presented as a paper at the 1993 AlIleriCflIl Society fOr Theatre
Research COllftrence alld is adapted j7-0i1l Thearrical Space:
Aguide for Direcrors and Designers to be published this )/ear
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1995
