Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2013 - 74

book

review

Ultimatum) concurs: "My process begins by reading the script
several times and then meeting very quickly with the director to
learn the kind of film he's planning to make."
The author of any book has to make hard choices concerning content and scope, and Landis chooses a long list of worthy
designers, both contemporary and for the "legacy" entries. The
absence of Oscar and Tony Award-winner Ann Roth (Midnight
Cowboy, The Day of the Locust, and The English Patient), however, is worth noting. The presence of a useful index and helpful
glossary is commendable.
In her introduction, Landis suggests that the insiders in
the film industry and the general public do not understand what
costume designers do: "Our contribution to the story is more
profound than providing the clothes for a production." She continues, "The word 'costume' works against us. The word is vulgar
when what we do is incredibly refined. "Costume" is invariably
associated with Halloween, fancy dress, parade, theme park,
Mardi Gras, carnival, and the clothes in fantasy and period films.
To costume designers, 'a costume picture' means nothing more
than our next project."
Landis is working hard to address this confusion. Within
the past year, she has published three books, including this one,
and served as senior guest curator for the exhibition Hollywood
Costume at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London through
January 27, 2013. I'll be writing about the prolific Ms. Landis, the
V&A exhibit and its catalog, also called Hollywood Costume, as
well as reviewing her newest book, Hollywood Sketchbook, in
the next issue of TD&T.
Bobbi Owen is a professor of dramatic art at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she
teaches costume design and costume history and serves
as senior associate dean for undergraduate education.
She edited Late and Great: American Designers 1960-2010,
USITT's 50th anniversary monograph.

The Disappearing Stage
Reflections on the 2011
Prague Quadrennial

Edited by Arnold Aronson; Prague: Arts and
Theatre Institute: Prague Quadrennial, 2012. 99
pp. Paper, CZK300 ($15.56).
Reviewed by Linda Essig
I was fortunate to have visited the most recent incarnation of PQ, the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space 2011, along with my
adolescent children. I reflected on our experience there shortly after our return, writing on my

theatre design

& technology

w i n t e r 2013

Creative Infrastructure blog, "The main exhibits were, thankfully, not dominated by precious model boxes displayed next
to costumed mannequins, although that certainly was the format of the USA National Exhibit at the last PQ in 2007. Instead,
the predominant format of the exhibits-or at least what was
most notable to me-was the 'spectator-as-performer' "
(creativeinfrastructure.org/2011/07/12/prague-reflections/).
A year later, the eight essays that constitute The Disappearing
Stage: Reflections on the 2011 Prague Quadrennial provide
welcome theoretical context for my-and my children's-
observations.
The changing title of the event (to call it an "exhibit"
does not do it justice), from the Prague Quadriennial of Stage
Design, to the Prague Quadriennial of Scenography in 2003
and now the Prague Quadriennial of Performance Design and
Space in 2011 is indicative of the trends identified by the essays included in this slim volume edited by Arnold Aronson,
who writes both the introductory and concluding essays.
While, on the one hand, the change from "scenography" to
"performance design and space" resolves the confusion over
what exactly the term "scenography" means, on the other
hand, it also was intended, according to Aronson's introduction, "to shift the focus from restrictive notions of theatre and
performance in all its manifestations, and to think of design
in more spatial terms." This broadening provides opportunities not only for a greater range of exhibit material and
formats but also for situating the work in broader social theoretical contexts. The Disappearing Stage is not an exhibit
catalog-if you are expecting one you will be disappointed-
but rather a collection of theoretical essays inspired by, or
at least referencing, work seen at the 2011 PQ. The authors
include Marvin Carlson (USA), Christopher Baugh (UK), Thea
Brejzek (DE), Beth Weinstein (USA), Guy Gutman (IL) and
Barbora Príhodová (CZ), as well as Aronson (USA). Performance design has, in my opinion, been undertheorized in
academic discourse, especially in the United States. This collection therefore makes an important contribution.

Spectator/audience to
participant/co-creator
The introduction provides useful context and a road map for the seven essays that follow, each of which takes on
a different theme and/or body of work.
The first, by Thea Brejzek, is the most
theoretical. She cites the French sociologist and philosopher Pierre Bourdieu
as well as existentialist Martin Heidegger and others, in addition to examples
from PQ itself to support her assertion

http://www.creativeinfrastructure.org/2011/07/12/prague-reflections/

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2013