Transcript Theatre History

A Brief History of Theatre Architecture & Stage Technology
(The Twentieth Century)
◦ Starting in the late 1800s and continuing through the 20th
century, theatre turned to a more realistic and naturalistic
style of drama.
◦ Realism – focused on objective observation and representation
of reality
◦ Naturalism – focused on representing reality as it can be
scientifically observed and as accurately as possible
◦ This was led by artists working in the Theatre Libre in France
and the Moscow Art Theatre in Russia.
◦ They led theatre as an art toward a more unified style, in
which all production elements were carefully
selected/crafted.
◦ This required that sets for plays were not simply
backgrounds; they instead needed to become realistic
environments in which plays could occur.
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In naturalism & realism, sets needed to
become complete environments for a
play.
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A Brief History of Theatre Architecture & Stage Technology
(The Twentieth Century)
◦ As action of the play moved from the apron to the
main part of the stage, the apron shrank in size.
◦ This made it difficult to see the action from box and
gallery seats adjacent (next to) the proscenium.
◦ Side seats were consequently eliminated, and remaining
seats faced the stage. This is how theatres today are set
up!
◦ Meanwhile, splinter groups created anti-Realism
movements in rapid succession.
◦ Because they rose and fell so quickly, they did not have
enough influence to develop new types of theatre
structures.
◦ Most movements didn’t actually need to change
machinery or the theatre space anyway.
In theatres today, side seats are rare.
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A Brief History of Theatre Architecture & Stage Technology
(The Twentieth Century)
◦ In the U.S. the Little Theatre movement of the 1920s
and 1930s worked to establish quality productions
outside of NYC.
◦ This resulted in the establishment of the theatrical
communities in Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas, Denver,
Hartford, Washington, Minneapolis, Tucson, and Sarasota.
◦ It provided playwrights a slightly less critical/competitive
atmosphere in which to improve their craft and produce
new works.
◦ The Little Theatre movement created a ripple effect
across the country as fledgling companies began to
produce theatre in “found” spaces.
◦ This could include barns, churches, feed stores, grocery
stores, libraries, old movie houses, etc.
◦ These groups enjoyed the intimacy of smaller spaces.
◦ Because they rarely created a proscenium, thrust and
arena stages were quite common.
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Broadway may be the most famous
city for theatre, but it isn’t the only one!
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A Brief History of Theatre Architecture & Stage Technology
(The Twentieth Century)
◦ It is doubtful that any genuinely new developments
will ever be made in theatre spaces.
◦ Theatrical experience as we know it is based on the
premise that actors need a space in which to perform,
and the audience must be in a position to see and hear
them.
◦ Initially, coverting gas to incandescent lamps simply
involved refitting gas fixtures for electricity.
◦ Improvements to the incandescent lamp to increase
brightness and longevity resulted in the first
incandescent spotlights.
◦ Shortly afterward, Fresnel and ellipsoidal reflector
spotlights replaced all other electric fixtures.
◦ In the 1960’s, lamps improved to the tungstenhalogen (T-H) model, which produced brighter light
for longer lifespans.
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The lighting technology we use today is still
very new in the context of theatre history!
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A Brief History of Theatre Architecture & Stage Technology
(The Twentieth Century)
◦ The first electronic dimmer was developed by
George Izenour in the late 1940’s.
◦ This allowed dimmers to be controlled from a remote
location for the first time.
◦ Electronic control allowed the development of the
preset control system.
◦ This remained the dominant method of dimmer control
until digital technology was invented in the 1980s.
◦ Until electrically powered record players and
amplified sound in the 1930’s, all music or sound
effects had to be created live.
◦ The tape recorder, invented in the 1940’s, jumpstarted the experimentation with and development
of sound technology.
◦ From there, various improvements were made until
digital technology for storage, replay, and
recording were developed in the early 1980’s.
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◦ AND THAT BRINGS US TO TODAY!
Magnetic tape recorders started a quickdeveloping boom in sound technology.
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