Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Theaters – stage-setting and scenery – dictionaries'

During the span of thirty years from 1968 - 1997 the Western Australian Opera Company grew from its infancy into a major regional performance group. Its significant contribution to the local entertainment industry is not solely the presentation of opera but also its support and fostering of technical theatre training in Western Australia.

This creative project focuses on the research, planning, design and field-testing of a kit of basic architectural elements that can be used to build simple spaces and small constructions. These elements are reusable, easy to handle, and allow for a nearly infinite number of configurations.The environment in which the system was developed is a setting of an improvisational outdoor theatre, called 'Live-Action-Role-playing-Games'- (LARP). Therefore the system does not provide a high quality indoor space, but rather focuses on the critical requirements of theatrical stages, such as flexibility, ease of erection and variety. Additionally, the system dealt with the pragmatic issues of affordability and cost-effectiveness.The design process commenced with great attention being paid to the very special requirements of LARP and attempting to test initial assumptions. It included two surveys of LARP participants and use of charrettes to incorporate users input into the design process. Prototype elements were then constructed and field-tested during a full-scale replication of an actual LARP-event over afour-day testing period.Following this an evaluation was made, lessons were learned, and the information gained was incorporated in to the final design.This document then records the entire design process and concludes with extensive documentation of the system.
Department of Architecture

This study provides an examination and application of heterotopic dérive, a concept that combines spatial theories originated by Foucault and psychogeographical methods advocated by the Situationists, as enacted within theatrical performance spaces. The first chapter reviews theories related to space, place, and heterotopias, as well as the psychogeographical methods of the Situationists, particularly the dérive. The literature review is augmented with accounts of my experiences of serendipitous heterotopic dérive over a period of several years as a cast member in, or a technical director for, theatrical productions in the Department of Communication Studies Black Box Theatre. Based on the review, I postulate that heterotopic dérive is a potentially valuable phenomenon that performance studies scholar/artists can utilize consciously in the rehearsal process for mounting theatrical performances. To test this proposition, I worked collaboratively with a theatrical cast to craft a devised performance, Desire Lines, with a conscious effort to engender heterotopic dérive in the process of creating the performance. This performance served as the basis for the second chapter of the study, which analyzes and discusses of the results of that investigation. This project enhances understanding of the significance of the places and spaces in which performers practice their craft, and argues for the potential of recognizing and utilizing the agency of heterotopic spaces such as the Black Box.

This thesis represents the written portion of the Degree Requirements of the Master of Fine Arts in Theatre Design. The Thesis production of HAMLET, by Wm. Shakespeare (edited by Brian C. Parkinson), was the University of Lethbridge Department of Theatre and Dramatic Arts third show of the 2011 – 2012 Mainstage Theatre season, running February 14 – 18, 2012, performed at the University Theatre in the University of Lethbridge Centre for the Arts, Lethbridge, Alberta. HAMLET was directed by Brian C. Parkinson, with the assistant direction of L. Jay Whitehead and Yvonne Mandel. Contained within this written portion of the thesis is a discussion of the design concepts for this production, along with photographic records of models, technical drawings, and other pertinent information.
viii, 176 leaves : col. ill. ; 29 cm

The purpose of this project is to assess the production level one person can achieve when directing, designing, and managing all aspects of a major theatrical production. It will identify strategies and techniques which are crucial for success in the areas of theatrical design and management.

Considered apart from the concrete; general; theoretical; hence, difficult; ideal. 2. A summary of epitome; a generality, in law, a compendium; in logic, an abstract idea or term; in grammer, an abstract noun, as virtue, goodness, etc.*
Department of Architecture

Né en 1727 à Briançon, Jean-Antoine Morand a 14 ans lorsqu’il se lance, suite à la mort de son père, dans une carrière artistique. C’est à Lyon qu’il s’installe et fonde, en 1748, un atelier de peinture. Il reçoit des commandes officielles et privées, travaille régulièrement pour la Comédie, se spécialise dans la peinture en trompe-l’œil et la scénographie, y compris les machines de théâtre. À la fin des années 1750, encouragé par Soufflot, il se tourne vers l’architecture et l’embellissement, ainsi que l’y disposent différents aspects de sa première carrière.Architecte autodidacte, Morand souffre d’un déficit de légitimité et tente d’y remédier en recherchant la reconnaissance publique. Mais ses succès, en particulier la construction à titre privé d’un pont sur le Rhône, n’y suffisent pas. La carrière de Morand est tiraillée entre fierté entrepreneuriale et appétence institutionnelle. Son image pâtit de l’opposition entre spéculation foncière et promotion du bien public. Cela concerne en particulier son grand œuvre, un projet d’agrandissement de Lyon sur la rive gauche du Rhône, compris dans un plan général donnant à la ville la forme circulaire.Morand a peu construit et il ne subsiste presque rien de son œuvre pictural. On dispose en revanche d’un fonds d’archives privé d’une grande richesse, sur lequel s’appuie cette thèse, afin de mettre au jour les intentions, les relations et la psychologie d’un architecte autrement méconnu
Born in 1727, Jean-Antoine Morand is 14 years old when he embraces an artistic career, following his father’s death. Having settled down in Lyon, he establishes his own painter’s workshop in 1748. Receiving public and private commissions and working for the theatre on a regular basis, he specializes in trompe l’œil painting and stage-setting, including machinery. In the late 1750s, spurred on by Soufflot, he turns to architecture and city-planning, as various aspects of his previous career could have prompted him to.As an autodidactic architect, Morand suffers from a lack of legitimacy against which he pursues public recognition. But his successes, which include the building of a privately-owned bridge across the Rhône, aren’t enough. Morand’s career is torn between entrepreneurial pride and his longing for tenure. His public image is marred by the alleged opposition between land speculation and the defense of public good. This concerns mostly his great work, a project for the extension of Lyon on the left bank of the Rhône, included in a circular general city plan.Morand hasn’t built much and very little remains of his pictorial work. This thesis is based on an extensive private archive that allows us to explore this otherwise unsung architect’s intentions, relations and psychology

Thesis (MTech. degree in Performing Arts) -- Tshwane University of Technology. 2010.
The training of students for the technical side of the Entertainment Industry in South Africa is not something that has been with us for many years. It is only for the last 33 years that an institution, the then Technikon Pretoria, started a course that trains Scenic Artists in South Africa. Not many institutions are training Scenic Artists in South Africa, and the current Department of Entertainment Technology has always been the leader in this field. In the United Kingdom, training students as Scenic Artists has been part of their programmes for the last ninety years. One finds that there is a demand for training Scenic Artists in the United Kingdom, because of the size and complexity of the Entertainment Industry there. During the Apartheid era, South Africa was excluded from the International scene, so the demand did not really exist here for a number of years. Lately, the Entertainment Industry in South Africa has picked up momentum and expanded its borders immensely, and this has created a great demand for trained Scenic Artists in South Africa. Today one can proudly say that one is part of an industry that trains people as Scenic Artists in South Africa that contributes to the global Entertainment Industry. The Scenic Artists who completed their studies at TUT are employed nationally and internationally, and deliver a very high standard of work on the most impressive projects. During the research that was done between the Tshwane University of Technology in South Africa and the Rose Bruford College and Guildhall School of Drama and Music, both in the United Kingdom in London, one can see that there are no major differences between the three institutions. Each institution has its own methodology, but at the end, all are working towards one goal, and that is to train the best Scenic Artists possible. The differences that present it are in the course structure, available facilities and the amount of staff allocated to do the training.

This dissertation demonstrates that seventeenth-century dramatists and theatrical practitioners invented a dazzling series of specialized technologies for representing space. I argue that ubiquitous stage technologies, such as doors, props, musical instruments, and curtains, were used to create a dynamic sense of location—both fictional locations within the represented action and the audience’s location within a specific theater structure. Scholarship on the early modern spatial imaginary has tended to focus on broader cultural changes in how English people understood the world around them, in part through the massive growth of London as an urban center, and in part through England’s burgeoning empire and increasing contact with the world beyond its shores. At the same time, theater scholars have increasingly emphasized the material conditions of theatrical production, including the composition of theatrical companies, the features of different theater buildings, and the nature of costumes and cosmetics. My research extends this theater historical work to show how the details of theatrical practice shaped perceptions of space, including the space of the theater itself as well as the rapidly expanding sense of both urban and global space outside the theater’s walls. My chapters are organized around the different tools used to represent particular types of place, while also tracing a chronological development marked by both continuity and change. In part, this means looking back towards the theatrical traditions out of which this drama sprang, as when I show how the disposition of stage doors in Roman New Comedy or the use of props in medieval morality plays were redeployed by playwrights such as Ben Jonson or Thomas Dekker. I also argue for a more complex relationship than we have assumed between the spatial arrangements of the prewar Shakespearean stage and that of the Restoration. While the introduction of painted scenery is typically taken to mark a break in how space was represented onstage, I establish that playwrights in this era continued to experiment with many of the same spatial techniques used by their precursors in the prewar theaters. By carefully tracing how the same spatial tools – the movement of actors in and out of the doors, the management of discovery spaces, and the positioning of musicians and sound machines – continued to be used alongside the painted scenery, I help us see more clearly how those tools were already active in shaping the perception of theatrical space in the pre-1642 theaters.

This dissertation analyses the influence theatre space and the dramatic genre have on the design process, by examining three designs of Greg King: Aladdin (2007), a pantomime presented at the Playhouse Drama Theatre, Oleanna (2008) a drama at the Seabrooke's Theatre, and The Wizard of Oz (2008), a musical presented at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre. Through a semiotic analysis of the productions, the scenographic choices of King are interrogated to ascertain the ways theatre space and dramatic genre affected his design choices. The theories around sign systems in the theatre of Keir Elam (1980), Martin Esslin (1987), and Elaine Aston and George Savona (1991) are examined and used to decode King's designs. This dissertation theorises that the theatre space has influenced and continues to influence the decisions and choices of the scenographer, and it is this linkage that informs the discussion around the historical development of the proscenium arch theatre and the scenographer. The case studies offered in this dissertation highlight the challenges involved with the physical limitations of the theatre space, as each venue selected differs in size, shape, and the technical equipment available for the designer. The dramatic text provides the primary basis for both the director and the designer to develop a production concept. However, dramatic texts can be divided into many different genres and the following three genres, namely drama, musical and pantomime, provide the focus for this study. As these three genres have evolved from earlier forms, the historical development of the three genres is examined to ascertain how the genre affects the scenographic process. Atheatre production is the result of a collaboration between many specialists and therefore, the relationship between the designer and other member of the production team is examined. A set design is a visual image of an imagined environment and many designers use symbols, consciously or subconsciously, to communicate their ideas. A theatre production is the result of a collaboration between many specialists and therefore, the relationship between the designer and other member of the production team is examined. A set design is a visual image of an imagined environment and many designers use symbols, consciously or subconsciously, to communicate their ideas. The work of three international designers, Josef Svoboda, Ming Cho Lee and Ralph Koltai is examined further to understand the influence theatre space and the dramatic genre have on the design process.
Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.

Contemporary operatic scenography has been undergoing broad aesthetic, theatrical and technological transformations. My dissertation analyzes the work of three key designer-directors—Robert Wilson, Achim Freyer, and Karl-Ernst Herrmann—in order to investigate the changing relationship between the visual and the theatrical in contemporary opera, as well as opera’s place within current trends in theatrical design and broader visual culture. Combining an analysis of current productions with wide-ranging archival research, I reconstruct and explore these artists’ individual stylistic development and their mutual influence. Through this focus on the hybrid figure of the contemporary designer-director, I address two key historical changes in operatic culture: first, the greatly increased importance of scenography and visuality in global opera and second, the emergence of new scenographic idioms, which have rapidly displaced the dominance of historicist and realist conventions in staging. Throughout, I show how Wilson, Freyer, and Herrmann’s work has been central to the development of a “new international style” in operatic scenography. Combining close visual analysis with historical contextualization, I examine how this style—characterized by abstraction, rich colors, striking lighting and radical theatrical effects—has transformed the look of opera, while also framing these developments within the longer history of modernist scenography, and the long-standing tensions between stylistic innovation and aesthetic traditionalism.

This dissertation is a micro-analysis of one particular type of communicative practice, the "mise-en-scène communication," which emerges as people talk and build scenery in their everyday work experiences in a theater consulting company in Taiwan. This dissertation engages in interaction analyses of participants' naturally occurring talk and face-to-face interaction in the set design meetings. Three findings are documented. First, mise-en-scène communication is multimodal. The participants use visual representations to communicate. These visual representational tools include architectural drawings, scale models, miniature props, and 3-D models and animations. The use of visual representations and communicative resources of language, gestural and postural conduct, the material surround, and physical objects enable the participants to visually communicate, envision, and construct scenes in and through talk and interaction. Second, mise-en-scène communication concerns three key organizing, work practices of creating an entirety of the theatrical space, including the scene-setting practice, the staging practice, and the measuring practice. This study finds that in these three major mise-en-scène practices identified, the theater artists express and formulate scenes and dramatic ideas in their talk. At the same time, they also frequently turn to bodily conduct as a source of insight into configuring, expressing, and formulating dramatic scenes. Third, the architectural drawings, the scale models, the props in miniature, and the computer simulations of theater space provide a material, perceptual field, which shapes embodied interaction systematically performed within it. The architectural drawings enable the participants to project the perceivable space through language and bodily behaviors. The miniature model and objects in a set create a full stage of symbolic communication in which scenes are arranged and dramas are spoken and created. Moreover, the theater artists manage to use language, gestures, and semiotic resources of the computer program, Maya, and its design interface to communicate and build 3-D scenes together. This research concludes that the plurality of channels exists in human communication. The micro-analysis of mise-en-scène communication reveals such a communicative process in which the participants draw on multiple modalities to visually construct theatrical meaning out of the set of visualization objects.
text

This thesis is an exploration of Tennessee Williams' idea of 'plastic theatre,' locating its origins within the theatrical context of the period, with the object of identifying its chief principles and seeking something approaching a definition 'of plastic theatre,' as a starting point from which to demonstrate its application to theatre production and especially to set design. In 1945, with the published version of The Glass Menagerie, Williams launched his theory of 'plastic theatre,' a theatrical mode that would, he believed, answer the problems he perceived in American war-time theatre, and that would help develop a stronger post-war American theatre. Williams claimed that theatre in America placed too much emphasis on words and not enough on the essential elements of theatre. Taking an anti-realist stance, he asserted that this emphasis on words should be replaced by a theatre that recognised the plasticity of the stage and the expressivity of all the elements of play production. In his scripts he sought to present his vision of how his plays would work on stage by demonstrating how these elements should be integrated with text. From Williams' assertion that the physicality of the stage environment is as important as the text, we can deduce that the manner in which the stage space is arranged is a crucial performance element. The notion of 'plastic theatre,' therefore, has significant implications for the practice of set design. The aim of this project is to place Tennessee Williams' ideas within the history of American scenic design and demonstrate the way designers have expressed his ideas. This project engages in two types of research methodologies: historical and practical. The first component begins with an exploration of Williams' theory by reference to his published and unpublished works, particularly his journals and notebooks, followed by a consideration of the rise of the set designer in America so as to contextualise the work of designers of Williams' major plays. I look at the first designers of his plays, leading practitioners who responded to his all-encompassing vision and created designs which not only answered the demands of his scripts, but were to influence the history of stage design in America. I then explore the work of leading designers of Williams plays since 1960, considering how their designs have related to their precedents and to dominant trends in twentieth-century set design. Even though this thesis explores design issues up to the twenty-first century, the focal plays will be limited to those major works of Williams' career up to 1960, the period in which he developed his idea of 'plastic theatre' and wrote plays which demonstrably illustrate its principles. In order to assess what a practical engagement with the texts can reveal about 'plastic theatre,' the practical component comprises the designing of three major Tennessee Williams plays: The Night of the Iguana, Suddenly Last Summer and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Designs for these plays were created and constructed for performances in Canberra, Australia. --provided by Candidate