The City is a Stage: Innovation beyond the Theatre Space

<p>"[The] product of architecture can at least partly be understood as an endless live performance" (Van Berkel & Bos, 2008 , p. 135). As central cities such as Wellington become more event orientated, there is a greater need for a network of innovative performance venues (temporary or permanent) to meet public demand. The existing theatre spaces within Wellington are currently limited in size and the spaces are difficult to adapt to meet the needs of different performances. The thesis investigates this problem. The thesis proposes to develop a network of multifunctional performance spaces outside traditional theatre spaces in areas which are generally used as high activity public spaces and thoroughfares. This will result in not only new opportunities for theatre design and new types of adaptive performance, but, as performance is removed from a traditionally controlled environment, it will create urban spaces that are multi-functional and a better fit for a variety of experiences and uses. Several precedents are analysed with regard to the creation of new boundaries and multiple functionalities in a more contemporary setting. Public realm typologies are also explored for their capacity to be blended in form and function to create hybrid, multi-functional spaces. The resulting design strategy is applied in a series of design experiments to the selected subject site on Wellington’s waterfront. The experiments are then evaluated to aid in the development of an appropriate outdoor theatre network that will enliven the city and encourage performers to create a new style of theatre. The proposed design is developed from and through the research, and will benefit Wellington for many reasons. Firstly, the design will produce greater adaptability and permeability of the performance space in Wellington. Secondly, because theatres in Wellington are currently disengaged from their surrounding context, the proposed building will have a strong indoor/outdoor connection that encourages the use of diverse performance in and around the building. Thirdly, by placing the building in or near circulation paths, it will provide an interactive and engaging space for audiences.</p>

The City is a Stage: Innovation beyond the Theatre Space

<p>"[The] product of architecture can at least partly be understood as an endless live performance" (Van Berkel & Bos, 2008 , p. 135). As central cities such as Wellington become more event orientated, there is a greater need for a network of innovative performance venues (temporary or permanent) to meet public demand. The existing theatre spaces within Wellington are currently limited in size and the spaces are difficult to adapt to meet the needs of different performances. The thesis investigates this problem. The thesis proposes to develop a network of multifunctional performance spaces outside traditional theatre spaces in areas which are generally used as high activity public spaces and thoroughfares. This will result in not only new opportunities for theatre design and new types of adaptive performance, but, as performance is removed from a traditionally controlled environment, it will create urban spaces that are multi-functional and a better fit for a variety of experiences and uses. Several precedents are analysed with regard to the creation of new boundaries and multiple functionalities in a more contemporary setting. Public realm typologies are also explored for their capacity to be blended in form and function to create hybrid, multi-functional spaces. The resulting design strategy is applied in a series of design experiments to the selected subject site on Wellington’s waterfront. The experiments are then evaluated to aid in the development of an appropriate outdoor theatre network that will enliven the city and encourage performers to create a new style of theatre. The proposed design is developed from and through the research, and will benefit Wellington for many reasons. Firstly, the design will produce greater adaptability and permeability of the performance space in Wellington. Secondly, because theatres in Wellington are currently disengaged from their surrounding context, the proposed building will have a strong indoor/outdoor connection that encourages the use of diverse performance in and around the building. Thirdly, by placing the building in or near circulation paths, it will provide an interactive and engaging space for audiences.</p>

An Outsider’s Eye: The Art of Designing for Theatre

Part memoir, part theatre history, in this illustrated essay Joe Vaněk invites us to an inside-view on the design process. Choosing key performances of European plays (Brecht, Ibsen) adapted by Irish writers, Vaněk takes us through the thought processes and work practices that bring a play from page to stage, with descriptions and photographs to illustrate his design choices and thinking. Additionally, he offers us insights into working with Irish playwrights who examine Ireland’s relationship to Europe, for example in his designs for Frank McGuinness’s Innocence: The life of Caravaggio, and the work of Brian Friel and Hugo Hamilton. Vaněk traces his own influences, from the theatre work of the Czech designer Josef Svoboda to painters, architecture, and landscape. His reflections reveal the complexity of the role of the designer and the intricate workings of theatre practice Keywords: Theatre design, costume design, Irish playwrights, Brian Friel, Frank McGuinness, Hugo Hamilton, Gate Theatre

Remembering Molly MacEwen: Sue Harries and Alasdair MacEwen in Conversation

Molly MacEwen’s design career took off after serving as Micheál mac Liammóir’s apprentice at the Dublin Gate during the mid-1930s and following her design work on the 1938 Empire Exhibition in Glasgow. MacEwen went on to make a significant contribution to Irish and Scottish theatre design that has received little recognition in existing theatre scholarship. Illustrated by images of materials from (for the most part) the Scottish Theatre Archive’s Molly MacEwen collection (1948-1961), this article comprises an introduction to MacEwen, followed by a composite of selected conversations from interviews with MacEwen’s niece, Sue Harries, and nephew, Alasdair MacEwen. We learn of MacEwan’s familial and personal links to continental Europe, her unrequited devotion to mac Liammóir, and her successes in designing at Glasgow’s Citizens’ Theatre and for the Edinburgh International Festival after leaving the Gate in 1947 to work in Scotland. The dialogues in this article also reveal that MacEwen was a very shy and retiring woman, and that the men with whom she worked – including Edwards, mac Liammóir, and Tyrone Guthrie – took her for granted and possibly diminished the extent of her work. This situation, combined with gender inequalities and the collaborative nature of MacEwen’s design roles, may have led to her work being overlooked at the time and in pertinent publications on design and theatre. This article seeks to go some way towards recovering MacEwen’s important achievements for theatre history. Key Words: Molly MacEwen, Dublin Gate Theatre, Scottish theatre, design, women in theatre, Edinburgh International Festival, Michéal mac Liammóir

Ẹnu dùn ń rò’fọ́…: Theatre design, audience cognition and dramatic adaptation of Fagunwa’s texts

The stage performance of Langbodo, a play, which Nigerian dramatist Wale Ogunyemi adapted from Soyinka’s The Forest of a Thousand Daemons, which, in turn, is a translation of D. O. Fagunwa’s prose, Ògbójú Ọdẹ Nínú Igbó Irúnmalẹ̀. 'The bold hunter in the daemon-infested forest', exposed the limitation of the text as a bearer of meaning in the theatrical adaptation context. The limitation is analysed in this work to justify the centrality of adaptation in bridging the text-design-audience semiotic gap. This study examines the technical challenges of theatre design in D. O. Fagunwa’s works resulting from their adaptation as drama. The Yoruba apothegmatic idiom, Ẹnu ‘dùn ń rò’fọ́, agada ọwọ́ ṣeé ṣán’ko (which means, literally, that ‘vegetable soup can be prepared orally if a mere hand suffices for a cutlass’), a traditional derision for the inadequacies of the text, and the Barthesian notion of intertextuality serve as a dual theoretical structure in this study. A combination of methodologies including participant observation and ethnographic approach suffice for the retrieval and analysis of performance materials, respectively. Therefore, the study contends that the process of stage adaptation in Wale Ogunyemi’s play, Langbodo, used the technical contributions of theatre design, as a catalyst for connecting Fagunwa’s ideas to the final audience.