Designedinthe USA The United States of America Exhibition at the 1995 Prague Quadrennial Designed in the USA The United States of America Exhibition at the 1995 Prague Quadrennial Exhibit Producer Arnold Aronson Associate Producer Sarah ash Gates Exhibit Designer Eric Fielding Architecture Exhibit Coordinator Timothy Hartung Student Exhibit Coordinators Sarah ash Gates, Timothy Saternow, William Forrester U.S. Delegation Tour Coordinator Leon Brauner Ass~tanttotheProducer Patrick Kelsey Catalog Text Arnold Aronson Catalog Design Eric Fielding Exhibit Staff Timothy Saternow, Tee/mical Director Patrick Kelsey Judy Pfeifer MirenaRada Joan Schlafer Merope Vachliotif Steering Committee Richard Durst, Eric Fielding, Sarah ash Gates, Patricia MacKay, Dr. Joel E. Rubin, Samuel Scripps Our thanks and appreciation to the following for their help and support: Christine Kaiser, Debora Kingston, Dr. Joel E. Rubin, Valerie dilorenzo, ~onnand Bouchard, and Joan Vick (USITT), Rex loser (Arts America). Martha Coigney (ITUfiS), Barbara Stral}ner (Lincoln Center Libra/J'for tbe Pe/forming Arts), Roberta Fotia (Rosco Laboratories), Ralph Pine (Drama Book Specialists), WiLlianl Bent (U.S. Illformatioll r1geIlC)~, Deb Styer,Josh Rothenberg, Blake Seidel, and Ernie Barbarash (Columbia {;lIiL'ersiM. Chris Boneau (BolleaulBryan-Broll'lI), Marcia McDonald and Tom Reiter (Grace Cos/umes), Brigid Milchell (Dislley Art Editions), Joseph Clark (Metropolitall Opera). Susan lee (League ofProfessiollal Tbeatres), Paul Arianas, Vito Zingarelli and Anita Gaffney (Stratford FestiL'fll), Tanya Grubich, MaJ)' HUDter (Seattle Rep), Ruth Rorak (Zenitb Travel), PalIick Costin (RCLAgenC)~, Takashi Mizuta (.\'HK), Dan Kuchar, Joan Schlafer Galena Tsypin, Angela Wendt, and Joseph Yossoupoff Published bylilc "niled Slales lnSlilUlc for The,nrc Technology. Inc. 10 \\'CSI 191h Sl.. Snile ;A. Xcw York. XY tOOl I © 199; CSIIT, Inc. Primed in Ihe Cniled Slales of America 2 • USA/PQ'95 Introduction very art, of course, is unique. Music is different from painting. create uleatre on a monumental scale that equaled that of the real world, or who which is different from the novel, which is different from theatre. took uleatre to dIe streets and factories to rellJlite it II~UI the life of the specta­ One of the things that distinguishes dleatre from all the other arts tors-such artists as ~om1an Bel Geddes, EI"II~n Pisc..1tor, Vsevelod Meyerhold, is its existence in tinJe and space. Apainting may depict space, a and Max Reinhal'dt are anlOng ule major figures who come to mind. In recent novel may describe space, even music may evoke space, but only ye:u'S, tltis impulse has reappeared in v:nious guises and for various reasons. Etheatre occurs in dlree-dimensional reality. Even when die scenography suggests a specific locale--imagimu)' or acrual-as in Renaissance perspective or 20th­ Most notable of late is a trend towaI'd site specific work-perfom1ance dlat is centul)' neo-realism, it exists in dIe real time and space of the theatre. The appeal created explicidy for a particulal', usually urban, 10c..lle. Widl a ltistol)' dlat dates of dleatre is ofien atlIibuted to the presence of die live perfollller before an audi­ back to Roman naumacbia, medieval royal entlies, Medici pageants, Goedle's ence. l1tis "liveness," however, is integrally related to dIe dlree-dimensional space outdoor pelfOllllances, Alfred jants advocacy of theatre in dIe country'Side, shared equally between spectator and perfollller, and dtis, in 1I1m, may create an Eisenstein's production of Gas Masks, Reinhardt'sjedermallll and Tbe Mercbant eerie sense of dislocation when dIe real space of dIe stage makes reference to dIe o/Venice, and postmodem dances on rooftops and beaches by Trisha Brown and spatial conSlIlIcts of the corporeal world. Aroom on dIe stage suggests a room in joan jonas, contemporaJ)' groups such as En Garde Arts have been seeking out our house wltich, in 1I1m, suggests all rooms and possibly even the vel)' concept locations lIidl particularly historical or emotional resonances and then creating of home. An abstracl or dlealIical space on the stage may remind dIe spectators dleatrical perfomlances to fit ule sites. Also known as "found space" perfor­ dlat they are in a dleatre. wltile at die same time emking dIe space of dIe ntind­ mances, dlese works rel'erse dle usual1l1odus opemndus of scenography: that abstract loc:ue in Il'ltich dIe imagination functions. Rather ulan transfoml a stage into a real-world space, dlese perfom1ances trans­ foml existing architecrure or urban topography into perfomlance sites. TIlealI'es are speCial-some would say holy--places. The very fact that we con­ trast, lIidlOUt irony, dIe life of dIe stage lIith dIe "realworld" dIal exists a mere Such perfomlances negate the usual sense of iUusion associated lIith theatre; few feet away, outside some walls or el'en more tenuous boundaries, suggests our uley break habintal responses on the part of ule spectators because the whole iIlJlate understanding that the uleatre does not always function by the same niles process of theatre-going is reshaped; found space becomes thealIical space, and as the evel)'day world. Theatre e:Qsts in some paralJelunil'erse that neither knows industrial, commercial, or pedeslIian space Iikellise becomes an encompassing nor heeds the rules of l\ell10n or Einstein. BUlwhat happens when the perfor­ emironment for perfomlance. In many ways, dtis may be dIe ideal Brechtian mance is placed wiuJin the concrete world of daily life? What happens when ule foml for our times. The success of many of these perfomlances depends in large space of the theatre is also the space of the streee And what happens when dIe degree upon alienation or lJelji'emdung-the fanJiliar is made strange. At the scale of the production is 1~I1ually dlat of dIe street or even the e:u1h itself? sanle time, dIe exotic-a decaying ballroom, dIe empty late-night streets of dIe industrial quarters of dIe cit)', the beautifully l\listed skeletal remains of all aban­ Taking the theme of PQ'95, "In Search ofTIleatre Space," we have selected doned pier-become alive lI~th the social and artistic discourse of perfom1ance. designers whose work pushes die boundalies of conventional scenography. In the process, we have brought togedler the blatalldy commercial world of thealIi­ Theatre arcltiteclIlre, of course, is all about dIe creation and lI'3I1sformation of cal entertainment lI~th the sometimes esoteric conceptions of imagistic perfor­ space. Aphenomenon of the past 40 YeaI'S or so has been dIe creation of per­ malIce alld opera. Each of these exists in its own space. We say, for instance, that fomJing al1S centel'S-multi-dleatre complexes ofien containing concert halls a designer works "on Broadwat' or "in opera." The ph) ical 10c..lle of dIe the­ and opera houses-dlat function not merely as a place for perfomlance but as atre or ule nalIlre of the genre becomes a spatial metaphor that is SYllonymous the anchor or emblem of City relitali:wtion. Since New York Cit)"s lincoln Center lI~dl a I~SUal st)1e. \\~lat becomes clear as one looks at die exanlples prOl~ded took an impovelished quarter of ule city-the real life setting for \Vest Side here is that regardless of intention, dlese designs have a certain unity ulat places StOly-and lI'3I1sfomled it into a culruraJ Mecca (llidl all the social, econonJic, ulem fillnly in a distincuy late 20th-cenntl)' AmericU1 st)ie. TIley are t)'Pified bl' and political overtones such a transfoIl1lation implies) in the 1960s, almost every graJldeur, spatial disloc..1tion, and ule appropriation of ule past culntre and histo­ Americ:m cit)' of any size has followed suit. In such cases-when arclJitecrure I)' (ofien ulrough visual quotations), while technologic..llly on the cusp of the becomes urban policy-the facade has almost more signific:mce than ule interi­ funtre. Our uleatre, as our art. suggests a communal "looking back ol'er dIe or. IanI' critics hare noted dlat Uncoln Center faces inward, almost as walled shoulder" at Ule past as we are ineluctably dralm toward dIe miUennium which cit)', amiding ule less affluent sunoundings in wlJich is was built. Compare ilJis is large, ovemhelnting. and unknowable. Our rocabulal)'-both I'erbal and lisu­ lIiul dIe arcltitects' descriptions of dIe Cemtos Center for Ule PerfomJing Arts or al--conjoins time and space. ule Fairfield Centre for Creative Arts, bodl in c.1lifonJia. The fOm1er "is the foc..ll point of the Cenitos TOIm Center development. TIle major challenges were to AnlericU1 stage design, ulrough most of utis century, has followed two major establish a sense of place and identit)' ... and to create a chic building lIidl a paths, lIith a few notable exceptions. On the one hand there has been the realisti­ sense of ... celebration." The light tower dlat dominates ule latter "heralds the c:illy-based recreation or suggestion of rooms, houses, factOlies, cit) capes, entrance to dIe relitalized dOlmtOlm.'· The "loggia alld exltibit space ... c:m be rural Ialldscapes, chic :u-cIJiteclIlre, trains, alld automobiles. On die oUler has open to dle street dUring die day" and die aI'cade has "rh)1hnJic openings, been ule abstract, tbeatre cum tbeatre creations inspired by Appia, Craig, alld through which a pedestriall or motOlist Call see the gallery and the courlyal·d.'· E.xpressionism dlat created a purely aesthetic production em~ronment suggesting These spaces do not blend into the urb:U1 1:U1dscape the way so many 18th- and a peculiarly theatlic:u (as opposed to matelial) world. But at dle saine time there I9th-cenlIlI), theatres did; even the theatres of modem Broadway are mosdy dis­ have been directors :U1d scenographers in Amelicl alld Europe who have uied to tinguishablc only by their marquees. But contcmpor:u)' theatrc aI'cltitecrure has a USA/PQ'95 3 social function that is intimately connected to thc economic livclihood and cven port tllC timbcrs, and tmditional crnftsmcn traincd in catlledr'JI building were thc continuing \iability of increasingly frdgilC urb~Ul ccntcrs.