CONTENTS , : - - r e

l n 6 o N e

e o 5 s g 5

O m m n I e 9 i o 1 h m T d R t r 6 o

A 7 s o 6 i R L c

9

8 . e S n d 1 6 i r e

t 0 0 , N s h 0 i g s +

A r i . - n l h

9 R y b 3 3 C p T

u

i . o + p n i . h l c

l l n c e o o a c t i A u T e r G o , c

e p . s h t d i y S l a r p u

a i a , l t C l m

I n

g a a

y c e c . i i n e t d e

n s o R i

a a m t i s m r h o i e a V c S

R u e

l l e

q Franco Zeffirelli n m N 6 c A i

a , 8 z J G c 3

1 a i I , 0 0 g . n S n 0 a . 2 o o ) E

r 0 , g . t M n 5 a

D c 0 g

r i e 6 e 2 l s e

C R i e e Emi Wada

I h f l

i , d n p o s

H n

a o n b e r 3 P s i a e g 0 n F e A 0 o w o

( i R 2 n m

h e

e / a J G

y d c 2

n e . n

S 6 o c

a

a i o . i

e t n m o y h V r o e b n

r e

h T . ) r l

B C p r y o

e

o l

s

, c a g o i i

t r f a e m I a f f d ( r

a c m n o O e e f a

i

M l s

DH m y a s h M a i o i e n r u l l C l a R o u

A i t e B i

n f , i

h i d : G

l o t

, l

e

, E e d r e c

n l i l e i u o y f t l e f f v q t

i a i g t n s Alejandro Luna O n C I r e m

r e . s t E e )

l F d e n

e a a i n n m a r n r a n t c o u e

a S c u t r .

b It is like a life in the wings. Now h r i n L o e r

e p

I t . e )

T e h t

m g

p P e S e

n a t , i h m r k s t o

n it is light, here we have a morning o

g y n r s c n h o a .

b t a l r i n l h a e t e m i p

w h

c a

v e t s p e d c

e in the open air, then a sudden r a M

e EL W e

t r

h j i r

e t g . e o r t D r

d o

s @ r a i p n a i

a t g e c t n i d b

e darkness descends and it is c i l e s

s n e R s b f e d a

i .

a e e p h y s r l ( t n i

l a o W i o t

i t c . @ E t I already evening. It is not a s i J

l .

, a n ,

e William Ivey Long e h n o A d i i h

F c t , t e i

d l

c p r o i u m n l u i o r s

u complicated deceit, but one has to o d c l o o l a d o b C e o C r P ( u t

p s C i n o i i e R

c n : r r g

o n r

O adapt to it, until the scene is over. P M e t

e o . T r i b n l S t

e a a , C y p c h F i x a i

E r r p i d c m R o

n One can only make one’s escape, A s o

t I

i n s b r n i n a D e r u o

o v i S P h t o T

V

i . a

. C ) R

c r e ,

i should one still have the strength, G d l e g

A

n GE e : r b h

o v e r s u i s r m S l l o

p e a i t ,

b i s e s o u e i d

W towards the backdrop, to cut the T r n

h P

t l E g t s

r

a a . t i e ) n r f r h a b o o g A m

i o

t t i i m r o drop curtain and, amidst the r

R r d n c l

a . l a , a r E c p d i

e A

Robert Wilson H t r ( s h o

r e o a e i p i n N U

a shreds of a painted sky, scramble n r r

i r G i . a e

z t g d n a i a e n o M z s g I v

r n z

a i r ) f e U e n c

o over old props, to flee into reality, M s m s o

o e r e i o r n B e

g

c h : . o t r s h i s e t o s r p i h s @ a m o i into the dark, narrow, dank g r t n i e G

r g a u m ,

i m r l o l b l - l i m e n r r e u A t p e l a

n

. c n b h a alleyway which is still called, r S d o

b o e m i @ a e t C ( r i

o

h T c . p f

n 0

T n s o a

i i e 2 r

( given its proximity to the theatre, 2 g

4 h o m r 0 t 5 r 6 h

o 0 a t 6 9 i t 2 9 u 8 u H G a 3 6

© o

,

9 a 6

e Vicolo del Teatro, but which is r . h i 2 s t 0 r e h i

9 t a n k

9 r 6 w o . f 3 t M u

, 6

o S +

e B r

0

. l s

y indeed real and has all the depth e . e i t e 9 h n T r 3 w

s T a e i

r y J . l +

p e r y b l e x a o h a u a r t u t of reality. p F o S M I P

September 2004 No.5 Franz Kafka www.thescenographer.com EURO 12.50 USD 15.00 GBP 9.00 Madama Butterfly bY Giorgio Tabanelli

Conversa tion ã|à{ YÜtÇvÉ mxyy|ÜxÄÄ| tÇw Xmono-Ådrama”|. Tjhe chorus tis kweptt to a \ t’s the day of the dress rehearsal. minimum even if in some moments it plays Madama Butterfly , directed by Franco an important role that is moving in its Zeffirelli, is about to inaugurate the 82nd intensity. The music is the most beautiful Festival Lirico organised by the Fondazione score that Puccini ever composed but Arena di Verona and which will everything is so damned concentrated upon commemorate the hundredth anniversary of her. The lengthy introduction is devoid of the first representaion. During a pause, a pathos and risks dissipating r ather than voice freezes the collaborators, friends of concentrating the public’s attention. And the maestro and the few privileged souls to then it is about breathing life into a distant witness such a memorable event. At Torre world, populated by various characters: del Lago, the sacred birthplace of Puccini, seafarers, traders, beggars and women of the latest in a long line of abominations pleasure. The hill of Nagasaki swarms with against opera has taken place: Cio-Cio-San, walk-ons and heralds the mournful destiny the drama’s leading lady, is dressed in a of Cio-Cio-San. The rocks are like a parachute. No comment. Zeffirelli knows maternal womb that dilates and opens and that for several decades opera has been from which springs its microcosm. The subject to the most extravagant and arbitrary lovers’ house suggests a pagoda with operations. Countless are the “failed windows of parchment through which the attempts” and bizarre productions: the red sun shines. The set extends on the computer, the butterfly, the switching of horizontal over the 45-metre proscenium, roles and now the parachute. The maestro’s almost to visually emphasise that the drama team - director, stage designer and costume materializes whilst devoid of any hint of designer - is the crème de la crème: Daniel verticality. The characters wear costumes Oren (Director), Fiorenza Cedolins (Cio- based on photographs by Felice Beato, a Cio-San), Francesca Franci (Suzuki), Mina mid-nineteenth century traveller, which Blum (Kate Pinkerton), Marcello Giordani provide the director with a detailed and Massimiliano Pisapia (F.B. Pinkerton), description of styles and colours Juan Pons (Sharpless). Costume designer is reinvented by an irrepressible Emi Wada, Oscar-winner in 1985 for Ran imagination. by Akira Kurosawa. The challenge so long The drama unfolds, emanating a postponed (from the mythical Callas era), progressive solitude to which only the even though rife with drawbacks and ghosts of the geishas are capable of pitfalls, is not impossible. He well knows restoring and enfolding in a veil of warm, that the way to go is the same as always: if melancholy, humanity. The genius of create and innovate whilst never straying the director, as always, has left his from accuracy. The opera is “a particular indelible mark. melodrama”, or rather, as he stresses, “a 6 7 Franco Zeffirelli, for an artist who has there is this woman from start to finish, with loving. She is a creature who has never reached the age of eighty to celebrate the idea of accompanying her along this loved because no-one has ever taught her Madama Butterfly on the hundredth difficult path whilst in some way making how to love, on the contrary, she cannot be anniversary of its composition, what her task easier. Never ask of her things that permitted to love. Puccini, however, meaning does this hold? could add to the strain on her vocal chords through the great love duet at the end of the I don’t think there is a particular significance because she has a superhuman task in the first act, allows us to witness the breaking of in this coincidence. It is more about working vocal sense in this role. Luckily, I have been this chrysalis. This creature, this puppet, this to these proportions and the responsibilty able to count on Fiorenza Cedolins, who is statuette of bisque, breaks the ovum that has rather than thinking if there are energies, if really a marvellous creature: she is good, imprisoned her and she flies towards love. there is the necessary creative lucidity in exceptionally good. Being inexperienced, she ends up getting order to support undertakings of such a burnt, her wings are scorched, and in fact magnitude, requiring such responsibility. There have been various editions of she believes in what she is told, by the man Verona, and we shall never tire of saying it, Madama Butterfly in recent years. she loves, who tells her: “I’ll marry you, you is really the symbol, the glowing hearth, the Which do you particularly remember, are the love of my life.” And a child is born. enormous brazier of the presence of operatic consider worthy of mention? music in the world. No, they are all modernistic attempts. They Does Madam Butterfly feel betrayed in are really horrendous, no-one has hit on the her dignity or is it a suicide in the name You have stated that you have always right formula. When one goes into orbit of honour, or even an admission of been intimidated by the staging of this doing things that are arbitrary, doing as one guilt for having overstepped the mark opera. For what reason? pleases, one is no longer coherent with the and broken with convention? I wouldn’t say intimidated... perhaps a little opera. Only on one occasion did I remain No, she commits suicide principally reticent as until now I hadn’t found the right truly convinced: Ken Russell’s edition at because she failed in her attempt. Because slant. In my opinion, it is an opera that could Spoleto in the sixties. It was simply perfect, she had a baby, she clung to that child and be cut a lot, but then when you get to study with a total shifting of perspective. I recall declared: “He will return, his father will it in all its detail you realize that there are Russell, though having set it in Saigon in the want to have this child, which for me will pages of memorable music and it therefore sixties, had interpreted the essence of that guarantee my survival.” And yet she realizes embraces a contradiction. It is an which Puccini intended. that the situation is irreparable because he is extraordinary opera with a brilliant score, it a married man; he comes with his wife, who is perhaps the greatest opera of the twentieth Why have you never staged a Madama is a good woman, and says that it is just not century. Butterfly with Maria Callas? possible to leave the child in this social Maria Callas performed it only in 1948-49, condition, that of prostitution. This could be A It is said that Puccini was fascinated by then she cancelled it from her repertoire as read as the defeat of a dream, the defeat of a

Dthis type of woman, a victim of the she no longer wished to do it. We were to woman who failed to realize an attempt to circumstances in which she finds herself. have worked on it after La Traviata of escape from her environment. In fact, to APuccini had a great passion for unhappy Dallas in 1958. I recall Maria saying to me: represent this world, at the end I bring on all

Wwomen who had to die in order to be “Good heavens, no, it’s out of the question. the souls of those women who had come

/exalted. Liù, Mimi, Tosca, Manon, I’m certainly not going to go there and have before her, the ghosts, all the geishas, who Butterfly: they are each condemned to die the nerve to say I am fifteen years old. No, no, have seen their hopes wither, and they come Ifor love. It is his recurring theme, the it’s not for me.” I do believe she performed it to help her in the final throes and to take her Lheriones that he depicted were those that for the last time in Chicago in 1949. with them. And she lets the child run to his

Lfought and failed for love. That type of father. So, Butterfly’s sacrifice has an woman is recognised through a precise In what way do you think you should outcome, in a way it is the seed that grows. Echaracter: the woman who loves and is a interpret the tragic events in the life of Rvictim, unhesitatingly, born to love, and Cio-Cio-San after a century of events that As regards the choice of artists, the

Iborn to die. have in some way made the figure topical female lead is sung by Fiorenza Cedolins. through the dismal disasters of history? Maestro Danile Oren conducts the FDoes it not seem to you that it is a Butterfly represents this extreme struggle of orchestra. The costumes are created by Fparticularly demanding opera from the one of these innocent creatures drawn into the Japanese designer Emi Wada, Oscar

Epoint of view of direction? prostitution according to the current laws: winner for Ran by Akira Kurosawa. Are It is undoubtedly not an ideal opera for a woe betide the victims if they break these these choices that allow you to fully Zdirector because it has to have the woman laws. She, however, breaks them because express your vision of this opera? that keeps it all together, that’s the way it is; she dreams of emancipation, she dreams of The company of singers I found already 8 Emi Wada costume designer formed, after various consultations; on the imagination in order to recreate that world is almost full-sized, and absorbs the Emi Wada, what were the reasons other hand, there isn’t that much choice. as we referred to an exact documentation. characters and the other singers. I always that convinced you to accept Fiorenza Cedolins is the best Butterfly, with There is a marvellous book by Felice Beato, search for a slant that enables me to obtain Zeffirelli’s proposal? all due respect to the others, precisely for the a photographer, a very rich man who a spectacular effect; but this is just like a When the maestro phoned me, he talked maturity of her voice. She is adorable, travelled with his brother around the world. concertina that expands and then closes. In about his intention of assigning the entire sensiti ve, and who is not afraid! She has He was fascinated by the Orient. We used the first ten minutes of the first act I wanted project for the costumes to me and that I staggering ability as a singer. Anyone in her this book for documentation, without doing to represent, I wanted to show the public the could work in my own country, in Japan. place would be destroyed. Her, no! The anything quirky at all. We reconstructed a world from which Butterfly comes: the hill It was a great joy for me to learn from him tenor, Marcello Giordani, had already real world: Zio Bonzo was like this, of pleasure where the sailors come and go. that I was to work on the whole project for worked with me on Tosca and La Bohème, Yamadori was like that. Then there is a And then this hill splits in half, it re-enters the Madama Butterfly costumes. From but he also sang in the Butterfly at the Met. swarm of people, of extremely beautiful running laterally until it opens wide this the first meeting with the maestro, which And then Pons is a baritone, an costumes, which are real. I have to say that girl’s microcosm. The first act is very took place in Rome on 27 and 28 extraordinary artist. Suzuki is magnificent! we succeeded in putting together a group of effective scenery-wise. Her house is both February, I felt so enthusiastic. I liked his This is the best company available today. extras and a magnificent choir, with a real and at the same time in miniature. ideas for the staging, and this stimulated Daniel Oren is a genius, who loves working highly capable choreographer. an enormous desire to collaborate. with the orchestra whilst following So the scenic space is in keeping with the precisely Puccini’s indications. So, the What criteria did you follow when spectacular effect but is also intimate. What impresses you most company is excellent. Emi Wada was planning the staging of the opera? Yes, well, I kept in mind the space of the about this opera? chosen by me, I have followed her and For one thing I built, on a large scale, an Arena and I needed scenic machinery that First and foremost, Puccini’s music. “pursued” her for many years. She is a expanding set, which was huge yet at the allowed the passage from small to large This opera is very beautiful, it is really classic type, she belongs to that class of same time intimate. With a slight shifting of scale. You have to bre athe with the fantastic, with its famous arias. The great costume designers who I have known the scenery two realities are alternated: first environment, with the space in which you thing that hits you first about this opera and with whom I have worked: Lilia De there is the hill, which is closed and so the find yourself. In this context it was is the music. Working with Maestro Nobili, Piero Tosi, and Danilo Donati. house is concealed, then this hill opens up necessary to pass from a huge dimension to Zeffirelli, we started out with an idea What indications did you give to the until it reveals Cio-Cio-San’s house. This one which is much more private and that was simple yet fundamental: this Japanese costume designer? guarantees a spectacular effect, which lends intimate. opera was created by an Italian. There was no need of a great surge of a certain consistency to the sets. The house Therefore, it is a Japanese world that was thought up and invented by a European. I was very impressed by the way in which Zeffirelli developed the direction of the opera. The first thing A he did, having well understood the

D character of Cio-Cio-San, in her predicament, in her tragedy, was to A depict her very well. And then he

W invented the ghost of the Geisha,

/ something which has never been seen or imagined, with this soul that I emerges in a very effective way. And L this is a very strong image because,

L after all, that is really what the maestro wanted to design and represent in E Madam Butterfly, this phantom that R appears. I absolutely loved this idea

I and the structuring of the production follows this intuition. It is one of the F reasons that I accepted this project. F

E When you began to think about the costumes for this opera did you work Z to precise indications from Zeffirelli? Were there discussions between you, 10 1 2 ZEFFIRELLI/WADA W o s r o o c

h f a h m o p

e n e t s B h n w e h

t m e o

a u r u o c x I c e t t m y t e

s l c r o

r f t p m e p h n l

h e e i e g e d r a c m o o t a r a r s e r

i w

i r o f e i i t n n a w e r t o

m w m l h n i s n

e r p e r y g o o c f e t w t a e e i c l o x . e

h m e i u

n r e

y

t f d I p e

k t r t i d s

m

e s h o

F

h r m t

e k a u

o

i r h f a m a b e o d e e a l a e

n o f o s

d v

o y r i d m s

l t n t a d f

s a o i

e w t . h

n

a e t c e

t h t i F e e l n e e s

w n

e F e n e r y o e t x

r k e e

c s l w s d d

r

n

s i m a y t l . e t

h o a m ?

c d

h i o

f m o t

t I c l a m o a o a i h c i o

I

i t e n r s e w s p p a r h

n w h e d

a

d g

t s n l p e d J

e B t u e

b c e t o . e w h a d s r

. r i e

m e t , e u

s o

c p o e

e b B k g h c a S i a l t v o

a

t e r s g o d h o a a t i h u I n o s e n s n o

m

e n o t n s d e t d

, d

o h

s t

n

e k k

e I a I a

u

a I a g t ,

d

t r

s i t g n w h

y m

d h s n h r e b i

f w e d e

a e g a e d d i o e a e o t n

t n n p n m o

h

s r s a h f o t d

h i m r e

a t

. n t I t u k f s d

i

t h h h n f a n g T c t

e o e o i e h I

e d

d m m h

t

r d e s k e h

s e I t r

e i e p e n r g m m a t s o

e h

a i l I o e g n o r e m s n n t t , . o

i e n s p n . g l t u s

I

t s t n t s o h , h i

e t

g s e a e h o n e

e h

t m d n a t e r

c n u t o a d t

o

t i o u e b r g

t t h m e f n e s h h i r r d r a e r e a c m a t

a e o a . e h e b o w

r u t

n l

p l

d f r

i e . a l a a I e r

d , b d m

d a y e a a o c a

m i d c

a h T e I , d d t y

m b i c o e r t t

t

l o i e n r s i i n i o o h s h

r o r l s u m o s t i e t i s a

b s

i h i , h

i t m n a g e t u t a n b , d n

n c S o t u t o a r w a

a e v r n ’ a n h l s e t s d c o e g n g a u a r k e

n t l h

e k s n

e t i h f s

i n i y a

i o g

I p e l d

s , c k e

o d n o e i a i e a b i l

w t r

o i

n g g

a .

l a r n n a t h v r e p i h o n y

i i h t f g

J a l g t t h n m w t v a u r I o T e n k e e u e h o

h

i a e c

i i t i

, s r o h r

. h w w

e n d w r t p e e h e t

r t w a f s

s

r o o o

n h a e

d p a a u a

s a a

e e e o d s e

o n r p w i r .

o e t S n t e : n b

a i v o l n f n

r s e e s m b e s h r

s f f

d F f e r r i

e d

o r t

i d m e e k

h r

, t

i h d n

r u k e e

n r i f h

s o s f i y e t

i v b t a e . a c T p w t o t e r a o

m s e t u t

o u v a h n g i e r a

y a o o y o t p e

d

a d s n r n e

o t A r h c r i e i t p t t t

h

t

m

t u m s r

d

e n l t

o c a h h

c e s y v e h i h a a m i f i a

o

y

a Y t n n t s

u o r t s o

d e r

e i e t

e o e b

o t h s f n h a p t t

r r t c n t d 2 a l t l s r a t s a a a

r , h a a m h e p

l s l e

h h i d a

t w h r t i ; l e g s e o m

v d 4 a c c a s i , d

p u h b e s s

i n a o o v

l a

t I w

k k l

n

r e

e a 0

a m ’

e t o w o c B e i a s

o t e j l e a p l o c

c s I s s t d g t a i

h e h u t i e d . e i i e t

t

n

n b h o g e o e o o s a

J n n t c i

h . n r s

r e o a s e o c g r r s t

a n o I , e h s a

l i e b

t e o o 1 t

a r d r i t -

o n o

t p i r n s z a .

l

u c t a h i

a p 8

t

m f b i i o e r h , a r u t d a o

’ I

i i t e s h w d

6 g a

j u

a n s c

t n n s

r i u e d s I t i a I e 0 c t t i t t d r

s o c

h d e l o a o o , d r s t n

. l g I

y i

e

s r o e

o r s

a t l l m T

v t a i t

e r i

e

I y o

o k

e o n c a i o C t l h

c o z l k y o i

’ r a

b t l a o w i s s i e h r u i e n h l i u s n o

e

o t t t d u d s

o m o e

c s d i

c s u - a

o o m r r h

t r f r i C f e t y o u i c e l a o n n i t ,

d s a r e a s i ,

o a r i

y t t o

t . , r t

t h o i f a n i

e c , i h - n o

A u i r

l n d h F r i u n f t t m t c o h e d s u e y e

a w l e f . , s r

l i l

r a

c l l f v I o e i y y o e t n v e m .

r

e n B w t t k y h r e e , e h e

? a i e a s t p o t c I A c U w i t p e D c a i r s i w w t n h n h n

e y T h m o n h u t n e o o o d d e t e n

o m a s d t e h a

b c m e

i

r o t d r

w r r c e r u c k l b s h a u r o p k e B e

a s a a u o m

e c o a o t n d r

e

t n m m u s i c t d e t n l i w t

d e e t i o B

h h u t t t t

o c t e o r e s a e i t e e

n e o n e n s o e

d m

m r t t s d r o s

: p d i i h

t e r

n t i

o c s .

o f

f d f

b

e d a

c t B z

c ? u W l n u o

f h t r

v r h

h o y o h t o l

w . u l o

e e h o a t

o l . ’ g e e r s h t

i

t r s

v F i u i i

t d

h i t

b s a t

e m c e A m v e w u s o h e

e b

l

e r

c e k o r r

p s f m a

c o e

e c l o

e a l

i o d a a a i d a s y m h h d

m o f m e r r f e n t m u , d e e e

e

v t f

o s

o

i i t i e

r t . S r c

i m i c y r

a n

h o r n

s n t h

u , u c a y e g h u e f v

o f t p e o C b z l i s

e s o

a a e T

a a r b o r c u t l o , c r t s l r i r r s r r

o l l r

p h

o k o

i u t

o o

o

a t t e e

u r i s s a - i l h t a n s ’ i s x e s a , o C ? i i t r n n s

e s k g g

d t s p h p u

G o

t a

i

w n n

J

p r o r r e t m m t e w a e o i i e i i e f h -

p i f f o s s p o d d S t r a i i s e o e r h

s n o m c c a

r , r . a

e

m e b

a a a

n a n c a f o s l a t a n n n m e s i t e u l h ,

i f n r h

s c c c

i s s n t

e i i s n d o y o e e e e e e a s s I t t , f f A a t r o F b i t o c b T b B t t c c h s h h h l a e n o o o p a f e e o o h

u r c d o e e e

d l s s l t c e t e r w e t t a

r o , u w h t t

n t a s

w n

e n u u d n t u e g e t e e u w h

a t e

h m m r c r r e

i r h h c s I s e , e f e s s a e i g h d

p o t e l e n

e e

. i s n w t

y o c i d a n a r n

s s g t o c

e ’ h t n h v c i

a d i s w

h f h n t a f n a e

a e n t

t h

o

o

e s a g y h a h r u

g i t r t e f s a r

t

t a n e c

b o e e s

h m e

u p w f r c d t o e l i

u u

e e

m r o n t S s

s i p o t t o a

e t n t f t v g

s h h h f u e s a o h s r e d i . a o e

i

e p r t n

d e

z

a u r v o l

. a s t

c I B h

s ,

s a t u n

h c e f t n

a A r o t e p m i i

k d t u r a e w

k n n S i

r y t n i s

a t t o a e e e s

u t s t

u h i

a t o d n a i e

t n d s h b t b e z e g o h

e

r c i

d v e e

o u

p n n f c f i n i d a t n

c e n

f l s

l k

l o i i

o

y s i d o o

a r a s

t s r i n o s s c y

o

c , t : m s t t d a b

b t e s

t c r a h

n e t I a u l

r i e

c o e e o r a e

, e a e d g o r a

w k a a o c n t

l

r

I n e e h w p o c a u l

a g n l

k a r d a s c t y e t o u n u o t e , i d , i h n

l o i

a n

m o r d s

f f s i

o t s s n w t t f e u g n l r

o e r o w p

i u d i o

t

a e l

d

g

c l h a r

s a . g a n t t i t , c a i

i h n h h k a h e h

c I r t t h o a t s t n o n h d n k e e e e e e s I t l t . . W c I a W y w I m t s h W I t s s G w h

h , c t e o n o a

u w u i e e a a h t e a s d e s u t h h s o t n l d e t h e k a t

r

e l r a a u s o l

t i y d s

e s

d i s

h u t t t w I t

m ,

n u

r t

a h

s i s y w o r e n l t r s i o m i

e e f e h o o i

t n i s a d

o a

k h

. g s a a u g

. t h I

o r b ?

u e n

v a h t i r

i a Z k e s r m a r t s d

e e t p p a

s a

i e l a

y c p

i l t p e p a t f t n a

a o o s w y i f

r r f e b s

n o n

u c i f i o

r f o r b o t e t t o

d d h

i v e o h

m r m r u c e n r a

i k l e e

e d t d e t l w p s s , a e i

o y i

n

o

t

s . e d e s w o o a s Z o

i n n y s t

u t u r n i ? u i t i

e t d k o c t t c r s r

f n o i h

u . h i t

o y f s

w s c

i

?

Z a

c r t a e a i s t n h i u o e s e t

h u n n h a l d

l e s f e l c c l

d

n f e

i

a

t h o i ’ s r p

y h f s r b o

t e t i e e

t e t e f r o s

h o r a o l

s I n g u r p l I n i

t

r i a e t a n w

l e ,

, a t t n t c

t g t i s i l s o i t t i g u m i i

, o i o h t u a r

o h l a y n i k n o k e e s f t t l . 1 3 ZEFFIRELLI/WADA A N Alejandro Luna was not born in Europe; his U passport states that his country of birth is Mexico. Certainly, Alejandro Luna is one of the L most important stage designers in Latin America, but his work, “luminous magic”, tells us something more. It expresses as O much the deep roots in the Old Continent as new meanings, of R a commonly shared ancient legacy of dreams reconstructed D according to new laws and linked to other traditions. As travellers, letting ourselves be N led, through his inventions, by his creativity that seems to have A no limits when it is about light and shadow, or when it recalls J spaces made from nothing (or rather, from illusions, that E immense void from which the theatre is born), it reflects L ourselves and something of ourselves is discovered. In this way, following the utopia of A Giorgio Strehler who, today as in the past, shepherds us onto the path of curiosity towards the prodigious meeting beween men both alike and distinct, we as Christopher Colombus though with a difference: we do not merely wish to discover “the other” but to rediscover ourselves. The artistic life of Alejandro Luna is conducted under the sign of shining creation, and to us the attempt to shed light on something that he rediscovers beyond the Atlantic. Giorgio Ursini Ursic

Sergio Magaña Los Enemigos Teatro: Julio Castillo Mexico Direction Lorena Maza 1990 1

6 LUNA I A d I i t t w w a A C T W a t i F o e s o a h n

s t n n e f a c h

e u t l a e h r

o

l d d t e e h c s e t c F c e b r

g e h u h t n j

u

z r e h h

a i e n u t t h a a s t i f o c

d l h h i o t a n l

a d a t i t t n t s i

d e

e e r

y i e v k n I l w t y m u m n s d d i w , r y a

c

d i a

t r e l a t e

r

t b n m e

. y y

c

a h c a f u n

o r s a s

e g T o o

y l s a t r h y d e w , t n g g a h

k r e

s u t h a

o

( d w s e

r a a y

t

f a e d n e T t a w e s h b

n r t h o s d h

s k e d e

n x i h e u f

n t e

e o u

n s n

a u h d p

e m i t U i ’ y n a ,

t n

e t n n e m e

t

f l s

I d d S

a n e w

i

c u n p t

w s t k w

a t o i h

v i o t a l y r E

t g t

v a p l e t t a e o a e n o h k h

h h n t d e t

t

g s r d o l

o i i i a a t h e e s r u y d y

o n c e y u f w t s y

s r

i a

o

h n g

i o

e p n i c

i s o o t g r t

a t

s

n f n e e e g o y t d p o t u n I u

n o d n h d t

t

, a

o o a o

o e r y h

w

a

e o

s n r

k d

n o f a a s t w e c

G t f f a

h

, a

s r

s f

c

c i

t

c a d s Z m e a

a a t r i e

a t r h t r a f

s s r w i

o t s d i h o r t o i c i f p e

e g g h t c e a r l

f e d s o

c e e d h a í e a d n ? a

c t g s i a l e c

s

o n t r t a n

e o l d t i

l r t h e a e

c d h r a M d d i a f n t e n c t o l c f ) a r

t a t h

s s t e t

o t t f o w w i t t á b o . t i a

e i . o n h

m h g r w o y

p y r

c

a I F , r

e e n w t

n

n

l t

s

o i

h c I r S a

c

w n

j e

c

b o e r i o w o e u y f a w e z

r a k

e m a h a t n f n n e c w r

i m h

g

a m t g i w

t d u

i e t r

c c e s h o i o a s t i p e v

m n i h a

h o

o a w l r u

l s t

u e e n s t

a n y i h

e s t l M r h a s i t I

s u i d t t d

v e t o s y

n

r a t e h d

p n p b t t i e

h a s g n u o t

w

w h e r r

r y t i t p g a

f c d

o y o o n o i h t

A t a i u a e A e g h y d

d

t n t p e r ñ e p S s h s I h e r i u u v

a k

’ a n t p f b t

a

y c

c e c s m h t r c

. s D g e y t

t t r

e o r h c u a a a i h H t

a c

e a d r m a o s D h t t m s r n a e a ? t

o

n d o k n o I e t o n d m i

i

e g

a w e

i d r o r s r t k o

f m

e y i e d h a e

P e l o a

o n i a c

d

e e d a m r a h l s G m . t , b t g

a s s

i

o g o i i h t T p o d

p

n t l o r h e

i

a r o e f l o u

n h r s g w t

e e o a n t r o s

t e u t h i e

a c o r d

o n h i s e v e i p

e

b e n

n t s

u p x g

e i t a

y h s

o

e S s h

p c h n p

c s D u h

a e c t u e p r c e y

o e t h c e t d o o I

t r e a v ,

c

a o h r

d a

n d e a n a e p t

p g a t n , m e d a d u d s

c i r u t e o I

m s s t

r

t

c e t c

r a s i t m w r t i e h i w t d o f

o g o h a n t y s i

o t i

a n o a c

n n e g c o s o

c i r g s c n t s n i n d

d o !

u m e n

A o

o w t a

s

i L m I l d r h g t

m . g

d a m e r a i h

i l

e

A e o n t e

l o a b s r a p

s s i d e

o n c l

o S o y n

p r t a l

a i e a o

h b k y m

c d e e n t t

s n t m h a o i o h

s n d

h i

m n a d , t o

f a u w o d

o e ? . b s r g b

t n

r o o

u I o

I a y

e a y I f I s I

l t v b f m r v

e t d

w o

l t d i t w F a l o m e

w i o n h e

r t s l f e f t r a o

a o w

g e e

a a

y a r s t b A s w

k

t l l t h e s

a m B

i e i e h t s

n a e m l r a y h c s

o o e l l c

e

c r s

s : a e a f

n o o e r h d

t

a r

n a A M e u t l

a n t a i s e m h o y h s c a t s d c

e

t e n

o f h d e o k M t n e i h l c o a o r

l l

. a f e n e e t t y

n

s t u

r t T d h a u v t r h t

i

e

á n t s h e r w s

e r r e h a h r r m . r d i e t . e

, ,

r l e i t

e e h s

U

f

a u w w

e t a b r s I m I

o o g a a s

t o t p e

h h t a r n g r ; e l y w s f o f

e . e g e e

l t e

t

o s s

a y u

P N i e m n r e . e h c d r l l

e

n d

r

l e l h

i t e e o d y I

o f I s h t i ; I

a s t

w t

e e

e p

h s w i a

i t n s p d t n s d w g h a , o e t h p g i

a l

g

w n a A n i s g a e a h e e t s t

t a

h , y n r s

I c i

d

r t

a l e L s e

a

h a e

c i I

, r o m a

e

x

t b d h e o e s b f h n

n s t p

y m i

i s r o a o u . a s t l d d t e i

z h y u e

e t e d s A

A e e r

e i c e

t t s i n t i

m

l n

s g s h e t t

t o n b a d o p

u . u

n n o n t o b t m t t

f a r d o e h h o c s o l t e

e r r y y n h e e e a e e s r f t , , O t b D N p t w u d A A c w G a t a j o h u h h a m

s f y r i s

i o n o a o k e s e e s

o r e M d c

t r t p e , a

r i r

n d E , d w a

m c n k

e k

t a o I

r y

a t u í e l o d x o s

e a .

h a m s i r o f a

u c

L f

n n p n s B a r

e e d m o u

t r M

i e t i e r

l

w i s i

a y a f y m I

. e m o w t r r e

a

h g

e

á

s s m c I n a c s t s u i R t o e c e e s y

h s a t s . e t o h m i s t s l

o

a n i e o i n A t e o f P n p t - c a n s s g n e - n

d n t e v r i

a g s t e m u z e V r d a a p

o a i

a i e c s a b s

i l s n a c u e

p o h d y c

o

e s t y t i n

s r t g p e o i n h

f

t t e n o o

. m d t r

, n u h r t y

s g s e o w r h

e B h o t

t l t a i

e c

s s e m E a h

p . g e j d c a l u a o

t e a

i t e

e a n E

o l s u g L r i

l t s h n o

t t c

t , f

u e c p s v m d e p

r o t h a f t

i a r h t i ñ h e h r e e r e o d i n e i c o w ? e e e r c s o s n e a s s

a e r e s n

s b t a a i d r n s

l r o

g o . t s

p

o i l

e

e s o

h t t

v b m l

u t n S h u s

h

s

i f L h o l e v o a n r

t t

i z a o e a o o e u

c r m n r e f

z o w t

s , s y

o f e

g s t , l g

l g t

f

t o y

l t s

u a e e h a L

h s H f u s o a .

i f

r n y

o ,

r i e t t i d o m g t s I a

S m e

r d l

r t

e

, w d o e i t i a h p t o S f

a j r o o a y

p

i a

o o r a

, a t d d n t (

m c

e t l u s u a t l s T I h e y h e i e t

e s d

s n

n o t

u d

s a e a h e h a w t h u e s d g r i e e t n a t n e a r e g e n s p r

a

n r d t d

t o , c w t

n t t S

s H s h

s ,

o

r t

o a c c a

i

t h h D e e a

f v l s a i t f r a h n s d

a e s o o o a

i

e i t r e c c e t v t

t

s r u w r

a i r o p h h

o s e l t y a

t c y i s m e e t h e a r

a r u s d r s

, h e

c , o z t A r n i

e r a

e

a s p r f o t t e a p s w d

m a i

. r o T p a

u F e n

c w h G

s

“ e I r h r e a s s o d u b - a e

L a t o

r

) n e s o l f

l i i , c i t b o e

a a c r t

a n t

r n d n b u l u k i a a E o u m r u

u

o y C

l r c A d s : I I p e l e d t m

n u a

a

k e x

y r a J w w u b O r t t r s p d a n o p p c p e

l y a

o t , o e r r ’ y r a t h u i e i h

r

e g o s N n f n t l u n

M r i d r e o l p ,

t e p t g i s t A l

d a h e o e

e

a w d . s

c o s ” t

e N i

c

n t r r

d V

o u l r a o l

h t a a s c l t a e i t G i u

g n a , g n t a s è e h e s g S f

o r g r

d y e r d r r p t e . e r e a i i r

. e e e e e t

t

o a r b

B

y n h t

A I c e p t

s o a t u h o t e e

e t k . d e r l n h p w c

n

, s r r a a e r f

t

d - e i

o o

t d h t t o w P , m

a b o a r f

r

u r

e M r I a T , a o e y h r l I t i

e r

a

l g k i

t

r I

c l h i s

e t o w s b h A m e l

t e e e h l i e x t o h r e n

e a n d d e s e a r a e d i s s e l a a r c y . i i r

r r i t a , p e

s n

e v s o t o e r

a e

A f l t e c a s

e h p t i

v c u n

i o s

n .

o i d

s

t l t y a e t

u n

d p t

a D e e g I n a o L h

t c d h

e y r d I g p a

h l

h a i h a … s o

u d a y r h

r t t e h t a

e

h a n n u l e

a o a

m d a y U c y I b

o e a i e r n s

u I t v

v o

l s t d n i w t

á N

d a b e s A e o

w o e , u i d q d b

e

e

n

r d A

n a p n f h

u o e m p

s i t :

o o d t g r l t d a i M a r i b r h i e e t r n f a u k e d

r l t y e

p

a r p , p i é p a e c

a ? , t e

e t e a a

w t a

d r h a n

a M s t a o d r

e S l r

h

y c p . i e b f m e s i p e

n a e h

o o r m I e l u

l p l g i y e

a o

r r n s e m v v l r c

e p

b u t s

, f o a t i a o o s a

1 o t o o o l a m i

d d .

f e u u 9 t s r u d u

e f

u o g t t , r e a 5 e w t v r e

h a s c e r

r r H

r 7

e t o e n e

i

t d a l e w N

e i r ( o

é r c s d a

o y y T s t

e c a e e

o n h f

n

b o t d t h d i n m

o v d h e o . v t e u u t e

s f

h

o i r e y e t B t

c 1 g

n

t h e o m

A

A a e 9 r h y y g s a

f f o t r d e o 6 e d a u

, z

i

m

a u c t o a o d t d 1 a l d w s d o o

p r n r g u

i

i s s p d w

n

i

n p s . p l s c a t , h a i l t t e g

h n i h e n r a a a a h r r r

a

r d o c k

t g i d

t M a e e

c y t h

e o

e a

d

E l t t e o d t a

o s s e

a o

o r a d t . e f t

i m f c h g o

a

r n

u

F h s y s t

g e f

t e

w a h t t t r r

i t t t r a n a a o r n o o h e h h e i d g k g t u s e m m t m e a a s h o e e e e ) r r t t , 1 7 LUNA I believe that the University finances the professional theatre. How was it in those days? but for me this was a wholly unusual approach; I am not a painter, I had never painted nor considered ever doing so. I saw all the The University Theatre was structured at various levels: at the initial level it constituted an option for the preparatory grade and for sets by Julio Prieto in the theatres of the Seguro Social, while Toño López Mancera, my master at the Faculty, taught us as part of the schools and the professional faculties, an amateur theatre that sought talent and audiences; that of the students of Dramatic Art the course the grammatical structure of the language of stage design and invited us to see the stage and lighting designs of the and that of the professional. I had to do them all. In effect, the University financed the professional theatre. Perhaps the only other productions at the Palacio de Bellas Artes. However, due to my training as an architect, the use of traditional techniques created example is that of Chile. At the University one experimented new repertories and new theatrical forms, new languages, that is. It conflict for me. At school they trained me according to the canons of rational and functional architecture, an honest architecture, was the centre of the avant-garde. At University there were the “sacred cows”, talented young directors and they welcomed painters where it was sinful to simulate a material or falsify perspective or make improper use of ornamentation. In fact, the term of the New Plastic Art and actors with intellectual pretensions. In those years the theatre of Juan José Gurrola, José Luis Ibáñez, “scenography” was used in the negative sense, it was synonymous with perversity. Perhaps there was in effect something that Héctor Azar and Héctor Mendoza was all the rage and they worked with painters who created sets that reflected their very personal stopped me from siding fully in favour with the tendencies dominant in stage design in that period, maybe the fact that stage design plastic universes or the latest “ism” in trend. was not my principal interest, it was merely my passport into the theatre. I loved everything about the theatre: the architecture, the dramaturgy, the direction, the production, the rehearsals. I particularly enjoyed watching the actors make their characters come to Which other institutions helped the theatre? life, the teamwork. Right from the start, I worked together with Eduardo. Together we chose the works, we discussed the parts and Amongst others, the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes stood out and – an unusual case in this world – the Instituto Mexicano del planned the direction, the stage design and the lighting. I always attended the rehearsals, taking care to modify the design according Seguro Social. These organisations took it upon themselves to aid particularly theatre that was “well done”; there were also to the stimuli and the results gained through the process of staging a production. Following the death of Eduardo, I began to work independent producers and a respectable commercial theatre. Bellas Artes sponsored, for example, the works of Seki Sano, who was in the same way with the Polish director, Ludwig Margules and we have continued in this way for over twenty years. assistant to Stanislavski and Mejerchol’d and had disseminated that realism that was to develop into the style of acting in the open- air, in the Spanish way; or that of Fernando Wagner, a pupil of Reinhart and master of the directors of my generation; or that again Were you more inclined towards an architectural style of stage design? of our authors, national glories, such as Emilio Carballido and Sergio Magaña, or directors like Xavier Rojas and Rafael López One is driven to split stage design into the pictorial and the architectural according to the dominating characteristics of these two Miernau, who introduced, respectively, the theatre arena and a moderately political theatre. The Seguro Social example in Mexico disciplines, but these are divisions that disappear when one deals with the specificity of this art sui generis. In fact, in the was a case sui generis. With the support of the President, Adolfo López Mateos (1958-1964), thanks to his meeting the politician, configuration of the space certain elements converge that could be considered pictorial, sculptural or architectural. Architecture Benito Coquet, a lover of the theatre, and thanks to the Prieto brothers, Julio, a stage designer and Alejandro, an architect, the organises space in our lives while scenography, that of a production but the production is immersed in a delimited time, that which conviction spread that, in order that social welfare be complete, this had to include the theatre. To this one owes the construction of the actors and the audience share together. During this lapse of time, the space is transformed, it moves, it is active, it changes a mighty infrastructure, over thirty theatres built in one go throughout the country, and the creation of a company that would stage meaning. It follows that stage design, unlike architecture, is an ephemeral, kinetic art. Going beyond the time of the staging, the with competence the works that Mexican society would have to see, a type of theatre directed rather at the middle class than at blue- scenery can be viewed as painting, as architecture, as sculpture, as decoration, as an installation… but its scenic effect can only be collar workers. exercised as part of a performance with actors and an audience. Scenography is therefore a collective art, and dependent. Now, I am able to articulate this thought, in the beginning, I merely intuited this. My sketches were storyboards, comic style. I understood that What tendencies in theatrical design did you recognise at that time? design for a theatre pièce was design involving a sequence of moments, a series of spaces: a movement or a sequence of movements Two tendencies: that of stage designers by profession and that of painters. Among the first, the most important and the most productive, that accompany and comprise the dramatic action, the emotive gestures of the actor-characters… Far from the kinesics created by professionals immersed in the construction of an institutional theatre and linked to commercial theatre, there were Julio Prieto, Antonio López Gordon Craig and realized by Josef Svoboda, I find that a design for the stage is a design of a movement, little matters if this is Mancera and David Antón. The other tendency was that of painters who became involved in the theatre, without previous experience but expressed through mechanical or optical movements, what is sufficient perhaps is its meaning as interpreted by the spectator. It with artistic and intellectual ambitions, free of prejudice. In the fifties and sixties, it was again artists who renewed scenery. Just to cite a few, seems to me that stage design is closer to music, to dance, to cinema, rather than the plastic arts. I still remember the marvellous sets by Juan Soriano, Arnold Belkin, Manuel Felguérez, Lilia Carrillo, Leonora Carrigton, Vlady, Roger von Gunten, Kasuya Sakai, Vicente Rojo, José Luis Cuevas... The majority of these plastic artists created various stage sets then returned to paint Please go into more detail on the concept of space as a key aspect of stage design. in their workshops and studios. Apart from the fact that these activities require a full-time commitment, the monitoring of the work and the Perhaps my training as an architect – five years spent in the labyrinths of descriptive geometry and perspective, experimenting with the individual decision were not compatible with working as a team, with theatre as a group effort. definition of various types of space – prevents me from approaching scenery design from a different angle. I believe that space is a structure that the mind activates from the sensorial stimuli that it receives. The eye detects the limits of the space, the form, the proportions, the scale, Which did you prefer? the texture, the colours, it perceives the abstract values that depend on that which is revealed by illumination – in fact, what is perceived is I was interested in everything, I didn’t find myself in either of these tendencies. I admired the fresh, bold sceneries by the painters light, but perhaps there are also physical elements (doors, furniture, staircases). Thanks to this information, the structure of the space in the A A N N U U L L

18 August StrindBerg La señorita Julia Teatro: Acos Caracol - Mexico Direction: Salvador Flores, 1975 19 Anton Cechov Uncle Vanya T eatro: Acos Caracol - Mexico Direction: Ludwik Margules, 1978 mind of the spectator is interpretive, it will depend on subjective values, on a sum of experience, perhaps even on his or her state of mind. wars and those of the sixties, but we have Designing a stage set implies an objective aimed at defining limits to a space, to a void that begins to take on a form once it has returned in a different manner. delimitations. Up to this point, we have spoken about a static space, now it needs to be given a time, the other coordinate of theatrical design. As the text gradually progresses and the actors begin to bring it to life, to dialogue with and within the space, the latter, which Just as we can speak of a national exists as such in the mind of the spectator, will be transformed, and will change in meaning. I believe that stage design is the design dramaturgy, do you think that one can of this movement. Save rare exceptions, the public receives sensorial information that is visual and acoustic. We also know that speak of a national stage design? matter is not seen until it is touched by light; we know too that light is invisible until matter reflects it onto our eye. Space is Not in the sense of the British, Polish or dependent on light, on its intensity, on its direction, on its temperature. However the light is, that is how the space will be. Light and Czech schools. One could possibly speak space are consubstantial. These theoretical musings would perhaps sound sterile if it were not for the practical consequences of a national stage design on condition involved in the day-to-day carrying out of one’s profession. On the one hand, they require that the stage designer’s and the artistic that there was a national theatre that was director’s contributions merge and combine to produce a seamless production, a joint effort that interfaces with traditional skills. On well defined, institutionalized, with a the other hand – and in my case – they require that both the stage and lighting design are created as something indissoluble. certain solidity and without interruptions in the programming. I am referring not You stated earlier that stage design is a dependent art. On what does it depend? only to dramaturgy but to regular It is dependent on all the other elements that are part of the production. Stage design does not have the autonomy of painting or seasons, repertory theatres, to public literature. It depends on the text, the direction, the acting, the music… theatres with a tradition behind them… Moreover, I think that stage design is not restricted to the work of the stage designer alone. If we accept that stage design is the In pre-Revolution Mexico, to find a stage definition of the space for a production, this definition is influenced either directly or indirectly by a number of co-designers: the design with national characteristics, be it architect who designed the building that houses the theatre and who defined the spaces and the rapport created between the destined for the theatre, the opera or light production and its audience carries a great deal of influence; the author who intervenes with his explicit or implicit notes; the ideas opera, was like looking for a needle in a of he director who defines the space in a palpable way; the choreographer who, through the movements performed by the actors and haystack among the hundreds of drop dancers, opens and closes the space; the musician who transforms it through sound… In effect, I am convinced that a certain tone curtains abandoned in Spanish and Italian or look expressed by an actress can redesign the space and the way that the spectator intreprets it, which the latter, individually, theatre companies. It was only after the constructs in his mind’s eye his own scenic landscape through the stimuli received from the stage design. In this sense, the theatre, Revolution, when our painters and and therefore the stage design, are collective and dependent arts. This type of reflection has conditioned my work for years and intellectuals returned imbued with the perhaps they are original only in the measure in which I have integrated them into practice. I began to think in a systematic way in European avant-garde, that an original my work after having attended, in 1967, the Symposium held on occasion of the First Quadriennial of Prague. In a way, that diversification took place: the “isms” exposition was the declaration of independence of Scenic Design. Prior to that, stage design was assessed according to the canons were adapted to national themes, the of the Artes Plásticas of the Sao Paulo Biennial. I even went so far as to think that scenic design did not exist, that only the theatre “zarzuela” gave way to the revue, dance exists. Now I think that stage design is direction. and the theatre were developed with decidedly nationalistic tones, that Do you think that the public is aware of this association? contemplated the demand of the No, I don’t believe so. I think that neither the public nor specialized critics are interested in penetrating these labyrinths. The public indigenous element and of hybridization. receives an audiovisual image, without knowing which tones or which movements have been proposed by the actor and which are This was the era of Mexican muralism, those that have been indicated by the director; which contours are imposed by the geometry of the space or by the lighting design the “golden age” of Mexican cinema, the or generated by the interior emotions of the dancer or by the formal concerns of the choreographer. These are arguments that do not thirties and forties. The muralists burst interest the public, or perhaps the public should not be interested. The public perceives them and the final result must satisfy. onto the scene, in particular in ballet. It was also the period in which we Today’s theatre is mostly performed within the container whilst experimental forms reject it. What is your opinion on this? welcomed Spanish exiles, who were to Theatrical architecture currently tends towards standardization and even more so towards globalization. The space conceived in the heavily influence acting styles and scenic Italian manner has been newly imposed in the light of projects and constructions that have not succeeded substantially in modifying design. the theatre. Only when there is some local production or certain stagings from outside the small theatres are not too many, as the My initiation into the theatre began schemes that are not Italian adapt themselves better to that which is inaccurately called experimental theatre. towards the end of the fifties, when Fernando Wagner, André Moreau and Why do you say “inaccurately”? Seki Sano introduced us to another A A Because I believe that, if we speak about artistic experimentation, any theatre that has this ambition must run an artistic risk. Because, if we method of acting, when the Actors Studio refer to a scientific experiment, a scientific method must be followed, keeping the variables under control. And also because the experimental and North American cinema began to N Nelement of a mise-en-scène does not depend on the arrangement of the stage in a theatre. Brecht and Bob Wilson have renewed the scenic exert influence, when theatre was U Ulanguage without leaving the container. And in Mexico the small multi-functional spaces have served to stage memorable productions and performed in tiny halls and when the to host the theatre of Grotowski, of Kantor, of Brook, for example. I think that architecture imposes itself when theatre becomes University hosted the emblematic Linstitutionalized. We have returned to the container after the vicissitudes of the early twentieth century, those of the period between the two seasons of the avant-garde. Those of L 22 23 T T A StreetcarNamed Desire D e e i n a r e t n r c e o t s i : o

s M e n e : a

M W n o a i l l r o l t i

a h F m a a

s b L r u e n g a a , s

1 - 9

M 8 3 e x i c o A p t r s o s p W o T t s d t o l s C s c s d b W m o y t I s r M I I i h t e w c a w t m b a a c o o h h o w m e h e e

n

e t p p a t o x t t a w o o o r n i n i y p e a a n e a h r o x t m f i o i h g

e s e n s i y e g a i

n o a e i m a v a l r u m r e a e

i o m t

m h a t m n m e d b m c a t a a t a u d s t w e s u g n h s a a e c x f r m

r t n

e h r s o , p t h r g a , o i h t t n o a t o c a

r a l i e

n c r e l

i

p

h r u i e y

e

t r r g p e d o a h s d o d l e y a o s

n v c t i i r i c n d u

o t a r t

i y e e d e a e

r p l v n t t n e a

i o u

h

i s

r

t c a r s

o n m w e d e s . i a r n h e

s i n

o d r o c i h

a r a

i a a , n h l

e d e m e c r e l t e i

. r

a , . s i v

e

t i a h

r

f

i r e p u a e a s

n g p l

a … d

a i y e s s i

s k a a O a t . e s e t

n a e s e b t e B i

s s e

t W

y

l n e

s r M n o g u l

r h

c

,

s e

n I ,

a d

a n a

i I a l s p o e , e b l I

y c n l

l g o n

a b m

g u c n

e o

r y

a i d

o t y

y t t n t i i

i e Y h y . I e r u u e e e e e k i h s

h t

f b r o i e n s l i t l I r

, n

n d

y f g o b

o

t o n y o P a i o a v

i t e

p

x t f t

t o s a e e m t s e y t

g g c

k

u h t ,

i

f i o p

w v a x

w i

e n e u e l e

i t

o u f

t t i t l

s o b e , c

e i r a d c t r B l l a h o a c o o u n e

l r a e o i n

w a r t r k a

:

e f i o e c N o e o - f a a

m

v o e o i h e r r d u s

m s e n l

s s d s r

o a

w a e r

m e s n t b t t t w r

d n u e

o

v t e e b i u , b m a

t t a s i r t o

p e u h n g o , r

s k r x u

o

n

t i

I g h . s o g l r i e

o

y e i p u r e d

l n w p h e c o a s t o r e

d

w d

o i m

t s k .

s n s t a s

, e u t

u l

t o c n s n t , i

h

d r v o t t a b

r l a

d e e

e

e e s d u

W h

e e

s

r o r

h “ e

m t i a o a k u

g a t

T v o w a n t , b i u r e r e t f e e m Y i t

d s i t a a e P d

l

e n i

o t r h e n o i o

f m f

i o r e e o y v c i e y n t t h n o y y n

h

o I c y r k o e a o o

o

f y o

k d a r i

o d n f

s c v t p l

e e ,

c e t

i a

r a d s a w n l y s d i

t

g n r

c r o w s b a

e e t : o c c a s , a v s p n a

h o e e a h t

l o k t t , l

?

l t p a i i r n a s

r t l o u o n e l

s

w

o C e l r a a y h r e l g e r n a n o i S o

i , m , s

t n i f r r e f , d

s m , w

s d l u

n s p t r r r r r p a r r y

r

t r i y o o t m a h o

u e t h t

d o o

k i e e h

t y t t s h s e t e n o i g e g a

o

g r w o

r o r r h h

s j o o a r p a h e e l .

o c

h i

e

o r e t e t t a t m e t s y t e n m

e e l o e r v n u n e t e r

n , n o h e o e

r e h o i f

o a

W i t c a k t j m

r t l

h s n . y l

s t y r

j e t g s

d x o

h n

n e i

a

p

e

y t

t h

w e o e o t t e e v e r T n

t t

t t s

r

s r

a t r

c c h h o a t o

a o t r p h

h x e e h

i

o l N , w m e

a c i

t e o e

e g

, w o p m t o h k w s

a b t d p a e r n e h r

x f e e r m d a e f

t e t a p m s z a

w o

r k s a j e r i s h

t l o e s p a

i e i w e a

r o m i t a t

e . s h

y r e o g n

e i e n i t a n

u t n o

r s s

s e a s n i

a r a t t s e a

e o r e s o t i c i

m r w e c g c r r s d

i e r

h l T

a

t e k o g p

i k o o h t l d c i n p i n d t t n i t i t o r e s t t

e m h h r t e

g

n i o i r h g e n m h t l s h h

w t h n h h d e a e a

k p e e d a a

e s

s u n o t e

v

h s n

a

r a

h i t l l i d r r r

a w a l a a a a e ” e e y i t s s s s

o o y y p y n n g y n n e e a e a e a a a e e s s s s t I I I t t l t t t l . t . . . , , . . , 2 5 LUNA alba, by Carlos Fuentes, the conquest of Mexico set in Siberia; Celebration of the Lizard, a musical on The Doors set in California, USA; in Mexico, works such as The Visitors, by Carlos Chávez and Chester Kallman, Woyzeck by Alban Berg and Georg Büchner, La notte di un nevrastenico, di Nino Rota; plays such as Tiernas puñaladas, by Héctor Mendoza; Con el corazón abierto, by Humberto Dorado in Bogotà, Colombia; and Viaje a la luna (A Trip to the Moon), a dance spectacular on Méliès for the Biennial in Lyon. Only on rare occasions have I been able to propose a work to a producer, in general I have to choose from that which I have been offered. At times, other than my personal preferences, there are interests of another type. In Viaje a la luna, for example, I experiment with a three-dimensional virtual scenography. I believe that the stage serves to make extraordinary things happen. And maybe this hope is the common denominator that determines my interest in certain projects. It is not only the main themes that attract me, I hope that with the irrepressible force of a live performance even the most innocent themes can reveal unexpected depths in what it is to be human, touching those fibres that regard us all, that trigger emotions. This is what it boils down to. In your case, if I’m not mistaken, the work on the image, on the construction of the guiding image of the production, comes first from the direction. Can you elucidate on this? No, it’s not that. When a director offers me a project that I am not familiar with I ask him not to tell me anything, to let me read it without comment and to give me a certain amount of time before the next meeting. I do this to take precautions for the first reading, which for me is very important as it will be the only chance I have of reading the text with preconceptions. I try to read with an open mind, distancing myself from actors and scenic solutions. I read it quickly so as to get inside the work, let it penetrate me. Just as for any other human being, reading produces ideas, images and emotions. So, when I have finished reading, I make notes on what I have seen, thought and felt. I close the text and try to forget about it for a while. I think this interlude given over to an unconscious fermentation of impressions is extremely valid, as it is intuition at work. After having let this certain amount of time lapse – the longer the better – numerous analytical readings then follow, but that first reading will be unrepeatable. I then make a rapid enquiry into all that the work contains and then meet the director for the first time, during which we invariably discuss his ideas. And I think that the director takes into consideration my ideas. At this stage there are no scenic images yet. Image-wise, how do things proceed after the initial reading of the text? How is an image generated? Where does it spring from? I begin by visualizing things when I see the actors and imagine their way of incarnating the characters. I clothe them, I put on their make-up and I arrange their hair in a provisional manner – people cleverer than I would do this in a definitive form. I try to imagine all this in what would be best to see them against: smooth or rough surfaces, empty spaces or surrounded by objects. Then I begin… naturally the director’s ideas carry weight, as do the dimensions and the theatre’s vanishing points, the technical problems and the balance. Many images gradually surface, some compatible with the dramaturgical point of view, others that are not appropriate. But the director needs a design project, not isolated images. I sketch out various possible solutions, sometimes developing them in parallel, but the moment arrives in which one must decide, and that’s where conflict arises. It is in this phase that it helps me to refer to my notes taken after the first reading. At times the solution is at hand, at others not at all. Inevitably, one has to imagine what the director would do with these solutions, that is, I orientate myself with the sketch knowing that the director will go way beyond that which I imagine to be possible. You have worked on various productions of classical texts. You have also designed projects for stagings of authors such as Beckett and Pinter, authors who define the space in which the action evolves in an almost obsessive manner. What is the difference between such diverse experiences? I think that theatre is the art of the present, of the here and now, that the production is for today’s public, even if the temporal settings remain those of always. The process of approximation interests me, through which to discover the equivalence of signs. I feel more comfortable when I am designing works of the past rather than those written by new authors. I am interested in the process of translation of the classics into our time and our space. For the production of Uncle Vanja I reproduced the arrangement and used the furniture from the main house of my family’s farm, the samovar was the only Russian element. With authors who write copious indications for the stage design one can occasionally do something while keeping the style, as in A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams. I had designed this staging for

A a theatre-in-the-round, with a disc that took an hour to make a complete turn, thereby offering the audience a constant change in viewing angles. Faced with the meaningful images of Beckett I cannot but admire them. N

UI would now like to touch upon some essential elements of your work as a stage designer. On the one hand, the constant concern of narrating places and environments in a natural way, without e ver indulging in iconography. On the other hand, the relationship Lbetween light and shadow, which in your designs always represents a basic element. Not to mention the theme of silence, the

26 Vicente Leñero La Mudanza Teatro: Arcos Caracol - Mexico Direction: Adam , 1983 g

n o L

y e silence of spaces, naturally. v I I detest pleonasm. At times the stage design has to carry a narrative imprint, but if this resul ts in a simple illustration of the text I avoid it. I design spaces for a future production and not for the texts. Two examples: in Don Giovanni most of the cast were no longer quite so young. m The director and I decided to portray Don Giovanni as terminally ill, attracted by his own imminent death as an extreme act of desire. His a i “place” would be the “Padiglione Siviglia” of the Ospedale Spagnolo in Mexico City. In that case the stage design had to assume narrative l functions in order to give new meaning to the text. By contrast, in Idomeneo it wasn’t so important to see Crete in an eighteenth-century l setting and so I could use a more abstract language focused in particular on the music. I am convinced that it is better to allow the spectator i

to construct places and environments rather than impose a categorical image on him. I would say that my task consists in measuring out W stimuli in the normative sense, so as to trigger the spectator’s creativity, something in which I hold great faith. What I cannot allow him, however, is to second-guess what is about to take place. More than a narrative concern, it’s about concentrating on making the spaces speak. y I appreciate the ambiguity when it serves to allow the spectator to make his own reading. In fact, not only ambiguity but also contradiction. r In dreams we perceive images, stimuli free of time or order and it is memory that helps us to recount a dream. I have applied a process a similar to Bernhardt’s El hacedor de teatro (The Creator of Theatre). The spectator at times saw a pinball machine, at times a butcher’s d refrigerator, at times wood panelling, at others, a brilliant green. Sometimes the salon scene was placed downstage, sometimes upstage. n Spectators do not remember the contradictions, they choose their own stage design and the dream impression remains. e And, as regards the lighting? g On light and shadow much has been written. I doubt whether anything new can be said. Light p roduces and transmits emotions to human e beings in a complex manner. Even though at the origins of these interrelations there has to have been natural light (that of the sun or moon) l or artificial (the usual electrical sources) and despite this we are used to that which Henry Alekan calls “our daily bath”, we all expect that at the theatre, where the naturalism of cinema cannot exist, light behaves in an extraordinary manner. In fact, it could be enough to create the e h effect of a sunny day with a simple black backdrop on which a ray of light is silhouetted, to think, believe and even feel what the actor is t experiencing when he is touched by the sun. I am fascinated by the idea that on a stage bathed in light, all it takes is for a character to come on with a torch and we all understand that night has fallen. Undoubtedly, an intense light (unidirectional), modelling, that accentuates the n contrasts, will prove more “dramatic” than a soft, flat, diffuse light (multidirectional). That said, it is not necessary to follow this rule to the o letter: one can attempt to set a tragedy in a mundane homogeneous light whilst relying on the acting for dramatic intensity or one can see what happens with a comedy if a light is positioned laterally, so as to cause a strong contrast. At least, this is what happens to me: it’s enough to t begin to believe in the goodness of that which is arbitrary to try for the exact reproduction of a twilight. I have experimented light with shadow h on a set, so as to make the actors float within a white field; a diffuse light that flattened, that destroyed the third dimension, so as to see the set g i like a comic or like a pre-Columbian code. We certainly obtained effects but the public soon ended up with a headache. It seems, in fact, that l the audience likes a non-protagonist play of lights, mixed with component elements gathered from the history of painting, from photography t and from cinema. The possibilities of dialogue between light andmatter are infinite, the choice of resources in function of the plastic- o dramaturgical objectives and their technical realization is an exciting task. I believe that nothing better exists. p S Your first image is illuminated? Any image is light, only light. Any image, whether graphic, photographic, design, or text is none other to the eye than light reflected off surfaces that filter and absorb light. Imagination is the ability to visualize this light in the absence of stimulus. We watch the actors… we could also say: we watch the light reflected by the actors. According to how the light will be, so will be the space. In visual terms the space begins to exist from the light. So, I cannot distinguish between stage designing and lighting. When I talk about stage design I am talking about light reflected off surfaces, garments, objects. Designing both comes from a single impulse. If you turn off the light there is no image. And this something that is so obvious that we tend to forget it. We come into the world within space and surrounded by light and we live without needing to think about it but if we aspire to make space and light into a language or a fundamental part of a language then it is necessary to be conscious of it. I think that learning to illuminate implies unlearning the way in which we are used to looking and begin to see everything in terms of light, of intensity, of blending, of direction and of colour. To always see how a face receives the light reflected from the floor, or the colour that dominates to the right if the wall is blue and to distinguish the temperature of the light sources. I like to

A talk on this subject with photographers because they touch light with their hands. They do this in a precise way when opening or closing the lens, when they fix more or less exposure time, when they develop the film and when they print. We all possess the ability to imagine, Nany text produces mental images, illuminated material, visible matter because it reflects light, and if we look carefully we can see the

Uluminous sources, the direction of the incident ray, pick out its intensity and colour. Training can make all this become automatic. L Broadway Buttons, Bangles 28 WILLIAM IVEY LONG has theatre in the blood, as his family were in the business. He literally grew up on the stage - due to a post-war housing shortage in North Carolina he spent the first 3 years of his life living with his parents in a stage-left dressing room. He has been designing Broadway productions for almost 30 years and his natural exuberance and inherent good taste reflects itself in many of his O impeccable creations. Although for many years a costume designer, he started out designing, briefly apprenticed to Josef Svoboda, and worked on several projects including a Leonard Bernstein production in Vienna. He also studied for several years G under the famed couturier Charles James after moving to New York in the mid seventies. He is perhaps best known for his often outlandish and stunning costumes for highly popular

shows such as his forties-style zoot suits in A Guys and Dolls and the vibrantly coloured sixties clothes in Hairspray, the musical currently running on Broadway, in perfect synchrony with John Water’s zany approach in the original movie. He has won C four Tony Awards for Best Costume Design: Hairspray (2003); Mel Brook’s The Producers (2001); Crazy For You (1992), and Nine (1982). Since 1989 he has also notched I up several Tony nominations for shows including The Music Man, Cabaret, Chicago, and Lend Me a Tenor. When not costuming for the theatre, he also designs for movie stars: he created Halle Berry’s elegant white gown for the Screen H Actors Guild Awards in 2002. Current assignments are as diverse as the revival of the play, Twentieth Century and Stephen Sondheim’s musical The Frogs, set

in Ancient Greece. C Marissa Jaret Winokur as Tracy Turnblad “Welcome to the Sixties”

one of my first recurring nightmares that I after the war there was a housing shortage in going but it’s interesting that we raise cotton G by Maria Harman had as a child was my mother screaming North Carolina where my father was and peanuts because cotton is what I work G and running and having her hair pulled – no, technical director and director of this little with. My parents were very excited about N We would like to know what type of our parents’ footsteps. My parents are both this was not home abuse, this was my theatre and the only place for us to live - it experiencing the world of the arts, which N O cultural environment you frequented from farming families in North Carolina, mother playing the wife in Death of a sounds biblical - was in the stage-left was not unknown in their growing up but it O when young and if your studies were and they are the ones who trailblazed into Salesman but I made no distinction between dressing room of the outdoor amphitheatre. was certainly not practised as a profession. L immediately directed towards the art the world of the arts. An interesting the two! I think they had taken me at the age So we lived in this one little room which is In fact, my parents were the very first people L

world. development is that I am now back living in of two or three to a production where my about 40 by 40 feet and you would open the to have jobs with a salary, everyone else was Y I am very privileged to have grown up on North Carolina, on the family farm, when father had designed the scenery and my door and go right out onto the stage. That’s self employed, agrarian farmers. In the Y college campuses. My parents were both I’m not in New York, so I’m still back doing mother was playing the wife. That is my where I grew up, on the stage. So, it’s in my whole line of my ancestors, they were the E college professors, and my father founded the family business! From a very early age, earliest memory that I can isolate as a piece blood, but I also have farming in my blood only two people who ever got paychecks! E V and was head of the theatre department at practically from birth, I was exposed to the of theatre because it was very carefully because my father’s people have been living Isn’t that funny? Well, I don’t know what V Winthrop, a small southern university. My theatre and to music and dance. I was explained to me that this was not life – but it on the same land that I am farming right that has to do with art but in my background I brother, who designs theatres around the fascinated with the ballet and I would draw was life because I was experiencing it! I was now since 1676, and we are very proud of there is a sense of self-starting and I world, and I are both following directly in dancers on big newsprint pads.. I remember born in 1947 so I was a post-war baby, and that though it’s very hard to keep all that regeneration. 32 33 Gary Beach as Roger Debris in The Producers

Hugh Jackman as Peter Allen Copacabana Sketch

learning all manner of things. So I guess I and Josef Svoboda and Charles James. started to work in show business after my Now, two of those are in stage design but degree and after the years of working with I felt they were major masters. I was also Mr. James. It was sort of decided for me; I privileged when I was at Yale to design have a wonderful group of friends, and something in Vienna for Leonard directors and other designers would Bernstein: his Mass, which he had recommend me so I would go and design created for the opening of the Kennedy scenery for some show; everything was off- Center in Washington D.C. and then two off Broadway, then I gradually moved up on years later our music and drama school Broadway so it was an interesting start. I got permission to mount a production of have never assisted a costume designer. Isn’t the Mass in Vienna, in the Concert that interesting? I’m not sure why I ever House. I later did a world première with started in costume design. him: his A Quiet Place combined with Trouble in Tahiti, which was a Do you feel you had real masters or biographical opera, we debuted it at the just people you referred to as role Stadts Oper. But my first experience in models? Vienna was with this Mass, I had done I had real masters. I had Ming Cho Lee the costumes and it was thrilling to work

What made you decide to work in show business? Interestingly enough, I don’t exactly know that answer. My undergraduate degree was in History at the College of William and Mary in Virginia (Thomas Jefferson went k i n there) and then I did graduate study at the l o K G

University of North Carolina and I was l u a P

studying Art History, not theatre because the : N o t

family business was theatre. I was still o h P Oworking in summer designing and making costumes, making scenery but I never took G L it seriously, it was just what I did, what we assisting scenic designers and I worked with working on costumes because for a while N O all did. Then, in my third year of being at Ming Cho Lee, my great teacher at Yale, I there I gave up the theatre and apprenticed L

YChapel Hill I realised that I really wanted to also assisted Josef Svoboda on an opera as myself to a major fashion couturier, Charles

go in to the theatre but I wanted to be a set his set design assistant. He was totally James. I came to New York in 1975 and I s u Y E c r

designer so I applied to Yale University amazing and I had met him first in 1970 moved to the Chelsea Hotel right after a E M

V School of Drama and I graduated three when he gave a masterclass at Yale. Years graduating from Yale and I lived there for n a V o J

years later with my MFA in set design, later I worked with him as his main assistant five years until Charles James died. I was : I I o t Hugh Jackman in The Boy From Oz having studied costume design and lighting. on [Leós Janácek’s opera] Jenufa. Over the doing a job during the day, doing little o h I then came to New York and started years I have tried to imagine when I started shows and then working with him at night, P 34 35 with Leonard Bernstein, for heaven’s News” and the “New York Post”, then I read last. I’m very proud to have six shows doing this for my day job I thought: “Oh, sake! So that was another life observed “Daily Variety” and “Women’s Wear Daily”. running. I have Chicago now in its eighth this will be a cinch, I’ll just make clothes for and a definate master so I am very I do not watch television and so my main year and the longest running revival on the fashion world.” Well, the Gods punished privileged to say that I started out at the link with the world is those five papers. I Broadway. And I have many productions of me! But they punished me in the most top. You know, sometimes, early idols think I get a better point of view that way. I The Producers and Hairspray and I have intricately painful way. I was privileged to disappoint; these just grow and grow. I need to feel connected. Well, my three years new ones this fall: Never Gonna Dance, the receive very good reviews for my show and still continue to be inspired by them. study in Art History was very important, too Fred and Ginger musical, and Little Shop of we started the process of taking orders from because I’ve read widely and I think that Horrors revival, all this on Broadway, then I the various stores but then it all collapsed In your view, do you think there is a study opened up many avenues for me. have several things off-Broadway. Because and fell apart when I couldn’t figure out great difference – or vice versa a you make a pact with the producers to how to manufacture. I hadn’t done all my common ground - between American Have you drawn much inspiration produce garments that will last you really homework, you see. So, I then gracefully and British musicals? from your studies, and from Art have to pay a lot of attention to how the retired before starting. I basically realized Well, of course there are differences. I History in particular? materials are constructed so I take that very that I was in over my head and had no idea have worked in London. I have Chicago Oh, one million per cent! Because there is so seriously. I also love working with new what I was doing. I am sitting on running there now in its sixth or seventh much knowledge out there, education is materials. All the time we are trying to international copyrights for my trademark year. I have designed several shows really about knowing where to find the discover new things and new ways to make but I think I don’t know enough to go any there: Crazy For You was a big success information you need. We can only really things. further. I didn’t know about outsourcing at story over there, and Contact, we did that learn an index because there is so much to the time and I was taking short cuts and last fall so I do quite a few things in take in, so through all my degrees and my Ever more frequently, the fashion didn’t know it. The more you know, the less London. I currently have six shows studies I’ve learned where to find the world adopts a spectacular, you know. But I have never regretted one running on Broadway. Cabaret has just information, I would say quite humbly that entertainment-world style of language, minute of that because it introduced me to a closed after six years; that was the revival the knowledge I have learned is where to both through direct collaborations and whole new group of people, right here in my of Cabaret at Studio 54, directed by Sam find the knowledge. I don’t think I have any in the use of imagery during fashion town. I’ve really gotten to know a lot of Mendes and Rob Marshall, if you can but I know where to find it! In my studio we shows. There is often an element of people in the fashion world. I have great imagine that combo. And Sam Mendes, have six or seven computers. The Internet is crossover. What is your opinion in respect for everyone in that business. Bruce the film director of American Beauty, and really wonderful and you can find things relation to this? Do you consider it a Weber, the photographer, is a very good Rob Marshall are both stage directors; very quickly. I’m very proud of my own positive factor? friend of mine and I’ve been a stylist o n Rob is a choreographer and Rob just personal library; Internet doesn’t give you Well, I recently saw pictures of Alexander many of his shoots. Last fall he went to directed a movie of Chicago. that tactile pleasure of leafing through a McQueen’s fashion show last year, it was a Sweden, for Vanity Fair, and I put book. You ask me if I know about costume sort of dance marathon, and I designed a together the looks for that. I’ve worked Do you feel you have links to and draw houses in Italy; I know Tirelli’s in Rome. I Broadway musical called Steel Pier. It took with him on his book, “Chop Suey” and inspiration from conceptual artists and have Piero Tosi’s beautiful book about all place in the thirties and it was about I’ve done various things with him. So, contemporary art? his work and personally inscribed to me by marathon dances so for this I designed there’s quite a cross-pollination. I think Absolutely, and it’s one of the joys of living Mr. Tosi so I consider that one of my prized hundreds of amazing bias-cut, flowing and we all interract, we all see things and in New York. In fact, two bricks away is the possessions. I use all my books and I don’t clingy, very sexy dance clothes. I’m sure he we’re all influenced by things. My studio sculptor, Louise Bourgeois, she’s my next- know if they are going to be in pristine didn’t know what I was doing but it’s very recently took a field trip to the wonderful door neighbour and I see her every day. I condition when I die, but they will be very interesting that several people can come up exhibit of Elsa Schiaparelli at the think she is America’s greatest living well loved, and very well thumbed. with the same thing. So, it looked very much Philadelphia Museum of Art. Probably sculptor. She is many things and ‘surrealist’ like Steel Pier when I saw the pictures. the best, most thoughtful, intelligently is one of the many descriptions of her. I Have you ever collaborated with other McQueen does have a very theatrical edge presented exhibit of a designer’s work received the most magnificent Christmas stylists and designers? to his costumes. I wish I had seen that show; that I’ve ever seen. Just beautiful. And in present from her – it’s an ear, a brass ear. Well, yes and no because all my assistants I would love to have seen how the clothes an art museum, where it should be. I’ve She’s fabulous and very French, even are designers in their own right, most of the moved because it’s everything to me how been studying her for years and years and though she has lived in America for many people in this room hold a Master of Fine clothing moves. Of course, Galliano is very I’ve seen various pieces in group shows years. She has a salon every Sunday that Arts in Costume Design. Most of them are inspiring, with those fabulous jewel objects and in fashion shows about Surrealism peo ple come to and sometimes she asks me in their twenties and thirties and I feed off that he creates. Everyone’s crazy about his but I had never seen a whole body of her to come in and sit on it but I’m too everybody’s inspiration. One of the things work. It’s amazing what he is doing, he has work. She really collaborated. Her intimidated to make comments, but people that I love about doing costume design is great imagination. Did you know that two friends Picasso and Salvador Dalì would come from around the world to show her that it is one of the great hand-made art years ago I presented a fashion line on 7th design prints for her fabrics. their work. I also go to galleries and I see forms that are still made by artisans, artists Avenue? I spent a year working on it and Susan Egan and Adam Pascal in Cabaret things and of course you can’t but absorb and craftspeople, from the wigmakers to the presented during fashion week and I called How much time do you require to set things through the skin if you live in an shoemakers, everything is made by hand. I it “Evening into Overnight”. And I have up a show? How do you organize the environment. I read five newspapers a day. I mainly do live theatre so it’s very important designs ready for ladies’ clothing and work? read the “New York Times”, the “Daily for me to know and work on things that will lingerie. Because I spent so many years I have worked on a show as long as a year u c r a M

n a o J

: o t o h P and as little as three months. It really all depends on how organized the director is and when they want to get started. When you do an opera you routinely spend a year or more planning it because there are so many considerations before the actual opening because it has to work in repertory and it has to fit in to an entire season. But I don’t really do many operas. We did a big production that has just completed its tenth season: A Christmas Carol, at Madison Square Garden. I have over 500 costumes so for that we worked on a year to do. I routinely do Broadway musicals and I would say six months is a good time to design and construct. I would love to say I have six months but it’s not always the case. Three months is a little more like it, which is awfully rushed because that only gives you six weeks to design it and six The Music Man,Pic k a Little Ladies (Left to Right) - Leslie Hendrix as Alma Hix; Ruth Williamson as Mrs. Shinn; Ann Brown as Mrs. Squires; Martha Hawley as Maud Dunlap weeks to make it. It’s cutting it pretty close. I must tell you the reality of most projects; when the funding finally comes together sometimes you just have to say production number. I do it like this because reference. The draper will start in a muslin a show. The largest number of costumes I go, start. But I would prefer a six-month I find that directors and choreographers and we do a mock-up and I work on the made was 750, for A Christmas Carol. period. How do I organize the work? I love to know what that whole number is form with the draper. My training is in These are clothes that have to be lived in, first meet with the director and the going to look like. I think I have created cutting and draping, which gives very eight shows a week, for… ever. Every choreographer and I bring no references this method. Sometimes, after these architectural clothes. In the first fitting I consideration is made for wearability, or sketc hes, I come with an open mind, thumbnails I am able to do large individual always change everything when I have the movability and ‘lastability’. We make having nothing except having read the sketches but more often than not I just have human body wearing it. I think it’s one of copies; on very difficult clothes for dance script. The second time I come with either to make these clothes from the thumbnails. the reasons that designing for the world of that get a lot of stress we do triplicates. little sketches or with lots of books and I do spend a lot of time on them but I fashion was so perplexing to me because I For Hugh Jackman in The Boy from Oz references and probably with some ideas. pretend they’re just little quickies, was designing for a theoretical person in on Broadway, he has triplicates of his The third time I come in with thumbnail therefore they come effortlessly, and I’ll do the fashion world. My excitement is shirts and pants and other clothes because sketches and I really have the entire the really beautiful sketch later! Well, having the live human being in front of me he never leaves the stage and these show sketched, every single listen, they seldom come. Sometimes I’ll wearing this piece of kinetic fabric, fabric clothes get a real beating. They’re costume. I sketch them on long do a new sketch and just glue it right on top that moves in space. Imagining who that supposed to look like he took them off the pieces of paper that I tape of the old one and then I staple fabric person might be was beyond me, I couldn’t coat hanger and just put them on. They’re together and I sketch them choices to them and that ends up becoming figure it out. Now I understand how certain made of silk, and I use a lot of silk. I would scene by scene. I can the document for the production. It’s a very fashion designers have muses – it’s more say that silk is my favourite because it’s the have this paper up to organic way of creating a piece and this than a muse, it’s someone who can excite toughest fabric. I find it’s stronger than eight feet long, kind of storyboard has something to do them by wearing these garments - but I cotton and survives drycleaning – and I put the lead with my set designer training. I colour- hadn’t figured that out! In tha t first fitting drycleaning is our greatest enemy because in the middle xerox each of the figures and put it into my in the muslin I usually have the fabrics on of all those chemicals – and especially if and the bible (the record of the production) and I bolts and I drape them over to see, but at you w ork with mixed fibres like polyester, principals take each of these colour-xeroxes to the times I reject those. I would say the most they have some beautiful polyester micro around this draper and we work with that many times crucial part of the process for me is that filaments, but they are slowly dissolved by lead and on each if it’s a period production. I bring xeroxes first fitting with the actor. And since I do drycleaning fluid, whereas the natural side I sprinkle out of a detail of a hemline or a neck detail and a lot of shows with dance I really think of fibres like silk, cotton, wool and flax last Steel Pier everyone else who appears I’ll paper clip it behind each sketch everything as moving in space. I would so I try to use as many as those fibres as Jack Hayes and Elizabeth Mills on the stage during that scene or because drapers love to see period say I make at least 150-250 costumes for possible. I consider myself a very good O G

craftsman and I’ve studied with master you have a preferred colour palette or opened this fall, three in three months, can craftsmen but I still consider myself to be a typical style of expression? you imagine that? They were The Boy in training. Whenever anyone says to me Since you’re called The Scenographer, I From Oz, the Broadway premiere of Little A that it’s art I tell them that it’s art a hundred should just mention that my profession is Shop of Horrors, the Jerome Kern musical years from now - that’s if anyone second in line; the costumes serve the set. Never Gonna Dance, based on the Fred remembers - that’s when it’s art. Right You have to relate to the world that has Astaire and Ginger Rogers movie. Of the

now, it’s just what we do and it’s crafts. been created. The world must be created five non-profit productions: the Neil C The biggest assignment to yourself is to be first and then we people it, like the Bible. Simon play with Mary Tyler Moore, a very, very good craftsman. So, knowing Third, is the lighting design because they Rose’s Dilemma on Broadway; then your material and knowing the wait to see what we’ve all done: “Oh, there’s Paul Rudnick’s new play called

construction is really important. The art what a mess, I gotta come in and fix it!” Valhallah based on the life of the mad king I part is about 10%. And then there was light! For the colour Ludovic of Bavaria, which is at the New scheme I really do work with the set York Theatre Workshop, where Rent was Today’s craftsmen are ever more designer. I often use paintings. I have a created. We are having a first dress difficult to find and top quality xerox of the set design in front of me and rehearsal for Susan Strohman’s new ballet materials are scarce. How do you try to figure out colour schemes from for the New York City Ballet, and that’s a H manage to realize your designs to the this. One of my tricks is going to my fabulous piece called Double Feature; best effect? Do you commission work to books and my favourite paintings. They then I’m doing the revival of McArthur theatrical costume houses, small don’t necessarily have to relate in subject and Hecht’s Twentieth Century (not the artisans or haute couture costumiers? matter but I sometimes hold them up in musical) at the Roundabout Theatre. Now C Yes, I use all sorts of people to make the front of the set design and that’s how I that’s a strange hybrid because it’s called a clothes. Working in London really did figure out my colour scheme. I hold them Broadway show but it’s done in an off- change my outlook on craftsmanship. In upside sown so I’m not looking at what Broadway environment; in other words London they only have two main costume they are so my attention isn’t diverted to with off-Broadway fees and budgets! houses: Angels and Monty Berman the actual image, I’m just looking at the Then I’m following that with a fabulous Associates and everything else in made by colour. I remember when I was doing a production we’re doing in the Lincoln individual people working in their kitchens, revival of Guys and Dolls, about ten Center, another non-profit venue, of and they’re called costume makers. Leave it years ago. The great Tony Walton had Aristophenes The Frogs with music by to the British to use the simple English, done the scenery and it was Technicolor, Stephen Sondheim and direction and very pragmatic! When I was doing Crazy to be understated. So, I would bring all choreography by Susan Strohman, so for You , which was my first big project, I my books of Gauguin paintings of Tahiti, that’s really exciting. I’ve got various met with all these people, and I was used to which are very colourful, and hold them projects that I’m still working on for tours going to one shop for the whole duration of up to the sets. Gauguin helped me sort out and productions in different countries. the six weeks construction. Well, in London a colour scheme. So that’s how I designed I’ve just opened The Producers in Toronto you have to work with twenty different the colour for Guys and Dolls, turning and now we’re working on Hairspray in people and it was very difficult at first but Gauguin paintings upside down! And I Toronto; we’re working on The Producers over the years I have brought that back to even use the colours in the shadows. You and Hairspray for Sydney and Melbourne New York and now routinely I have six or should use everything because in every and we’re working on a production of The

G seven shops and people, if not more, painting there are certain colours that Producers for the Theatre Royal Drury working on each production. I try to steer it ‘pop’ and that artist will ‘talk’ to you, will Lane in London. And I’m getting ready to Nto what their specialty is. So, it means more show you what to look at. To talk about do my fifteenth and sixteenth productions

Otime for me in a taxi cab but I feel I get cross-pollination and interweaving, that of Chicago, of which there will be a Rome better work that way, I don’t overwhelm is one of my tricks of the trade: I steal! production and a Rio de Janiero Lone person or one shop and I get their Total theft! production. It’s exhausting but very interest because they don’t have to do exciting.

Yeverything. I learned that in London and I What productions involving your work must say that, by example, I do believe I are currently running on Broadway Ehave shifted the way we do it over here and elsewhere? What new productions

Vnow. are you currently working on? I’m doing five non-profit productions in a IHow does your very personal way of row now. I had three Broadway musicals bringing a show to life come about? Do 40 ROBERT WILSON WITHOUT LIGHT THERE IS NO SPACE by Sue Jane Stoke r obert Wilson is a unique figure in the modern theatre. Fusing visual and performance art, he paints with light on the ceyclorama and on the bodies of the performers with the skill and subtlety of a Renaissance master. The spectator struck by the overwhelming beauty of the final effect has no idea of the long, laborious hours spent experimenting with intensity and balance to create it. For every new light look, Wilson spends hours in the darkened theatre, studying the variations caused by adding four points of intensity to the greens illuminating the cyclorama from below, by adding six points, by adding eight points, before Whatever I do, whether it’s an finally settling on an additional seven points of intensity as the perfect blend with the 39 degrees of intensity coming from the installation in a museum or a cool blues above. The lesson one learns in working with Wilson is, as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe said, “God is in the details,” (or, if you will, the closest to perfection we can manage). Over the years many people have commented on his amazing gallery, or a work in the versatility. Is Robert Wilson a theatre director and designer, a painter, an architect, a designer of unique furniture, glassware, theatre, or an architectural jewelry, a sculptor? He is all of these and more. He approaches each of these fields bringing with him his experience in all project, I always start with fields. How does an architect design for theatre? How does a theatre director create a piece of jewelry, or a painting? He has also embraced an extraordinary range of styles from American vaudeville to Japanese Noh theatre, opera to jazz to cabaret; his light first. Without light, there theatrical works show the stylistic influence of film noir, Mapplethorpe and photographic portraits of the great divas of the past is no space. For example, I century. As a visual artist, his personal collection includes artwork, vases, chairs, tables, from all over the world, antiques from was h aving some glass made Bali, from China, from Africa, the most modern work being done today by young Russian, Cuban, African, European, American artists and everything in between. All of these are looked at, pondered, absorbed, transmuted by the alchemy of his artistry into in M arseilles, based on something that is a new form, all his own. Paul Schmidt, a friend of Wilson’s from his school days, likened Wilson’s work to desig ns I made nine years the late 18th/early 19th century form of tableaux vivant, in which performers and scenic elements were placed and lit to create a living painting, often a recreation in the flesh of a historical work. In considering this idea, theatre artist Ivan Nagel ago. I saw, looking at the commented that the fundamental difference between these historical tableaux and Robert Wilson’s theatre is that he is always early drawings, that they working with time, “…unlike a painter, he creates his pictures in time.” He has found a way in the theatre to create the were not so much about the paradoxical combination of the frozen perfection of the visual arts with a constant awareness of the passage of time. design of an object as about an idea of lig ht. Later they transformed themselves into something that was three dimensional, an object – but it started with the feeling of light, what was the light going to be, that was what created the object, the space for the object. Einstein on the Beach, the opera I did with Philip Glass, if one looks at the early drawings, lighting was not something we added two weeks before we opened, it was a fundamental part of the work from the first day, it was in the structure, the architecture of the piece

Robert Wilson Photo: Ruth Walz Einstein on the Beach, Paris, December 1992 Photo: F.Brandini - T. De Tullio Death, Destruction & Detroit II , Schaubuhne Theater, Berlin 1987 COLLABORATION AND HUMOR AS KEY ELEMENTS IN WILSON’S

ver the years Robert Wilson has gesture and strange, dream-like images are bcollaborated with some of the most an important part of his work, humor of all interesting artists in every field: sorts has an equally important place. The director/choreographers such as Meredith art of Wilson finds its strength in contrasts, Monk, Andrew de Groat, Suzushi and moments of great tranquility and beauty Hanayagi, and Lucinda Childs; writers, are made all the more poignant by among whom William Burroughs, Heiner juxtaposition with humor that often could Müller, Umberto Eco, Jean-Claude van be described as slapstick. Itallie, Marguerite Duras, Susan Sontag; composers such as Philip Glass, Hans Peter In fact, in Wilson’s work, one sees the Kuhn, Tom Waits, Lou Reed, David Byrne, profound impact of such unexpected art Michael Galasso and Ryuichi Sakamoto; forms as vaudeville, silent film comedy, fashion designers Giorgio Armani, Kenzo, traditional American soft shoe and cabaret. Louis Vuitton, Gianni Versace, and Donna As in his relation with people, Wilson’s lack Karan; great performers in every discipline of snobbery and pretension, and openness to such as Jessye Norman, Fiona Shaw, see what there is of value in forms that Isabelle Hupert, Miranda Richardson, and others dismiss as “low” gives his work a Dominique Sanda to name just a few. richness and variety that is always fresh and surprising. His omnivorous gaze takes in Each of these people, and many others, has everything around him and processes it all brought to Wilson’s world a new and unique through the filter of his aesthetic, creating a sensibility and artistry, and often the traces new form that retains clear traces of its roots of their contributions continue to linger on while taking its place as part of Wilson’s in his work even after the initial repertoire. collaboration has ended. Sound is one of the media through which This is a reflection of one of Wilson’s Wilson’s sense of humor finds expression. greatest strengths as an artist: his openness Often the stillness and seriousness of a to people, his ability to listen to others’ ideas scene’s movement will be contrasted or and see their strengths and their subverted by a sound score of roosters personalities, and to incorporate them into crowing, sheep baaing, bangs, crashes and his world and his vision in a way that at silly effects. Language itself mutates; once celebrates the original artist and yet starting from a neutral, simple delivery remains true to his own aesthetic. without emotion it becomes fragmented. Some words are drawn out, broken up into He also has a great gift for transmitting his stuttered bits, screamed, wailed, interrupted enthusiasm for a project to all those as the speaker begins to bark or make involved. He involves people in his vision animal cries. Then suddenly, in the midst of on a very personal level, seeing what unique an almost incomprehensible tangle of contribution they might make to a work, and words, or of a slowly spoken, clearly conveying to them his personal sense of enunciated and emotionally uninflected excitement and urgency at the birth of a new passage, a very banal conversation in an creation. All who get caught up in the whirl everyday tone rings through: “How are of a Wilson production have experienced you?” “I am fine.” “What did you do this the heady sensation of making an morning?” “I got up. What did YOU do irreplaceable contribution to something that this morning?” And it is exactly its is new and vital. mundane quality that makes it shocking, and funny. Thus, in a subtle, nonjudgmental People who know Robert Wilson’s work way, Wilson draws our attention to the only by reputation tend to think of him as an absurdity of everyday life. austere, deeply serious artist. Yet, while it is Photo:Niklaus Stauss true that the slowing down of time and Wilson’s theatre might be said to be a

Lohengrin, Zurich, 1991 n o i t a Y d n u o Born in Waco, Texas in 1941, Robert Wilson’s theatre, marked theatre of extremes. As it is with language sound is another, the text yet another. He was F R which is extremely slow and uninflected or at inspired by the working process of Merce n by his signature glowing cycloramas that give a sense of infinite a m air and space and light might easily be seen as a tribute to the vast the other extreme speeds up until it breaks Cunningham and John Cage, in which the f f flat plains and wide horizons of his childhood. During his years at down into barks and cries, so too is it with music for a piece would be composed O o H the University of Texas , Wilson worked for the first time as a movement: some things are drawn out in completely separately from the creation of d r teacher of brain-damaged children – a thread seemingly unrelated extreme slow motion, others are speeded up the movement, and at the end the two T y B but in reality quite central to his development as an artist. He or repeated obsessively. In general the elements would be put together without any f o himself as a child suffered from a speech impediment, of which he expression of emotion, of normal human adjustment; left to find their own moments of S y experience, is dealt with either in a highly serendipitous coming together and other s was cured when he was 17 years old by a dance instructor who also e I t worked with brain-damaged children, Miss Byrd Hoffman. Speaking restrained, stylized way (a gesture Wilson points in which they function without r u discovered in the very formal Japanese Noh reference to each other. However, Wilson o of her influence on him and his art, Wilson said, “(She) talked to me C / about the energy in my body, about relaxing, letting energy flow theatre, a person’s tears represented by a always stressed that he finds this interesting H t n through…she would play piano and I would move my body. She didn’t hand, fingers closed together, held on an as a beginning tool, but for him there is a next e K watch…she never taught a technique, she never gave me a way to approach angle close to the eye, appears often in his step. All elements may be crafted separately, e i it, it was more that I discovered it on my own.” What he learned from Byrd work), or in a highly exaggerated manner, in but in the end there is the intensive tech h F c r Hoffman was to have a profound impact on his approach to his own theatrical screams, howls, and wild uncontrollable period in the theatre in which all elements are A : o creations. laughter. The human form itself is often elaborated together. In his theatre, if there is t o E h Wilson moved to New York City in 1962 to study design and architecture at the exaggerated – one sees in many Robert contrast or contradiction, it is chosen, as P Pratt Institute and began almost immediately creating theatre works that were Wilson shows human figures that are surely as the moments of integration. I impossibly tall and thin, three times as tall as unlike anything previously seen. In 1963 he spent time in Paris studying painting any human could ever be, and next to them Over the years, in constructing the “mega with George McNeil, an American abstract expressionist, and continued working walk impossibly short, fat men. Costumes installation” that is his world, the myriad of R as a physical therapist for brain-damaged children and as a coordinator of theatre are used to create impossible effects, but individual works that together make up the programs for pre-schoolers, paraplegics, and iron-lung patients. He said of his early Wilson also casts people of extreme great, single work that is the summation of B work, “What I am doing – in painting, design, dance, electronic music – are happenings. Very few are predetermined. They have an order and a time limit, yes, physicality, an 8’ tall man opposite a 4’10 Robert Wilson, he has built up a roster of woman. collaborators to aid him in the elaboration of perhaps even a roug h outline, but what happens just happens. When painting I let the the web of controlled chaos over which he paint take over…the response is emotional instead of rational.” Early in his career, Robert Heiner Müller, a frequent collaborator and a rules. As a great orchestra conductor chooses A Wilson gathered together a group of artists and actors that became known as the Byrd writer whose work had a great impact on his musicians, and, knowing their unique Hoffman School of Byrds, named as a tribute to Miss Byrd Hoffman. This group Wilson, says in Howard Brookner’s very gifts and voices, places them and coordinates collaborated with him on some of the works that brought him international attention. One of interesting documentary Robert Wilson and them for maximum effect to allow each one his early successes was Deafman Glance, based on a collaboration between Mr. Wilson and the Civil WarS, “We must realize that to shine, so does Wilson shape his world. Ra ymond Andrews, a deaf-mute boy he had adopted. It toured throughout Europe and (Wilson) had a very lonely childhood in Waco, received the French Critics Award for Best Foreign Play. Following this recognition, in 1972 Texas. Now he plays with the theatre’s Those not part of this world often have the he was invited to make a piece for the Shiraz Arts Festival in Iran. This allowed him to create machinery and with the actors like a child.” impression, seeing a work by Robert Ka Moutain and Guardenia Terrace, a performance that lasted for seven days and nights without Like a child he is fascinated by animals, Wilson, that he is a cold, remote genius, pause and was performed on seven hills in Iran. Subsequently he began collaborating with images of animals, people dressed as animals, plotting each detail alone in his ivory Christopher Knowles, an autistic 14-year-old. Knowles first performed with Wilson in The Life acting like animals, making sounds like tower and emerging to impose them and Times of Josef Stalin, and was a key collaborator on A Letter for Queen Victoria. Wilson and animals as a child does, playing. arbitrarily on those around him. This is Knowles toured together in five Dia Log pieces, a series of duets they wrote and performed together far from the truth. Wilson works best between 1974 and 1980. In 1976 Robert Wilson collaborated with Philip Glass to create Einstein on In creating a show, Wilson thinks always of in the presence of others; he finds the Beach, an opera that is considered a seminal work in the modern theatre and changed the definition rhythm and contrast. So, within a scene inspiration by surrounding himself of opera. He was then invited, in 1979, to create a work for Peter Stein’s Schaubuhne Theatre in Berlin. extremes of physical and emotional with artists, scholars, children, and Death, Destruction, and Detroit, created in Berlin, would become the first part of a trilogy, the second part representation may alternate, and in the students. He encourages all to of which was premiered in Berlin in 1988, and the final part in New York City in 1999 (The Days Before overall structure of a show, one scene will play speak up, and as the ideas bounce – death, destruction and detroit III). By this time he was conceiving, directing and designing video and off another, a scene of great tranquility and back and forth, he catches theatre pieces for major theatres throughout Europe, and creating museum installations, often inspired by and beauty followed by one of wild, crazy humor. something said here, something highlighting the unique furniture seen in his theatre works and the developmental sketches that are a vital part said there, somehow sees a of his process of creation. In 1981 he began work on the CIVIL warS, a gigantic work with sections made in Wilson of ten speaks of creating parallel connection, starts sketching a many countries, each touring separately. The first part to premiere was seen in 1983 in Holland, followed by tracks that go along together but do not design, or finds the sections opening in Germany, Italy and the United States. necessarily relate to or enhance one another. inspiration for a series of Thus, the actors’ movement is one track, the movements.

Portrait of Robert Wilson on his Queen Victoria Chair, 1991 ROBERT WILSON’S THEATRICAL INSTALLATIONS G. A. Story, 1996

the Golden Lion award for sculpture. In “Anna’s Room”, seen as part of “Stanze e Segreti” (Rooms and Secrets) at the Rotonda della Besana in Milan in 2000, the viewer entered a room filled with enormous tree trunks planted in rough, springy soil. The trunks were so wide that they vanished into the mist hovering above, giving a sense of tremendous height. The floor had been built up in such a way as to give the sensation that around the edges space fell away into nothing and light shone out from the ground. The air was filled with the natural sounds of a forest, water dripping, bird cries, and the voice of a woman speaking German in broken words and phrases (Edith Clever reciting Meroe’s monologue from Kleist’s Penthesilea). A woman dressed in a stylized Victorian dress, another reincarnation of the Byrdwoman, walked slowly through the space, stray gleams of light catching now her face, now her hand. Above the spectator, a tiny window shone with light, and above the forest floor floated a tiny white bed caught in a ray of light.

In 2001, as part of the first Bienal de Valencia in Spain. Wilson designed the mega-structure for the “Russian Madness” installation. Working with a group of 14 young Russian artists to whom he had been introduced by curator Victor Misiano, he filled the vast Atarazanas building with an amazing, colorful interpretation of the Volga River as the G. A. Story , 1996 wild heart of Russia. He created a Photo:T. De Tullio dramatic path of sharp contrasts, heightening the viewer’s experience of each part of the journey by playing it lthough this publication is primarily In 1993, representing the United States at easily manipulated worker devoid of against what had come before. given a very rigid time structure by the ceiling, suspended knee-high. Tgeared towards an examination of theatre, the Venice Biennale, he created memory. The viewer entered a large room Wilson, but within that structure left the it is nevertheless interesting to lo ok at “Memory/Loss”, a work inspired by a letter whose floor was covered with cracked, Seen from the outside, the Atarazanas is a freedom to interpret his dictates as they Coming to a low doorway, the visitor Robert Wilson’s installations, as his Heiner Müller had written him describing a dried mud. In the distance one saw the medieval building in rough brown stone. would. Passing through this kinetic, looked out at a solid white wall that approach to them is highly theatrical. He Mongolian torture in which a subject was bust of a person buried, head wrapped in In front of the door, Wilson set a futuristic, noisy, hyper-modern chaos, the viewer blocked the view of the next room. views an installation as a stage setting deprived of memory by being buried to his the strange device. This sculpture was silver-colored “beehive” through which entered a long corridor, dim and low- Entering, one suddenly found oneself in shaped by objects, lighting and sound, shoulders in the earth, with a tight fresh modeled on Wilson himself. The air was the viewer passed to enter the installation. ceilinged, papered completely, walls, floor an enormously wide, high, open space through which the viewer travels. Thus, animal skin wound around his head. As the filled with strange sounds, cries, and Within the beehive were hundreds of and ceiling, with black and white through which ran a series of banquet viewing one of his installations might be sun dried the skin, it tightened and forced voices speaking fragments from Müller’s television monitors, rising up in arches to wallpaper renderings of the artists’ works. tables holding the remains of a feast, said to be the most intimate way to the hairs into the scalp. If a person letter in a sound installation developed by the ceiling. These monitors showed The corridor was lit by a series of naked spilled wine, dirty plates, monitors experience the theatre of Robert Wilson. survived this treatment, he would b e an Hans Peter Kuhn. This installation won videos designed by the 14 artists, each light bulbs dangling on long cords from showing wedding celebrations. These WILSON’S WORKING PROCESS

tables wound through the space, creating Photo:Basil Langton the image of the Volga, and above and Over the years, Robert Wilson has perfected a method of working that enables him to produce, year after year, a phenomenal amount of new around them the colorful, energetic and work, all with a level of refinement and detail reached by few other living artists. He often works at top speed; he can walk very quickly through six beautifully realized works of the Russian complicated patterns meant to be followed by six dancers simultaneously. His lightening fast sketches, recorded by video camera and by hand by artists joined together to create a visual his assistant directors, when later set on the six dancers, fit together seamlessly to create a three dimensional geometry that previously had existed celebration. The works of the various only in his mind. There is a spontaneity and grace to his way of creating, an openness and trust in the rightness of his instincts that is justified by artists were joined in a unified whole by the results. This seemingly effortless first step, however, is far from the end of the process; it is in fact the beginning of a long and minutely detailed the sound and light installation designed series of corrections, additions, simplifications, and elaborations that never ends until the work has opened, and often not even then; a work on by Wilson. tour is likely to continue to be subjected to the scrutiny of his perfectionist’s eye. In confronting problems of design, sudden flashes of inspiration Recently he was given a similar challenge cut through the Gordian knot – a tiny airplane that enters a boy’s room created by a box of sheer white fabric set in the middle of a large, empty for the “Imagining Prometheus” installation stage, passes easily through the window. On the other side, it arrives at a solid fabric wall. It is meant to exit. After long discussions of complicated in the Palazzo della Ragione in Milan. He technical solutions that might not work, Wilson suddenly picks up a pencil and, taking the sketch that shows the small plane suspended in the middle was asked to create an overarching of the stage, adds a flame surrounding it. “She lights it on fire and it burns and drops to the floor.” This sort of leap of imagination into a world installation into which the installation where the rules are shaped to be broken is characteristic of Wilson. The normal development of a theatre piece, opera or dance takes place over a works of seven other artists could be set, series of three to five workshops. The first workshop, the design workshop, focuses on the dramaturgy and stage design. For Wilson, it is important in such a way as to present a unified to begin with a dramaturgical structure, something geometrical in which to ground his ideas. For example, a piece may de divided into four acts landscape through which the viewer could which are separated by three knee-plays (a term coined by Wilson during the development of Einstein on the toBeach indicate a small scene travel, appreciating both the overall effect, that connects two larger acts, just as the knee connects the upper and lower parts of the leg), and each act is then subdivided into two scenes. This and the individual pieces for their own geometry is coupled with the idea of a cyclical three part recurring structure, three “types” of scenes that are referred to as A, B and C. The result sakes. In discussing his approach to this is the following graphic structure: work, Wilson commented, “The essential challenge was, I think, designing two ACT I ACT II ACT III ACT IV different kinds of spaces, or landscapes, Scene A Knee-play 1 Scene C Knee 2 Scene B Knee 3 Scene A one interior and one exterior, and in Scene B Scene A Scene C Scene B making a megastructure, in the sense that Scene C it has its own aesthetic, but it doesn’t interfere with other people’s ideas and In some way, all A’s will relate to one another stylistically, all B’s and so forth. In this way, in the first three acts one experiences every possible paired aesthetics, that it isn’t something that is combination, and in the final act there is a synthesis. This almost architectural approach to the artistic process creates a perhaps arbitrary structure bombastic, that it creates an ambience within which the imagination can work freely. This is another hallmark of a Wilson production, the constant tension between a highly formal outer without imposing my aesthetic on the structure that contains within itself a world freed from traditional theatrical devices and realism. Having understood the essence of a scene, Wilson other’s contribution.” The theme of this executes a series of quick sketches that capture elegantly and simply its overall architecture, proportion and lighting. As he has said many times, the installation, Prometheus – light and fire in light is not something that is added months later in the theatre; it is a vital part of the way of imagining the scene from the beginning, a protagonist human myth and culture, interpreted as important as any portrayed by a human actor. By the end of this phase, the basic overall design and dramaturgical structure for the piece will through Wilson’s vision became a lunar have been set. The next phase is a series of staging workshops, in which Mr. Wilson sketches out the movements of the piece and in the course landscape, filled with strange plants and of this refines the basic design and creates sketches and mock-ups to detail the design of props, furniture and costumes. In a Wilson show, every rocks, television monitors glowing, half chair, every flower, every architectural detail has been thought about and chosen. Nothing is standard. The beauty and power of the whole is a buried in the piles of lava sand that filled reflection simultaneously of one driving vision and a meticulous eye for detail. Sometimes in creating the movement for a scene, Mr. Wilson will the Palazzo, displaying images of the earth use his own body as the brush painting movement on the canvas of the stage’s empty space. After listening to an aria once through, he asks to seen from the heavens, meteor showers, have it replayed. He stands motionless on stage, eyes closed, finding the calm space within. When he is ready, he signals for the music. As it starts, galaxies spinning. Visitors followed a he becomes for that moment Don Jose dreaming of Carmen, Amneris mourning the loss of Radames, the unkind young man abandoning his path of rough shredded rubber that wove lover in Cocteau’s The Human Voice. It is a magic experience to be present at this moment of alchemy in which music, story and an artist’s mind through the space, leading them to the fuse. The final phase takes place in the theatre. It is here that the show assumes the form in which it will be seen by the public. At a certain point various artists’ light and fire inspired in the process, for Wilson it is no longer useful to look at isolated elements. The final synthesis only happens on stage with all the pieces assembled creations. The overall effect, on entering – lights, scenery, costumes, performers, music, video. To create a new theatre work or opera can demand as much as 80 hours of lighting rehearsal. N the huge, dim room, was of seeing a solar This may seem extreme to one who has not seen the process, but every minute passed in the darkened theatre has its impact on the realized vision. N O system, strange and beautiful planets An interesting aspect of Mr. Wilson’s theatre is that, for all of its emphasis on technology – to look at a retrospective of his theatre work is to see O hovering above an otherworldly the growing possibility of precision and an approach to perfection granted by the ever-more-complex technology in lighting, sound, video and S S landscape. The sound and light computer coordination – in the end, the theatre of Robert Wilson is an extremely human world. All the effects of light, sound, video, are intimately L component, also shaped by Wilson, gave linked to the actors’ movements; it is the technology that must follow the time of the actors, not the other way around. Here there is no click track L the journey through the space a that dictates pace to the performer. And he has always chosen his performers with an eye to who they are, and created the movement, costumes, Wdramaturgy, alternating periods of calm scenery and the rest around their personalities. Sheryl Sutton, a member of the Byrd Hoffman School of Byrds and one of his earliest stars W contemplation with wilder, more joyful outbursts. 52 Ka Mountain, Shiraz, 1996 53 Photo:Erik Hansen

imagined for Woyzeck, nothing is upright, geometry is distorted. All angles are extreme and walls and buildings tilt impossibly. Patches of light shining through doors are wrong – they do not match the shape of the frame, and such normally stable structures as houses are made of dark lines leaning against each other with no sense of order or logic; the walls are sheer fabric, giving the sense that the slightest wind could blow them away, destroying them. In an early scene, Woyzeck speaks a few lines. remiering in 2000 in Copenhagen, this His voice is calm, simple and human, as cpiece has had an enormous success and toured opposed to the others who sing and speak in a throughout Europe and to the United States. harsh, growling style accompanied by Its striking and beautiful design is the result of discordant instruments, or speak so calmly and a series of developmental workshops involving almost mechanically as to appear drained of all Wilson and a group of his long-time emotion until they break out in sudden collaborators: composer and lyricist Tom Waits screams that echo into the distance. The and Kathleen Brennan, co-director Ann costumes also emphasize Woyzeck’s difference Christin Rommen, adaptators Wolfgang Wiens from the others. He is shirtless or dressed and Ann Christin Rommen, Costume designer simply in white in a world of people clothed in Jacques Reynaud, and co-lighting designer A. J. bright colors and strange, fantastic shapes that Weissbard. The audience enters to see the are as striking in silhouette as they are in full show curtain on which the title Woyzeck light. Only his young son and his friend appears as if hand-lettered by Wilson. This use Andreas resemble him. of text from the piece or its title as part of the In Woyzeck, one sees the technological set design appeared first in A Letter formastery Wilson and his collaborators have Queen Victoriaalmost 30 years ago. By now achieved, and the advances made in light and Wilson’s admirers recognize his unique sound technology in the years since Wilson calligraphy. On the apron in front of the drop began his exploration of their possibilities. are a series of what seem to be strange, The beautiful cycloramas, the swift changes of distorted toys. The lights slowly pulse up and color, the syncronization of sound, light and down, highlighting now a wire rocking horse, movement, the pinpoint precision of a spot now a silver ball or globe. As the overture picking out a hand outlined in white makeup begins, they drift slowly offstage. A drum roll standing out starkly against a black cloth or a signals the start of the show and the lights white face glowing in a colored void – all of come up on a wildly colorful and kinetic these are elements Wilson has developed and painted backdrop before which stands a tall, perfected over the years, and in Woyzeckhe odd, white figure, a sort of carnival barker. As uses this vocabulary with absolute mastery. he calls for the audience’s attention, figures The house that Woyzeckshares with his wearing bright primary colors with stark white unfaithful wife Maria and their son is all off- faces and the exaggerated makeup of a silent kilter lines and distorted angles. The light fills

movie enter. Woyzeck, in contrast, wears only the space with extreme colors, harsh, acid and N simple dull pants, no shirt, no makeup. He neon. A few tender moments of unexpected arrives and runs in place desperately, going humanity are broken by a thunderclap that O

nowhere. A small boy dressed identically throws one figure into an arched shadow S wanders through the strange crowd onstage frozen against a yellow-green backdrop. looking curiously around. At the end of the In a later scene distorted windows float in the L scene the lights black out, leaving illuminated air at odd angles, and a pine tree that resembles I only a small monkey puppet who finishes the a child’s cut out in bright green paper lists at an song begun by the barker: “Misery is the River odd angle, and later unfolds to a great height. W of the World.” In the world Wilson has The air fills with unnatural noises, screeches 55 Photo:Erik Hansen

that sound like metal being twisted and warped; they seem to be the aural representation of Woyzeck’s growing confusion and despair as he realizes he is losing his wife. In a touching scene the pine tree, grown enormously tall, towers over the seated Woyzeck, and as he sings a love song, a crescent moon half embedded in the stage floor glides onstage. In sharp contrast, the next scene is the drum major’s seduction of Maria. Both are dressed in deep red, and the entire stage and cyclorama glow hot red. Maria is the perfect realization of the “hot and cold” vamp, at the same time a parody of and an homage to the classic screen divas. As the play progresses and Woyzeck slides further into despair and madness, the architecture becomes more and more distorted. Where before there was one house, now there is a whole town of distorted, sheer-cloth buildings. The world reflects a multiplication of disorder. In the midst of all this distorted geometry, there is one scene set in front of a simple white wall with a window and door, and here the lines are straight, verticals and horizontals. Woyzeck and Maria try to reconcile their differences. They reprise his love song as a duet, but as it goes on, their motions become jerkier, wilder and more mechanical, and their voices build up to a frantic scream that throws the stage into darkness. When the lights come up, the wall is gone, the stage is empty save for Woyzeck and Maria embracing silently center stage against a red sky. The red slowly bleeds to the top, leaving them silhouetted against white, and then abruptly flashes red again. The stage is once again plunged into darkness, and when the lights return we are back in front of the wall, the couple as they were at the moment of their scream. Woyzeck leaves. The following scene returns to a world of distorted buildings, houses falling upside-down from the sky. The work moves inevitably forward to the moment of Woyzeck’s murder of Maria. He leads her away from the house and child, out into an N empty void centered on a pool of white light. OThey stretch their hands towards each other, Sreaching across the pool but unable to meet. L

IAs he slowly forces her down into the pool, holding a huge stylized knife over her, a giant Wblack circle descends from above, gradually blotting out the white sky. As she slowly settles 56