More Dream Pics

Aronson's "The Stage is a Dangerous Machine" Analysis

-          Not only is there physical danger, but there’s also an artistic danger as well, such as designs being jarring, disconnecting, and displeasing to the audience. This is why Tyspin takes into account that his designs should have a balance between being visually aesthetic, but also shocking to the audience.

 

-          Tyspin’s best use of steel in his designs was when he did “The Electrification of the Soviet Union”, in which he designed a metal that was very flexible and put foam on it so that the actors could throw themselves against it without any danger of hurting themselves.

 

-          In Western architecture, you’re supposed to understand how the building is put together, while in Russian constructivism, it’s all about structure, or destroying the structure.

 

-          In Tyspin’s film design, he feels that space and color are the two most important factors to a film, and that props aren’t a complete necessity, because when a scene isn’t cluttered with stuff, then the scene’s space and color take over and set a feeling that you wouldn’t have otherwise if the scene had props scattered throughout it.

 

-          The art of drawing is important because the plan has to be beautiful in order for the building to be beautiful, but some designers don’t see it and make awkward scenes because of ugly ground plans.

 

-          When Tyspin did “War and Peace”, he had the setting as a globe on top of a turntable at the front of the stage to get the feeling into the audience that the world is on the edge of a precipice. It was exciting for him because he could see the balance between physical danger and theatrical danger.

 

-          He feels that, for the most part, productions are made too safe and cautious when the theater is actually driven by danger, and theater wouldn’t exist without it.

Baugh's "Scenography as a Machine for Performance" Analysis

 

–        All theatre artists have had to (and still do) contend with the complicated inter-relationship between the real-time existence of the living performers and the physical actuality of their surroundings- their place of performance.

 

–        The metaphor of the scene as a machine- as a physical construct that theatrically locates and enables the public act of performance (creates the setting and a location for the story to work with)

 

–        Neher distinguishes between the designer of a stage picture, which cannot in any sense be real, because it imitates an earlier reality, and the construction of a place on the stage that has its only significant reality at the moment of performance, and therefore has a true theatrical reality.

 

–        [Gordon] Craig was concerned to emphasize the mechanical reality of the stage construction that he proposed- For the foremost characteristic of this scene is that it is… a solid three-dimensional unit which adapts itself to the actor’s movements a group of screens which stand up by themselves.

 

–        Instead of reproductions in theater (which can be impossible to do), representations can be used instead to get the point across.

 

Design aesthetic is not determined by style but by the purpose and functionality of an object

Borges "The Metaphor" Analysis

-          The amount of viable metaphors is staggering

-          Argentine poet Lugones thought that poets were often using the same metaphors, so he decided to create metaphors of his own for the moon

-          Lugones also stated, “that every world is a dead metaphor”

-          When using a word we often forget that they are metaphors for meanings that we don’t often think about

-          The ordering of the words in a metaphor often cause the reader to take away different meanings (patterns can be the same, but meanings are different)

-          Patterns- endless time, brutal word negated by the use of a beautiful/peaceful one, life being a dream (“Have I dreamt my life, or was it a true one?” –Walther von der Vogelweide)

-          What is really important is the fact not that there are a few patterns, but that those patterns are capable of almost endless variation.

Environmental Design Pics

Building our Set Design

Our Interview With Miles Hardbarger

This is our complete interview with Miles Hardbarger, a designer for Ballyhoo Productions.

1. What was the first play you worked on, and what kind of work was involved?

Well in all honesty, my first show was my high school's production of "42nd Street" although that wasn't my first time being a "help me" guy. I got my start in the field of trade shows. Just for clarity, stage hands have three businesses they can work in; movies, trade shows and theater.
So when I started working on "42nd Street" I was only doing fix-it things and making things easier for the actors. It wasn't much of a job I admit, but it was a good opening into the theater world.

 

 

2. How many years of experience do you have working in the theater?

I really don't have that many years in the field of theater, only six or so. But as I said before I learned everything I know from the old school trade show guys.

 

 

3. How many productions have you been a part of?

Productions, now that is a broad word. Assuming you're talking about theater productions, it would have to say 8 including the One Act Festivals and various musicals and plays. But if you make it a very broad word and include trade shows, then the answer would be more than I can count with my fingers and toes.

 

 

4. What was the funniest experience you've had on stage?

Being as I am stage crew, I have never been on stage to have a funny moment. Although backstage I have had many. I couldn't say which was the funniest, but there were a lot of funny moments during the most recent show I worked, A Christmas Carol at Notre Dame de Namur University. Though most of the fun things we did were after the show, we had a lot of fun hunting down other members of the crew with airsoft guns.

 

 

5. How did you like working as a set designer?

Boy, I absolutely loved working as a set designer. I would keep it up if the economy were better. Having that freedom to go about things the way you see fit is a most satisfying experience. Taking an idea and making it into magic...it's great.

 

 

6. If you could work on any play, what play would that be?

Honestly I would love to do my own version of Noises Off. It's one of my favorite plays. It would be a bit of a challenge, with the rotating set that is supposed to be two stories tall, but I would love to explore some new possibilities with the set and try to make something work.

 

 

7. If you could produce and design your own shows for a living, would you?

I would absolutely love to design sets for a living, though I wouldn't like to produce shows. I've seen what the stress does to producers, I don't want to be that person. I'm just a shop guy, building is what I do.

 

 

8. How long does designing one show take, start to finish?

Well, starting time is when a director comes to you with the name of the play and the idea in a form of a napkin drawing. From there you can only go up. As for the finish part, well, that's when the show closes, because someone always wants something done differently.

 

 

9. How many different directors have you worked with?

I honestly don't know how many directors I've worked with, most of them act the same towards the crew, which isn't too kindly, so I don't really care much for them. Some of them are great people and understand what the crew has to take care of, the others can go to hell.

 

 

10. What was your favorite thing about working onstage?

Well, as I have said before, I don't work 'on stage', I work back stage. But I don't really have a favorite thing that I did, I loved it all. But if I just had to pick one thing, it would have to be the crew, you become a family and that's one of the most wonderful things you can have.

Our Environmental Design Proposal

Our environmental design proposal is to create a Recycle Tree. Each member in our group is going to look around their living spaces and find recyclable items from their daily lives that come from trees (items such as paper, cardboard, wood, etc…) We will then as a group, go into the forest at Oaks path and select a tree that we all agree is ideal to arrange our recyclable objects on. We plan to use a variety of recyclables and display them in an innovative and aesthetically pleasing way. We picked Oaks path because multitudes of students walk this path everyday and we want our design to be accessible to everyone before we take it down. We plan to wait for a clear day when the weather and lighting (to take pictures) will be perfect. Our visual statement is about the importance of preserving the environment by recycling and the way that recycling creates a “circle of life” because all the things we decorate the tree with are things that have actually come from nature.

Some more of our collages

Some of our dreams' settings

Can Media and Theater Speak the Same Language?

-Theater from its beginnings was fascinated with technology, creating mechanisms that made objects and actor move of their own volition. (i.e. defy gravity)

 

-Since 1920s new components of technology have been used in theater: projection, film,

and video

 

-The placement of technology and imagery on the stage is tantamount to carrying on a conversation in two languages

 

-Projected Scenery, film, and video do not work in the theater (Author’s Feeling)

 

-Philosopher Martin Heidegger notes, “The essence of technology is by no means anything technological.” Its importance lies in its reordering of perception and is thus subject to a range of political, social, and economic influences.

 

-Viewer understands that actor belongs in fictive and real time. But the use of projection causes a disjunction between the projection and the stage frame.

 

 -The use of space and volume on stage can imply time

 

-A stage set is relatively permanent and unchanging

 

-When using film on a stage, the self-contained world of stage is suddenly interrupted by a live animated image, which has a different point of reference. (The two are subjected to vastly different interpretations)