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.