RSS
Home
Theater magic from the ground up: stage design at the Morgan
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
"Construction for a Tragedy" by Alexandra Exter, Russian. Circa 1925.
It all goes back to the Russians. I’m not talking about the Arms Race or the Cold War but American stage design. “Creating the Modern Stage: Designs for the Theater and Opera,” an engaging exhibit now at New York City’s Morgan Library & Museum, traces theatrical design from the Russian avant-garde to American theater in the 1960s. From Belarus-born painter Léon Bakst (1866-1924), who worked with theatrical impresario Sergei Diaghilev and the Ballet Russes, to émigré Eugene Berman (1899-1972), creator of the TV sets for the opera “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” this show of drawings and paintings makes clear how influential the Russians were in creating the theater as we know it today.
Two dramatically angular black and red designs for sets by avant-garde, constructivist artist Alexandra Exter (1882-1949), a sensuously evocative impressionist ballet backdrop by Konstantin Korovin (1861-1939), and a kinetic sketch for the opera, “The Golden Cockerel” by Nicolai Remisoff (1884-1975), are among the many striking drawings and paintings by Russians in the Morgan show. Taken together, the Russian works give glimpses into one of the world’s greatest theatrical traditions and show how many elements of that tradition migrated to the United States.
It didn’t hurt that the Russian Revolution and its aftermath coincided with a revolution in the Russian and European arts … or that the political upheavals displaced quite a number of theater artists who began in Moscow or Saint Petersburg and ended up in California or New York. Nicolai Remisoff, Serge Soudeikine and Eugene Berman are among the Russians represented in the Morgan exhibit who became designers for the American stage.
The Russians, however, were not the modern theater’s only ancestors—or even the earliest. The English, Swiss, Germans, Austrians and others also played important roles, and the show offers examples of work from numerous countries.
In an introductory section, the exhibit presents drawings and texts by British pioneer Edward Gordon Craig (1872-1966). Craig traveled to Moscow with his lover Isadora Duncan in 1908 and designed a production of “Hamlet” for director Constantin Stanislavski at the Moscow Art Theater, thereby planting cutting-edge continental design ideas in Slavic soil. His sketches at the Morgan, along with wall texts, suggest how much he and the somewhat older Swiss designer Adolphe Appia (1862-1928) influenced everything that was to come.
The work in this show, curated by Jennifer Tonkovich and Elizabeth Nogrady, is part of a much larger group of stage designs collected by Donald Oenslager, a scenic designer and professor at the Yale University School of Drama. The collection was given to the Morgan several years after Oenslager’s death in 1975.
Strong on beautiful visuals, but less strong on the cultural history and the stagecraft involved in theater, the exhibit offers an enticing introduction to one aspect of stage design. Along with the drawings and paintings, theatrical writings and photos of some of the actual productions are displayed. But the photos are small and often indistinct, so it is difficult for the non-professional to imagine how the artists’ conceptions were translated into real space in the theater.
The day I visited the show, a lively docent was leading a tour and discussing the artistic elements of these intriguing works. But she was as mystified as any of us about how the sketches might have been turned into actual performance spaces for actors, singers and dancers. Lucky for us, Don Padgett, a retired scenic artist from the Metropolitan Opera, happened to be on the tour and was happy to offer his real life insights.
I was impressed by Konstantin Korovin’s gorgeous watercolor and gouache design for a backdrop for Tchaikovsky’s “Sleeping Beauty” ballet. One glance at Korovin’s minimalist, Japanesey, green foliage; his wash of golden light in the background; and his loose, pastel-like strokes indicating dancers stage left; and you could see he was a master painter. But could a theater’s craftsmen possibly turn such a delicate meringue into a working backdrop?
“Absolutely,” said Padgett. “He’s got all the information you need right there.”
Padgett also pointed out that almost all the works in the show were simply the initial designs and indicated none of the hard, technical work necessary to execute the artists’ ideas. Next to come would be the floor plans, the front elevations and the scale construction drawings. More than just being a visionary painter, a stage designer must be a three-dimensional thinker and a precise draftsman.
As we stood in front of American scenic designer Lee Simonson’s watercolor and graphite street scene for Moliere’s “The School for Husbands” (1933), Padgett pointed out elements that none of the other works in the show contained—directions for the construction crew. Notes and measurements for the door frames were penciled into the margins. And a stamp in the center showed the design had been approved by the union.
Suddenly, the framed wall-art came alive for me in a different way. At last, I was able to imagine the process that transforms a visual idea into a living piece of theater.
“Creating the Modern Stage: Designs for Theater and Opera” will be at the Morgan through August 16, 2009.
The Morgan Library & Museum - 225 Madison Ave at 36th St. - New York, NY - 212 685-0008
If you’re interested in theater you may enjoy:
Costumes for Zeffirelli’s “Romeo & Juliet” visit New York
Anne Hathaway opens Shakespeare in the Park with “Twelfth Night”
Related Articles:
Comments
