The Bauhaus
Stage
- In
1925, Bauhaus, a school in Germany, developed a new theatre building with a
specially designed theater stage that looked like a cube. This he called a
Black Box Theater, which incorporated alternative lighting, screens, steps, and
curtains.
-
Another special type of theater that coincided with this was Molnar’s
U-Theater. This stage was actually made up of four stages including one above
center stage, like a balcony, to resemble a picture frame.
Retrieved from: www.steinhardt.nyu.edu
Frederick
Kiesler
-
In 1922, Frederick Kiesler introduced motion picture onto a backdrop for the
first time using a mostly blank stage, a blank backdrop, and a small projector.
-
The moving pictures in the background of the performance added extra impressions
of realism onto the play such as feeling as though you were a part of the play.
Bauhaus
Touring Company
- In
1927, Bauhaus developed their own touring theatre company to “perform its works
wherever there [was] a desire to see them.”
-
Their works included Metal Dance,
which had black and white figures; Dance
in Space, which incorporated different dances to different shapes to different
colors; Game with Building Blocks, in
which a chain reaction toward each person built up into a powerful performance;
and the Dance of the Stage, which
distorted the bodies of the performers into absurd yet frightening images.
- The
Dessau Bauhaus school was closed down in 1932 but lives on to be a historical
center piece in Germany.
Retrieved from: www.clear-mind-meditation-techniques.com
Black Mountain
College, North Carolina
-
In 1933, Black Mountain incorporated the characteristics of Bauhaus school into
their theatre department, stating the arts are about how it is done, not what
it is about.
-
Schawinsky introduced a stage studies program that studied the fundamentals of
performance art: “space, form, color, light, sound, movement, music, time, etc.”
John Cage
& Merce Cunningham
- In
1937, John Cage was an aspiring experimental musician. He was fascinated in the
sounds of noises of daily life rather than actual instruments. He “played beer
bottles, flowerpots, cowbells..., dinner bells..., jawbones were banged, [and]
Chinese soup bowls tinkled.”
- His
most famous work became 4’33”, an
album dedicated to unintentionally created sounds. This inspired Cunningham to
produce a new dance company collaboration with Robert Rauschenberg.
Retrieved from: www.coveringthemouse.com
The New School
- In
1956, Rauschenberg combined the ideas of the many painters, photographers, directors,
musicians, and poets who joined the New School for Social Research to take
their art and make it unintentional, that which Cage did.
18 Happenings
in 6 Parts
- In
1959, Allan Kaprow opened 18 Happenings
in 6 Parts at the Reuben Gallery in New York, an art exhibit for live
performance art.
-
Guests could view live paintings, collages, and skits in a series of three
rooms separated by plastic walls with chairs arranged to face different
directions, where the artist wanted the audience to face and what the artist
wanted the audience to view.
Retrieved from: www.gopixpic.com
By: Bretten James
No comments:
Post a Comment