Misplaced Pages

#843156

30-644: Joseph Urban (May 26, 1872 – July 10, 1933) was an Austrian-American architect, illustrator, and scenic designer . Joseph Urban was born on May 26, 1872, in Vienna . He received his first architectural commission at age 19 when he was selected to design the new wing of the Abdin Palace in Cairo by Tewfik Pasha . He became known around the world for his innovative use of color, his pointillist technique, and his decorative use of line. He designed buildings throughout

60-1859: A complete set of design drawings that include: In planning, scenic designers often make multiple scale models and renderings . Models are often made before final drawings are completed for construction. These precise drawings help the scenic designer effectively communicate with other production staff, especially the technical director , production manager , charge scenic artist , and prop master . In Europe and Australia , many scenic designers are also responsible for costume design , lighting design and sound design . They are commonly referred to as theatre designers, scenographers , or production designers. Scenic design often involves skills such as carpentry , architecture , textual analysis , and budgeting . Many modern scenic designers use 3D CAD models to produce design drawings that used to be done by hand. Some notable scenic designers include: Adolphe Appia , Boris Aronson , Alexandre Benois , Alison Chitty , Antony McDonald , Barry Kay , Caspar Neher , Cyro Del Nero , Aleksandra Ekster , David Gallo , Edward Gordon Craig , Es Devlin , Ezio Frigerio , Christopher Gibbs , Franco Zeffirelli , George Tsypin , Howard Bay , Inigo Jones , Jean-Pierre Ponnelle , Jo Mielziner , John Lee Beatty , Josef Svoboda , Ken Adam , Léon Bakst , Luciano Damiani , Maria Björnson , Ming Cho Lee , Philip James de Loutherbourg , Natalia Goncharova , Nathan Altman , Nicholas Georgiadis , Oliver Smith , Ralph Koltai , Emanuele Luzzati , Neil Patel , Robert Wilson , Russell Patterson , Brian Sidney Bembridge , Santo Loquasto , Sean Kenny , Todd Rosenthal , Robin Wagner , Tony Walton , Louis Daguerre , Ralph Funicello , and Roger Kirk . Theatre director A theatre director or stage director

90-411: A graduate programme based on the premise that directors are autodidacts who need as many opportunities to direct as possible. Under Fowler, graduate student directors would stage between five and ten productions during their three-year residencies, with each production receiving detailed critiques. As with many other professions in the performing arts, theatre directors would often learn their skills "on

120-697: A media tycoon, took notice and wanted to hire Urban to work on his films starring Marion Davies, his mistress, and previous Follies starlet. Hearst came to an understanding with his friend Ziegfeld that Urban's work for him would not interfere with any of the Follies productions. Urban worked on 25 films over the years. Urban died July 10, 1933, of a heart attack at his apartment at the St. Regis Hotel in Manhattan, where he had been convalescing following surgery in May. Urban

150-536: A team of creative individuals and other staff to coordinate research and work on all the aspects of the production which includes the Technical and the Performance aspects. The technical aspects include: stagecraft, costume design, theatrical properties (props), lighting design, set design, and sound design for the production. The performance aspects include: acting, dance, orchestra, chants, and stage combat. If

180-450: Is a professional in the theatre field who oversees and orchestrates the mounting of a theatre production such as a play, opera, dance, drama, musical theatre performance, etc. by unifying various endeavors and aspects of production. The director's function is to ensure the quality and completeness of theatre production and to lead the members of the creative team into realizing their artistic vision for it. The director thereby collaborates with

210-735: Is an art form that has grown with the development of theatre theory and theatre practice. With the emergence of new trends in theatre, so too have directors adopted new methodologies and engaged in new practices. Interpretation of the drama, by the late twentieth century, had become central to the director's work. Relativism and psychoanalytic theory influenced the work of innovative directors such as Peter Brook , Ingmar Bergman , Peter Stein , and Giorgio Strehler . Kimberly Senior, director of Disgraced on Broadway, explains her role as director by saying “I get to take things that were previously in one dimension and put them into three dimensions using my imagination and intellect and people skills.” Once

240-590: The Moscow Art Theatre in Russia and similarly emancipate the role of the director as artistic visionary. The French regisseur is also sometimes used to mean a stage director, most commonly in ballet . A more common term for theatre director in French is metteur en scène . Post World War II , the actor-manager slowly started to disappear, and directing become a fully fledged artistic activity within

270-666: The Yale School of Drama produced a number of pioneering directors with D.F.A. (Doctor of Fine Arts) and M.F.A. degrees in Drama (rather than English) who contributed to the expansion of professional resident theaters in the 1960s and 1970s. In the early days such programmes typically led to the staging of one major thesis production in the third (final) year. At the University of California, Irvine , Keith Fowler (a Yale D.F.A. and ex-producer of two LORT companies) led for many years

300-511: The chorus , sometimes compose the music, and supervise every aspect of production. The fact that the director was called didaskalos , the Greek word for "teacher," indicates that the work of these early directors combined instructing their performers with staging their work. In medieval times, the complexity of vernacular religious drama, with its large scale mystery plays that often included crowd scenes, processions and elaborate effects, gave

330-433: The 19th century, the role of director was often carried by the actor-manager . This would usually be a senior actor in a troupe who took the responsibility for choosing the repertoire of work, staging it and managing the company. This was the case for instance with Commedia dell'Arte companies and English actor-managers like Colley Cibber and David Garrick . The modern theatre director can be said to have originated in

SECTION 10

#1732782625844

360-616: The Stage: From Naturalism to Growtowski , and Will's The Director in a Changing Theatre (1976). Because of the relatively late emergence of theatre directing as a performing arts profession when compared with for instance acting or musicianship, a rise of professional vocational training programmes in directing can be seen mostly in the second half of the 20th century. Most European countries nowadays know some form of professional directing training, usually at drama schools or conservatoires , or at universities. In Britain,

390-640: The United States in 1911 to become the art director of the Boston Opera Company . He was already an accomplished international architect, illustrator and theatre set designer with over 50 productions from his home Vienna Royal Opera , the Champs-Elysées Opera , and Covent Garden . By applying points of primary colors side by side on the canvas backdrops he was able to create and light theatre sets of vivid color reminiscent of

420-438: The demands of the actors, crew, and technical specifications of the show, and sets must be useful and practical. When building the set, designers have to take accessibility, perspectives, entrances, and exits into account. A scenic designer works with the theatre director and other members of the creative team to establish a visual concept for the production and to design the stage environment. They are responsible for developing

450-406: The erecting of a stage and scenery (there were no permanent, purpose-built theatre structures at this time, and performances of vernacular drama mostly took place in the open air), casting and directing the actors (which included fining them for those that infringed rules), and addressing the audience at the beginning of each performance and after each intermission. From Renaissance times up until

480-458: The eye of Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., who hired him to design the Follies in the 1920s. Urban went to work creating a stunning night-club with glass balconies, a moving stage, and rainbow lighting effects. This Danse de Follies soon became a blend of ideas and talent before serving in the Follies theatre. Urban had success after success in his creating of the Follies' sets, and William Randolph Hearst ,

510-696: The job"; to this purpose, theatres often employ trainee assistant directors or have in-house education schemes to train young theatre directors. Examples are the Royal National Theatre in London , which frequently organizes short directing courses, or the Orange Tree Theatre and the Donmar Warehouse on London's West End , which both employ resident assistant directors on a one-year basis for training purposes. Directing

540-587: The outdoor amphitheaters of ancient Greece, when acts were staged using basic props and scenery. Because of improvements in stage equipment and drawing perspectives throughout the Renaissance, more complex and realistic sets could be created for scenic design. Scenic design evolved in conjunction with technological and theatrical improvements over the 19th and 20th centuries. Scenic design involves several key elements: Set Pieces : These are physical structures, such as platforms, walls, and furniture, that define

570-420: The production is a new piece of writing or a (new) translation of a play, the director may also work with the playwright or a translator. In contemporary theatre, after the playwright , the director is generally the principle visionary, making decisions on the artistic conception and interpretation of the play and its staging. Different directors occupy different places of authority and responsibility, depending on

600-488: The role of director (or stage manager or pageant master ) considerable importance. A miniature by Jean Fouquet from 1460 (pictured) bears one of the earliest depictions of a director at work. Holding a prompt book, the central figure directs, with the aid of a long stick, the proceedings of the staging of a dramatization of the Martyrdom of Saint Apollonia . According to Fouquet, the director's tasks included overseeing

630-469: The spatial environment of the performance. Props : Objects used by actors during a performance, which help to establish the setting and enhance the narrative. Backdrops: Painted or digitally projected backdrops and flat scenery that create the illusion of depth and perspective on stage. Lighting : Setting the tone, ambiance, and focal point of the performance, lighting design is an essential component of scenic design. Functionality: In order to meet

SECTION 20

#1732782625844

660-724: The staging of elaborate spectacles of the Meininger Company under George II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen . The management of large numbers of extras and complex stagecraft matters necessitated an individual to take on the role of overall coordinator. This gave rise to the role of the director in modern theatre, and Germany would provide a platform for a generation of emerging visionary theatre directors, such as Erwin Piscator and Max Reinhardt . Simultaneously, Constantin Stanislavski , principally an actor-manager, would set up

690-529: The structure and philosophy of individual theatre companies. Directors use a wide variety of techniques, philosophies, and levels of collaboration. In ancient Greece , the birthplace of European drama, the writer bore principal responsibility for the staging of his plays. Actors were generally semi-professionals, and the director oversaw the mounting of plays from the writing process all the way through to their performance, often acting in them too, as Aeschylus for example did. The author-director would also train

720-560: The theatre profession. The director originating artistic vision and concept, and realizing the staging of a production, became the norm rather than the exception. Great forces in the emancipation of theatre directing as a profession were notable 20th-century theatre directors like Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko , Vsevolod Meyerhold , Yevgeny Vakhtangov , Michael Chekhov , Yuri Lyubimov (Russia), Orson Welles , Peter Brook , Peter Hall (Britain), Bertolt Brecht (Germany), Giorgio Strehler , and Franco Zeffirelli (Italy). A cautionary note

750-536: The tradition that theatre directors emerge from degree courses (usually in English literature) at the Oxbridge universities has meant that for a long time, professional vocational training did not take place at drama schools or performing arts colleges, although an increase in training programmes for theatre directors can be witnessed since the 1970s and 1980s. In American universities, the seminal directing program at

780-612: The works by Monet or Seurat. In 1914, he moved to New York City, where he designed productions for the Metropolitan Opera and the Ziegfeld Follies ; he continued to design for Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. until 1931. William Randolph Hearst was an important client and supporter. He also co-produced with Richard Ordynski Percy MacKaye 's "Community Masque" Caliban by the Yellow Sands . Beginning in 1917, he

810-750: The world from Esterhazy Castle in Hungary to the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York . Urban studied architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna under Karl von Hasenauer . In 1890, he and his brother-in-law, Heinrich Lefler , were among the founders of the Hagenbund . Urban's early work with illustrated books was inspired by Lefler and, together, they created what are considered seminal examples of children's book illustration. Urban immigrated to

840-433: Was frequently engaged as stage designer by the Metropolitan Opera of New York City. In all he created set designs for 47 new productions at the house through 1933. His many designs provided the opera company with a cohesive production style throughout the tenure of General Manager Giulio Gatti-Casazza . Many of Urban's settings remained in the company's repertoire into the 1950s. Soon his sets and innovative lighting caught

870-473: Was introduced by the famed director Sir Tyrone Guthrie who said "the only way to learn how to direct a play, is ... to get a group of actors simple enough to allow you to let you direct them, and direct." A number of seminal works on directing and directors include Toby Cole and Helen Krich's 1972 Directors on Directing: A Sourcebook of the Modern Theatre , Edward Braun's 1982 book The Director and

900-794: Was one of the originators of the American Art Deco style. Extant buildings include the Mar-a-Lago , The Bath and Tennis Club and The Paramount Theater all in Palm Beach, Florida ; The New School building in New York City; and the base of the Hearst Tower in New York City. The stage lighting gel Roscolux Urban Blue #81, still used today, is named for him. This partial list omits unrealized projects. Scenic designer The origins of scenic design may be found in

#843156