STAGE SET DESIGNING

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 285, 29 August 1935, Page 4

STAGE SET DESIGNING

Hints By Professor Shelly

An audience composed of members of the New Zealand branch of the British Drama League and their friends listened with much interest to a lecture given by Professor James Shelly, of Canterbury University College in the Pioneer Club last evening.

Professor Shelly’s subject was “Design for Stage Sets,” and he devoted considerable time to a description of various types and methods of stage settings, with helpful advice, and illustrated by slides. The subject was approached from a practical point of view.

Professor Shelly has designed his own settings for plays he has produced for many years, and is a well-known figure in the Canterbury Repertory Society. He began by traversing the changes that had taken place in stage designing during the past two generations, for which the alteration in dramatic theory had been mainly responsible. He gave examples of the limits in naturalism and realism that stage designing had passed through in former centuries, and the tremendous amount of time and trouble that were necessary to obtain such effects. Success in art, continued the speaker, depended upon unity between the spectator and the work of art. Therefore a successful stage set could bnly be established by working it in unison with the minds of the audience, who must be made to feel that they were in the setting. The Imaginary “fourth wall” of the stage was not, as sometimes imagined, across the front of the set, but at the back of the audience. There were three considerations to be taken into account when planning a stage set, said Professor Shelly. First, and most important, the spirit of the play; secondly, the reality of the situation in which the action took place, and thirdly, the actual limitations of the stage itself—this wag very important from the designer’s point of view. Scenery in a limited space must be light and easily movable. The speaker suggested that anyone who wished to design for the stage should obtain permission to go behind the scenes of some big production and help the sceneshifter as practical experience was both helpful and necessary. Professor Shelly showed several methods adopted by himself in regard to the practical side of stage designing. He clearly illustrated each idea and point by diagrams on a blackboard. “Pompey the Great,” which was his first production in Manchester, was mentioned, and he explained how the three sets required were each placed inside the other, thus minimising the need for removal and replacement between scenes. A great deal could be done in a limited space if one knew how to work with curtains.

Dwelling on some problems of staging, the speaker mentioned the manner in which Shakespeare created scenery by his lines. Thus, “How sweet, the moonlight sleeps upon this bank”— there was the complete idea of a set in one line. It was Impossible to maintain the dramatic rhythm necessary in Shakespearean productions if the sets were continually being changed, and this idea had now been abandoned. Stationary elements, which had the advantage of giving unity to the whole play, were utilised in various ways to effect) just sufficient change to each scene. The importance of difference of levels to emphasise the dramatic value of characters was stressed, Professor Shelly explaining how steps were so often used in plays for this purpose. The subject of lighting- was dealt with in relation to its tremendous -Importance In designing. Lighting could make or mar, and it was absolutely necessary to have lighting that could be made to suit the effect desired. It was best to start with a blaek stage, and then spot those parte which were going to be centres of action. “Light the emotion of the situation,” said the speaker, who went, on to describe numerous methods which he had used in his own productions.

Several other interesting and problematic points in stage design were dealt with, and altogether a huge amount of knowledge on the subject was imparted to the audience. Mr. W. M. Page warmly thanked Professor Shelly on behalf of rhe Drama League, and the evening concluded with supper.