THE MODERN THEATRE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19042, 16 June 1936, Page 9

THE MODERN THEATRE

EXPERIMENTAL WORK

NATI*R AL PERSPECTI VE

AUCKLAND METHODS

(By Judith Terry)

The experiment going <>n in t.lio theatre of to-day is meaningless unless we are conversant with some of the major handicaps of the theatre of the past.

The stage, as we have known it, was a square box lifted to the eye level of the seated audience and divided from it by a frame called the proscenium, plus a line .of footlights past which neither actor nor audience could progress. Here,'bound by the limits of this box, the whole action' of the play took place, helped by what illusion a fruitful producer could devise, and failing genius in the playwright, or a command of technique, imagination and l sincerity in the actors, we were not deceived, we left the scene knowing we had seen a "play." We knew the theatre had no relation to art, and often, very little to life.

All the experimental work of 'Gordon Craig, and his army of followers has been designed to liberate the theatre, and the audience, from the restrictions of the boxed-in play and make drama on the stage a "living" art. Tlie modern producer has conquered much of the inadequacy of, former conditions, his major triumphs being the result of the physical aspect ; indeed, without the revolutionary lighting evolved in recent years, the * stage might have eventually been relegated to some backwater'of culture, kept in existence more as a curiosity than as a medium for the expressing of life as life, or life as art.

INTRODUCTION OF CYCLORAMA Another important factor for tho release of the stage from its rigid conven.tions was the abandonment of the backcloth depicting various scenes and its;.rcplacement by the Cyclorama, an arrangement of cloth or board without visible joints/stretched tightly across the back of the stage and curved over the heads of the actors. It gives literally a panavomic view.

This medium, painted white, presents objects in natural perspective. It can, with the assistance of lighting, give an impression of immense .distance, an indubitable asset when the stage is small. The Cyclorama has demanded well-lights, and. the new use of spots and floods, its possibilities for taking the shadows of trees, arches, peristyles, buildings and other media are amazing, and as yet unplumbed. A German production of "Faust" using the Cyclorama as it was meant to be used, showed the cathedral scene simply with two Gothic pillars at the left of the stage and a crucifix reflected on one of the pillars, yet the audience felt the height and length of that cathedral to be visible in a way that would have been impossible if painted scenery had' been used.

A most powerful impetus has been given to experimental work in Auckland by tho formation of a class in dramatic practice, a class winch attracted practically everyone of note in the amateur ranks, all eager to learn as well as contribute to tho work of the class. The immediate problem faced was whether the stage could compete with the cinema? Obviously the answer was, no ! The two might share a throne as companion arts though never as rivals; though some producers do project stage plays in terms of cinema it was felt that something else was required of the experimenters. . PROBLEM OF METHODS

The problem of introducing methods, preferably original, to overcome some of the" formalism of the stage divulged the fact tliat there is nothing new under the suii. It was found in practice that stages in the centre of the auditorium, plays in which the actor? acted from the audience, choral speaking, and miming in place of speech were but revivals of old technique, and however cleverly adapted to-modern conditions, are not in themselves enough. . • • • During one of the. classes it was postulated that we who are concerned with the theatre most first learn what a stage really is, learn, too, that a play is not a play until it is being acted. • As' an example of the possibilities oi the stage merely as a stage, Mr. Arnold fioodwin conducted an experiment that --bed new light on the subject, enabling the students to approach the problems with apprehension of the demands to be made upon them. ,'.-■._, The experiment was this : The curtain was drawn upon a, black out. Presently the Oyclorama was lit with the deep rich blue of midnight and simultaneously the

.strains of an unnamed piece of music swotted up. .Very slowly ihe light faciei, .o the delicate tints of" dawn, which changed as tlie music progressed to the splendour of sunrise. It needed little imagination to grasp the possibilities pf sucli treatment, tin fact that by light and music only, so poetic an effect, was created that ii served as a demonstration of the manner in which the ancient boundaries of the stage might be expanded. A CCKLAN DER'S PRO LOGUE

The experiment was sufficiently inspiring to induce Mr. .lack C'oppard, a really brilliant young Auckland dramatist, to contrive a .prologue .to a longei play, chorally, in whieli none ■ of tin characters wilt be visible, the same lighting and musical effect to bo 1 used Depending on voices alone lie will project an industrial struggle in-which the off-stage characters are a philosopher, pool, priest, onlooker and the workers. Another result of the experience was the conceiving of a mimed play by another student, based on the words "with the morning joy com'otli." Such experiment and practice led to the rigid road, yet the writer feels that before the'stage is really occupying the position for which it is destined two major problems remain to be solved. One of these belongs to the playwright and one to tiie producer, The playwright must learn to write his plays so that the action will have some of the continuity of the scenario, he must forbear dropping a curtain at regular intervals and shutting his play into water-tight compartments known as acts, while the producer must invent some equivalent of the cinema close-up. How either can accomplish these tilings one does not know, but it is reasonable to suppose that the task of tinplaywright is simpler than that of the producer.

EFFECT OF A CLOSE-UP Formerly the producer tried to get the effect of a elo&e-up by means of crude "spotting" of the central figure, a method which threw the stage picture out of balance.

The advantage of the cinema ciose-up is undeniable—as a means of disclosing a change of mood in the actor it is unsurpassable ; the actor's voice is not enough, or we moderns do not consider it enough, for we must see as well as hear. It may be that some change in tho levels of the stage, a new use of rostrums, or some such method will be the way out. but a wav must be found. Much of the experiment that is taking nlace, In New Zealand at least, is partly due to the paucitv of theatrical ventures of the commercial type and the loss of in terest in repertory. "Repertory may be flourishing in the small towns, but in the larger towns and cities it is dying because it does not experiment. The experimental theatre thrives because it is creative, despite failures innumerable, hcausc creation means growth, growth connotes life and expansion, and onlv so can anv art survive. Out of the trial and error of present dav experiment there will evolve n'lbwili'O where the actor and his audience will redd as one (o tlw illusion, dramatic impulse, svmholisipi and 1 eanfv created' by 'he plnvwright. a theatre that will nrovide a vital part of the entertainment n'< well as the cultural development f>f the people.