Is there a need for such a thing, a conference on theatre design? I have yet to see a conference that I would like to attend; one that discusses and shares knowledge about creativity. Most of the conferences, USITT or LDI are, to some extent, boring according to my creative scale. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to be there and chit chat about new products but no matter what, toys are just toys. Both USITT or LDI have lectures and workshops with various experts but nonetheless, these lectures tend to be more technical than I prefer. I would rather have an open conversation with Luc Lafortune on what he is doing now as well as discuss some of his past projects. I would like to ask him questions about his relationship with Cirque du Soleil and how it’s affecting his career. Maybe I would even go as far as to find out his current valuable tools and work flow. Those to me, as a lighting/scenery designer and maybe some day as a director/choreographer, would be valuable. Did I mention valuable?
Like I said before, I am not talking about the latest products, toys, and gadgets. I am talking about valuable information about one’s design from early creative ideas to the final submitted concept, i.e. drafting or rendering. One aspect of theatre design that is very different than other types of design, like fashion design, industrial design, and furniture design, is mostly due to what we produce as the final product. As theatre makers, our designs are somewhat abstract in the realm of objects. Abstract in the sense that most of what is being created will cease to be relevant after the show. It will eventually either go in the trash or into a storage container until it can become again it’s purpose as an object. To have a sense of purpose, the objects need the environment for which it was created. Conferences on an event like this, a particular moment in time in which an object or a non object (for example a shaft of light), would be interesting. Those moments belongs in their environment, it has a life. Conferences usually never talked about such a thing. Is this normal? I think that my ideal conference for the theatre designer is very different than any conference that I have attended. LDI conference is mostly geared towards the industry with a very technical edge but not about design. It’s the E3 for the stage. USITT is somewhat a smaller version of LDI. Is there any room in a conference for the theatre designer?
In juxtaposition to all of this, other conferences make sense because there is a product to sell. USITT and LDI both have a lot of products to sell and at the same time a lot of workshops on who can hang and focus a light in the least amount of time. None of these really have something to offer to creative theatre designer. I guest as a theatre designer, I am better off going to a movie or checking out the latest trend on the runway. Other types of designers have a purpose for product based conferences. Interior designers have a reason to go to design conferences because in the end, they need to design and sell a certain product. Something they can create repeatedly. In contrast, theatre designers build objects or non objects; costumes, scenery or lights for a specific show to convey a story to an audience. Could you imagine having a scenic designer create a series of modern furniture and make it part of all the shows that he’s working on? Hmmm, I don’t think that would fly with some directors. Even so, imagine that! Imagine if theater had a relationship with fashion design? Let’s say Designer X is creating a new line and those styles appear on runway X of this year’s haute couture. Hmmm, again, I don’t think that would be popular with most directors. Therefore, I do think that the format for conferences on theatre design should be thought about.
To the industry people, would you mind answering some of these questions.
1. Are key creative designs addressed?
2. Is their more to computers than tools like CAD in relation to theatre design?
3. Can we draw conceptual ideas from other mediums? And what are those?
4. What is done and has been done in the development of theatre design? Is their a “trend”?
5. Is their such a thing as a “trend”?
6. Why was Adolphe Appia so important?
It would be interesting to have a center for communicating between designers and this would be happening downstage. I do think their is a gap in between what’s already available and what is needed. The possibility to bridge the gap in between artist havent been reached. It would be interesting to have lighting artist such as James Turrell, Robert Irwin or Dan Flavin exchanging ideas while having a drink wherever the fun is happening. Creativity as the element of conference would attract not only theatre designer but different genre of artist. Let the fun begin!
2 Comments
Have you checked out the Prague Quadrennial? That one seems to get closer to what you’re interested than USITT and LDI do.
The next PQ is in 2007.
Indeed it might be more what I’m looking for but it is far away!