LIVE DESIGN - Pilobolus

Here are some live designs by an amazing dance troupe i studied last year. They are called Pilobolus. They have done numerous shadow art designs, and the videos speak for themselves; they're just amazing!

The Stage is a Dangerous Machine: the Designs of George Tyspin

The theater can be dangerous aesthetically as well as practically. George Tyspin, classically trained in architecture in Moscow and then as a designer at New York University, is among one of the foremost modern designers.
Style:
- Steel is Tyspin’s favorite material for it’s “sleek beauty and strength”, it is used in many of his designs and sculptures.
-“I’m not interested in periods; I feel incredible freedom. I was never indoctrinated in the sense of ‘this is from this period and that is from that period’. I have total freedom t use whatever I like.” This freedom is most often connected with the postmodern movement, with historical and contemporary elements juxtaposed together.
-Tyspin insists that his approach is organic, “I’m more interested in the essence of things, the textures, the shapes, the space, the historical elements as long as they serve the meaning”
-Influenced by David Mitchell, in his ease with mechanical transformations.
-employs the vertical to achieve a “spiritual dimension” as well as adding additional focal points.
-Islamic architecture in how it makes an understanding of how a building is put together impossible, as well as how it seems to melt into the air.

Shows:
1)The Screens by Genet.
- Created a sand y dessert of stage
-Tyspin designed a net that hangs above the stage to represent the land of the dead. He called in a German engineering firm to help design the net to hold up to 40 bodies as well as appear light and airy.
2)The Electrification of the Soviet Union
-set inside of a train car that was flexible
-his work on this set exemplifies his collaborative nature where he and director Peter Sellers formed the idea of the malleable train car.
3)The Cabinet of Dr. Ramirez
-this was the first film that Tyspin worked on, it was a remake.
-the original had been black and white and tyspin wanted to carry that feeling by having intense colors. “to really go to essentials in color where every color becomes a state of mind”
-Played with the loneliness of new york “whatever is not onstage is just as important as what is”

4)The Ring of the Nibelungs - Wagner
- In this design Tyspin wanted to design with all the elements, and create a space where “the audience and the stage were intertwined”
-“the first note of the opera sounds in the darkness, and then there was an explosion of glass and metal. The platforms begin moving and action immediately becomes spatial”
-The design for this set took over the Netherlands Opera, with set changes waiting in the lobby and coming out into the street.

Sculptures:
-Tyspin has held gallery shows for his sculptures
-They are created after the show has been designed and act as monuments to the shows.
-They are not quite stage models, but more conceptual of how Tyspin would have designed in an ideal world with no limitations of floor space for actors.
-These monuments set Tyspin apart from almost all other American designers who keep almost no record of their work and just design shows back to back. Tyspin remain the artist instead of making a career out of designing.

The Danger:
-in later years, Tyspin did very little work in the United States as his designs were too dangerous.
-His design for War and Peace had been performed in many other cities without fault, it wasn’t until New York did a mishap occur. But Tyspin felt the sage itself was safe but that “there was something getting into people’s subconscious. There was a perceived danger in the design.”
-Tyspin is dismayed at all the new safety regulations on what he can and can not do in the theater space.

Visiting the Web

I visited the web today to add my origami. Since the cocoons did not get made I made my own version. Using the class syllabus I fold it into what is called an origami ballon. I pinned them to the web to look like cocoons. I liken the paper to the thread that holds our class together, and what is cocooned is our ideas and thoughts. Below you will also find a video of how I folded the paper. Enjoy.

Readings

So I was looking through all the old posts to see what readings have and have not been done.

Reading Notes that are done:
"Behind the Screen Door"
"World on Stage"
"Can Theater and Media Speak the Same Language?"

Reading's not done:
"Poet's Creed"
"Directors and Designers is there a Different Direction"
"Metaphor"
"The Stage as Dangerous machine"
"Richard Foreman as a Sceneographer"
"Stage as a Machine"


"world on stage" and "can theater and media speak..." were both done twice.

-Angus

Recap

Hi all,

Great work everyone, on the Stage Design presentation. We kicked major ass, we should all be proud of our hard work. Now it's time to present our Environmental Design. It's some how strange since this is the thing we started out with. Well now is the time to show it off.

If you are curious and aren't apart of our group, now is the time to go see the Right Angles' Web Of Ideas. You can follow this handy map!

Right Anglers', remember we will also meet 45 minutes before class on Thursday to discuss our presentation style. We will also touch on our live design project so be prepared to talk about that and think of a time to actually rehearse it.

As always, if you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask.

Cheers,
Brian

YAY!

OK so I'm here with Brian and we're ready! lets go right angles! this shit looks so good, i can see it coming alive on stage with the music and the costumes!

k.shaw

Music

Angus & I met this afternoon and talked about music. We were on the same page about this music shoul contain a childlike quality. As the director I can't help think of this concept as this play, this story, is taking place inside a child's mind. So Angus found some music of a band that makes childrens music, but plays it as if it's for adults.

I found music that turns rock music in to lullaby's for baby's. Pretty haunting stuff. We also looked at other music that was made for video games, and horror film soundtracks. Tomorrow I will bring the disc I made tonight and hope that you all like it. I kinda scored it to what's happening in the story.

We talked alot about the story and what characters, what's happening, what's the feeling. We often asked, "What's happening, now?" We've got a theme for the White Witch, and some nice builds for the battle scene.

We're going to have a great proposal. I'm excited to see what we can dream up for our Live Design.

Stage Design Project- Costumes (Kira)

this is the email i got from Kira. Mainly posting for Jules to include on the Power Point. Hopefully Kira can post something... and ill call you tonight so we can concertize...

most of the characters are animals, so i dont kno what i want to do with those. as far as the children, i want them in pajamas, white pajamas and the older girls in slips.

the white white is going to be in white horse motif. in a white pin up outift with a white chess piece horse life hairdo. living on top of the shoe she embraces evil and the aminals.

there will be a clear twnties, fifties, sixties, eighties characters.
i sent you some pictures, i was thinking maybe a celebritiy vibe, for the inspiration for clothes.

do we wanna dress the animals like that? or switch the animals to people? make it super abstract? what do you think? email or call me

kira

And her pictures:

Stage Design Project- Concept (Continued)

Conceptual Influences:
Shakespeare Santa Cruz's
Shakes To Go: Midsummer Nights Drean

Defamiliarization
-using sheets to create fairy wings for Titania

-feather boa becomes Lion's mane


Kate Edmund's Design for Shakespeare Santa Cruz's Holiday Show
The Wind in the Willows
their whole concept=very similar
The entire show takes place in an attic; everything created from everyday objects
Example: Bed frame becomes jail cell


White Witch Concept:
Staircase for palace/grand entrance:
Staircase- Stiletto shoe


Statues of Frozen People- Chess Pieces, Art pieces (statues or paintings)
Beaver House- Basket

Path/Stepping Stones- Puzzle Pieces

To Be Continued...

Stage Design Project- Concept

Play: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Here's what sort of inspired the concept:
Monologue from Tony Kushner's Angels in America: Millennium Approaches
Harper is hallucinating. Prior is dreaming. The two meet.
Harper:
I don't understand this. If I didn't ever see you before and I don't think I did then I don't think you should be here, in this hallucination, because in my experience the mind, which is where hallucinations come from, shouldn't be able to make up anything that wasn't there to start with, that didn't enter it from experience, from the real world. Imagination can't create anything new, can it? It only recycles bits and pieces from the world and reassembles them into visions... Am I making sense right now?
Key words: recycle, reassemble

Basic Plot of Lion, Witch, Wardrobe
Kids get sent to a boring home in the country for the summer.
Find Narnia, a mystical land through a wardrobe.

Our take:
The kids are still in the house (they can't physically enter a mystical world through a wardrobe).
Narnia is imaginary.
The imagination (Angels in America) cannot create.
Everything in Narnia is in the house.
Random objects in the house serve as inspiration for their imagination.

Concept
A defamiliarization of everyday objects.
The kids are able to use objects they find in the house as something new.

Think: its almost as if the kids are playing with action figures of themselves. While still in the physical world of the house, these action figures can be inserted into a fantasy world. Because of their size, a household pet (for instance) would become a monster to an action figure.



Important!
Nothing in the imaginary world could be just labeled as fantastical. Everything needs an explanation and a real parallel.

This served as the leaping point for our concept and we thought about what everyday objects could be transformed into something new and different.

Initial Sketch:

Key Locations/Elements:
Inspiration and Trasformation

Forest- Forks, Silverware, Coat Hangers/Hat racks, Brooms(?)




Lamp Post- Candle Stick, Desk Lamp




To Be Continued...