The nature of communication between scenography and its audiences (original) (raw)

“The Complimentary Role of Scenography As An Actor in the Redefinition of Scenographic Aesthetics in Theatrical Production” 1 Dr Kenneth July 2013 1

This paper examines the shifting role of scenography in theatrical productions. This is done with the aim of identifying modern trends of scenic design beyond mere theorizing and visual representation. The paper hinges it's discuss on the new role of scenic design as an actor alongside the human actor in integrating the dramatic essence in theatrical production to redefine the role of the scenographer as collaborator with the artistic director in a theatre ensemble. Scenography in this regard, plays the motivating role in creating a new movement that will herald a theatre of "images" rather than a theatre of "words". In this lies the refined role of scenographic aesthetics. This is to be preferred as a performance style of theatre in the future, which will form a new platform for play presentation or staging that will lead to a redefinition of roles in theatrical production.

Audience Immersion and the Experience of Scenography

2015

This study sits at the intersection of two fields of academic enquiry into performance practice: audience reception of scenography and the rise of ‘immersive’ theatre. Using my own scenographic practice as a tool, I illuminate the understanding of audience experience of scenography in environmental performance and question how scenography might act as an agent for audience immersion. I examine the nature of sensory and imaginative engagement in the context of performance installations in black-box studio spaces where audiences are central to the composition. This practice-based study is composed of two parts: the presentation and development of a series of three performance installations (VOID/ROOM, If anyone wonders why rocks breakdown, and it all comes down to this…) and this supporting written thesis. In this thesis I present an original model of audience immersion that elucidates how audiences might become entwined with the scenography of performance. My three-part model of audi...

Sounding Out ‘The Scenographic Turn’: Eight Position Statements (Theatre and Performance Design, 1/1-2 (June 2015), S. 107-125).

Theatre & Performance Design, 2015

This multi-authored article collects a range of position statements made by leading scholars/practitioners in the fields of theatre aurality, music theatre/opera and sound design. Contributors independently prepared short statements in response to a central provocation – namely, the mooted ‘scenographic turn’ and its implication for theatre sound studies. The article provides snapshots of current opinions about theatre sound design and scenography. It does not advance a single, unified argument but rather outlines some key ways in which sound/music and scenography are operating, and have operated, in theatre, and have been discussed in aesthetic theory. The article ultimately reinforces the importance of attending to sound and scenography as co-constitutive elements, and suggests there is no single or best way of doing this. With statements from Ross Brown, Adrian Curtin, George Home-Cook, Lynne Kendrick, David Roesner, Katharina Rost, Nicholas Till and Pieter Verstraete

Scenography, spectacle and the body of the spectator

Performance Research 18:3, 2013

This article addresses the operation of ‘scenographic spectacle’ from the perspective of the spectator in order to consider the way the body responds to scenography. The denigration of spectacle has often been founded on its appeal to the body and the way it produces pleasurable but ultimately empty experiences. However, I propose that a reconsideration of the body as a site of perception and reception in scenographic performance might reveal the complex relationships between spectators, performance and the world. In this article, I analyse my own response to two performances; Royal de Luxe's Sea Odyssey and Verdenteatret's The Telling Orchestra in the light of theories of kinaesthetic empathy and spatial production. In addressing the alleged gap between feeling and meaning which scenographic spectacle appears to produce, it is the interconnection of the phenomenal and social aspects of the spectating body that reveals the potential for resisting dominant modes of social production.

Audience and mise-en-scène : manipulating the performative aesthetic

2014

The objective of this thesis is to examine the impact audiences have on the director?s process of creating a mise-en-sc�ne and to understand the ways in which we might begin to understand and articulate such impact. I argue that the influence audiences have on theatre directors' mise-en-scenes have been ambiguous, and therefore there is a lack in a systematic approach to theatre-making. Through a detailed investigation on the arbitrary methods employed by a selected group of theatre directors, I propose that a communicative approach in capturing audiences? expectations is necessary in shaping mise-en-scenes, directly and indirectly. More specifically, this thesis makes explicit these cognitive processes through a technical investigation, a mechanism which I propose and have graphically represented that can be used to harness the impact audiences have on theatre-making. In this thesis, the historical role and influence of the audience is discussed in Chapter One. This is followed...