Theatre Design & Technology - May 1967 - 3

EDITORIAL AND NEWS
The time is now well past due for forming an international
information center related to the construction of performance
spaces and its accompanying technologies. The few scattered
efforts to perform this service until now have been characterized by sporadic effort from vol unteer operations, and by
considerable overlapping of efforts.
Other wiser heads have estimated on many occasions the
very considerable amount of money being spent on construction of theatres, and a fair percentage of literature on the
subject mentions the difficulties inherent in collecting necessary data. A very large portion of this data is presently
recollected each time a new project is undertaken. For example, statistics relating to cubeage, building costs, seating
capacity, projected income and physical data on theatres
commonly acknowledged to be architecturally successfulall of these are more or less available to the aggressive
building committee member or architect's researcher, given
unlimited time and travel money. In reality, however, very
few construction projects are undertaken with any semblance
of comprehensive preliminary research of this sort at the
architect's and theatre planner's disposal.
The most disarming aspect of our present inefficient system
is that our best architects and corporate cl ients now pay
substantial fees to have this data "rediscovered" separately
for each new building which is undertaken. Recently established professional organizations and the sharp increase in
the quantity of professional literature available on theatre
planning have undoubtedly worked a marked influence on
the most recent buildings. In the last few years I detect a
significant drop in the number of disgruntled clients who
publicly damn their architects (at professional meetings and
in print) for hopelessly incomplete or unuseable theatres.
But we have made little more than a beginning. A great
deal more experience is available to us now than even a
decade ago. An information center, international in scope,
is the most efficient way to house and disseminate that
codified experience which is vital to the careful planning of
such a complex architectural problem as the contemporary
theatre building.
Such a center should provide multi-lingual input and output
of information. It should store physical data on existing
buildings, particularly those constructed within the past five
to ten years and those few older buildings which represent
exemplary solutions to one or more aspects of the architectural problem. Within existing copyright provisions, it could
provide some drawings and graphic material and abstracts of
technical reports, theses, and other fugitive material otherwise difficult to obtain through established channels. The
bulk of the output from such a center might be provided
through existing disseminating media: architecture and theatre journals throughout the world which should have access

to this serial output without restriction. One modest example of this kind of service might be an expansion of the
sort of regular checklist which this journal has published on
a regular basis and provides as an offprint on request. The
center would in addition most probably provide literature
searching service on specialized questions at a nominal
charge from its bank of information. It is not inconceivable
that such a service could be rendered, on the North Ameriican or European continents at least, by telephone at night
time station-to-station rates. The writer has already provided
such occasional service during the past four years.
A special ized information clearinghouse is no panacea to
the ills of the contemporary theatre. It represents very
little use of the sophisticated technology now available, and
with which most of us are at least vaguely familiar these
days. Putting data into such a system is an endless and
very tiring avocation. At least where the technology of
theatre construction is concerned, it will never pay for itself
on a commercial basis; nor, one supposes, should it. It
should be an enterprise with the broadest organizational
base possible in order to be successful. The most appropriate agency for this enterprise is unquestionably the International Theatre Institute. While admittedly certain bibliographic activity is already conducted under that organization's auspices, these present efforts work no apparent influence on the practical business of theatre construction
presently. More direct action is needed, and now.
As a first unsophisticated step, ITI should support the regular translation and publication of nothing more than the title
from every article which appears in the following journals:
Acta Scaenographica, Buhnentechnische Rundschau.
DarsteliungplusTechnik, Scena, Tabs. Theatre Design
& Technology, and Tieatralnaia Tiekhnika I Tiekhnologia.
This would only involve translation of some 125-140 article
titles per year. While these journals are not concerned
solely with theatre architecture and construction, the added
service would easily justify whatever inefficiency there is
implicit in the plan. These titles along with the appropriate
page citations should probably be translated into English.
German, French. Russian and Spanish.
Of the crucial issues facing the contemporary world theatre
perhaps none is more pressing than the problem of communicating existing facts about construction of the performance spaces which will house that theatre activity for decades to come. Unquestionably, we are in the midst of a
construction boom. The immediate need for communication
across geographical and political barriers is an immediate
and profound necessity. What better way could we use to
demonstrate the ability of artists to communicate across
those boundaries 7
Ned A Bowman

Inigo Jones Exhibit at The National Gallery of Art,
Washington, D.C.
Technical theatre personnel. especially costume and scenic
designers and theatre historians, have an opportunity to see
one of the outstanding theatre exhibits to tour the United
States in recent years when the Inigo Jones exhibition
makes the rounds over the next two years. Members in all
parts of the country should be alerted and should check
with the nearest museum to avail themselves of this rare
opportunity. From Washington, D.C. the itinerary for this
rare opportunity. From Washington, D.C. the itinerary for
this first public American showing of Jones' theatre designs
includes: The Museum of Fine Art, Houston; Los Angeles
County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; The Detroit Institute

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MAY 1967

of Arts, Detroit; The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa;
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond; William Rockhill
Nelson Gallery, Kansas City; The Minneapolis Institute of
Arts, Minneapolis; and Yale University Art Gallery, New
Haven.
The exhibit is broken into four divisions: Part 1, designs
from 1601 - 1613; Part 2, designs from 1615 - 1640; Part
3, designs by John Webb; and Part 4, Miscellanea which
includes the Whitehall drawings, portraits of Charles I and
Henrietta Maria, a Jones self portrait, the Rysbrack 18th
century marble bust of Jones, the Van Dyck drawing of
Jones, five model stages and two costume models.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - May 1967