Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1976 - 16

of its subject-matter. Thus the curriculum must be differentiated accord ing to year of study. The schoo I must form
a reliable foundation not only for individual expression,
but also for the ind ividual artistic points of view of its
graduates. This is necessary above all because the predominating trend not only in the arts, but also in the sciences,
is integration and as far as work methods are concerned,
the formation of teams; for this reason the new concept
of teaching of the main subject i.e. of stage design was
divided into seven areas - methodology, practical stage
designing, forming of a dramatic person, stage technology,
scenic lighting, experiments and stage space - while the
main task remains their coordination in dealing with
concrete designs. The problem of coordination cannot
of course concern only various areas of the main subject of teaching; the remaining two groups of subjects
must also be adapted in this direction. This concerns art,
including architecture, material culture and the theory
of art. Such an endeavour presupposes the gradual elaboration of a precise structure of subject-matter, which
would develop the basic problems in such a manner as
to expose their practically as yet unexplored, "white"
places and which would also provide the possibility of
all the areas of the ma in subject, as well as the auxilliary
subjects, reacting towards them. Because one of the characteristic traits of stage design is that any of its means
can, at any time, become an artistic fact. The point of
departure in teaching is thus the composition of matter
and space which include essentially all aspects of Troster's etudes, supplemented by elementary stage design
shapes, as required by methodological changes in the
development of modern stage design, fragmentation, destruction, reduction, simplification and analysis. The
relation of matter and space, the relation between the
stage and the auditorium, structural changes and the
linkage of various components, typology of space, light
and a scenic object, dramatic etudes and the formation
of a dramatic person - here it is possible only to enumerate teaching subjects - all lead to an analysis of the
structure of great works of drama in various periods
and of their stage design problems.

JAPAN
A. School Education:
1. ARCHITECTURE
In Japan, the department of architecture of
universities generally gives lectures on the auditorium
for about three to five hours as one of the curriculums of
"Architecture Planning."
It also takes up the auditorium design in "Designing
Drawing" and provides the students of the 3rd or the 4th
grade with at least one occasion to proceed with actual
designing.
TOKAI UNIVERSITY applies all its lectures on
"Architecture Planning" for the latter part of the 3rd
grade to auditorium architecture, which makes it possible
to give lectures on theatrical architecture for about half
a year.
On the other hand, the other universities such as
NIHON UNIVERSITY, MUSASHI TECHNOLOGICAL

FALL,1976

UNIVERSITY have some professors who are specialized
in theatrical architecture and give lectures on this field.
2. STAGE SETTING AND STAGE LIGHTING
The universities that lecture on stage setting, along
with stage lighting, are:
NIHON UNIVERSITY:
The Fine Arts Faculty - The Dramatic Department gives
lectures both on the theory of lighting (two units) and the
theory of setting (two units!, respectively two hours a
week for a semester. In addition to that, it spends two
days a week with exercises and actual training under the
guidance of lecturers who have professional knowledge.
MUSASHINO UNIVERSITY OF ART:
This institution devotes itself. to education in scenic
design with lectures on the theory and with actual training
through four years.
OSAKA UNIVERSITY OF ARTS:
The Stage Arts Department gives lectures on the theory
of stage arts (four units) and actual training of the designer (twenty-four units including setting, costume, stageeffect and lighting). On the other hand, The Broadcasting
Department gives lectures on the theory of lighting (two
units) and design for stage and television. Moreover, it
gives the students some occasions to proceed to actual
training for broadcasting (two units) and exercises (four
units)'
TAMA SCHOOL OF ARTS Attached to TAMA UNIVERSITY OF ARTS:
The Department of Stage and Television Arts gives lectures on setting - design, basic study of Iighting and
costume-design. In addition to these lectures, it provides
the students with occasions to procure actual training.

THE

HUNGARIAN SCHOOLS OF ARCHITECTURE

In Hungary, architects gain their formal education in
the School of Architecture at the Budapest Technical
University. Each year approximately 140 new architects obtain their university degree, after having completed nine semesters of listening to lectures and performing exercises in planning and a final semester of preparing a project for their diploma.
The educational precepts of this school differ from
those of schools of art: here, technical subjects dominate.
After the sixth semester, students are able to choose and
begin specializing as STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS, concentrating on structural theory a'nd technology, ARCHITECTS, whose main field of interest is actual project
designing, URBAN PLANNING ENGINEERS, or CONTRACTUAL ARCHITECTS.
The first year is spent acquiring the principles of
architecture. The design of residential housing takes
place in the third semester and the fourth semester,
and that of public, industrial, and agricultural building in the fifth semester. During the eighth and ninth
semesters, students spend many weekly hours becoming
acquainted with the intricacies of designing architectural
projects; while preparing the detailed designs for a building, they obtain multidisciplinary inputs.

THEATRE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

USITT

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