Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1985 - 7

When Arnold Aronson and I became co-editors of TD&T in 1977 we
planned a special issue devoted to
women in design. We were surprised
when we met with some resistance to
this idea. The consensus seemed to be
that there simply was no problem. Theatre was believed to be the one institution where a woman could do any job.
Theatre was perceived as unique among
arts and industries-the field was utterly open. The fact that there were so
few women in set design was perceived
as a problem with women.
I was dubious. I remembered a
friend of mine describing her experience as an MFA candidate in 1969 at a
major university. She entered on a
scholarship for set design and emerged
a costume designer. She explained that
while this university did not hesitate to
accept women in set design, no woman
graduated in scenic design. "You went
in to study set design," she said, "and
came out a property mistress or a costume designer." I am still dubious
about theatre as a kind of utopia for
women.
The question remains, "Why are
there so few women in set design?" If
it is true that the number of men in costume design is nearing 50010, why is the
same not true for women in scenic design? Could it be-like in other fields
-that as the economy worsens, men
begin to move into traditionally female
occupations, while women do not experience the same mobility into men's
occupations?
Historically, what happened to
Aline Bernstein as a model for women?
It is telling that the author of Bernstein's biography was not familiar with
her work as a designer until she called
one of our colleagues in USITT for
material. In her biography the author
focuses on Bernstein as Thomas Wolfe's
lover, rather than on her accomplishments as a talented, professional designer. This is how a woman's voice is
lost to history. Until someone rewrites
her biography, Bernstein will be known
primarily as a famous novelist's lover.
This is not where her significance lies.

Why are there so many women in
lighting design? Is it that Jean Rosenthal established the area as appropriate
for women, thereby insuring the future
profession for women? Is lighting design just too new as a specialty historically to have become gender-specific?
Is there a hierarchy within design?
If set design is considered more important than lighting and costume design, does this have anything to do with
what we "see" on the stage? Richard
Foreman said of his early years when he
functioned solely as a set designer, "I
had the feeling that I was controlling
the whole piece because I was creating
the world through which you perceive

nold Aronson who, as a feminist, asked
some of the male designers included in
his new book American Set Design why
there are so few women in design. The
discussion was then opened to the designers who responded to the issues
raised, and raised several other issues
unique to their experience in the field.
-K.D.

REINHARDT: The approach that I've
taken to theatre from an early age and
right up through my recent studies has
been a visual analysis. I got into feminist analysis, partly by accident, because I was invited to speak at Vanderbilt. At that time, 1979 or 1980, there

,\larjorie Bradley Kellogg's design jar Alphabetical Order

things happening." The audience sees
the play through the setting-does the
audience "see" lighting design, or costume design?
Finally, do women design differently from men? Is there a feminine design
appropriate, even called for, in certain
shows? If so, why is this feminine design so seldom called for in big budget
shows?
The panel began with ancy Reinhardt, who addressed the issues from a
feminist perspective, and moved to Ar-

the Long Il'harj Theatre,

was not anyone person who was wellknown in terms of a feminist theatrical
perspective. I didn't particularly consider myself a scholar with a feminist
approach to theatre history, so I read
all the literature, and tried to get myself
some grounding in femini t perspective.
I started looking at plays, at critical
theory, and actual scene designs in theatre history for visual evidence from a
feminist perspective, and was amazed
to see the number of biases and assumptions that have been passed down

SITT / Summer 1985/Thealre Design & Technology

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1985