Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1986 - 8

ADOLPHE APPIA'S INFLUENCE ON THE WORK OF LEE SIMONSON

Simonson came to the Drama Department for the summer session to design Romeo and Juliet (there were four
costume sketches for thi in the exhibition) and to teach
an advanced course in design for the theatre. Simonson
was so pleased with this experience that he proceeded to
give a great part of his life's work in design to the Stanford University Library. Later in 1950 when there was a
major exhibition of his work at Harvard, his alma
mater, some of the Stanford material was included, and
after the exhibition those items remained in the
Harvard Theatre Collection. However, a large selection
remains at Stanford, particularly con truction blueprints. The selection at the conference was but a small
part of the Stanford Simonson Co'lection but did contain many items never before reprinted or seen in exhibition.
We are not concerned directly, however, with the
Simonson Collection at Stanford, but rather with the
influence of Adolphe Appia on the work of Lee Simonson. Simonson is usually credited as one of the three
founders, along with Robert Edmond Jones and orman
Bel Geddes, of twentieth-century creative scenic and
costume design in the American theatre based on the
symbolist-impressionist ideals of Appia and Craig. Impressionism in this context meant mood changes in a
production painted into a setting with light, while
symbolism meant allowing certain shapes and plastic
forms to stand for whole castles, temples, or landscapes.
For example, in his setting for ParsHal in 1 96, Appia
allowed a few solid, stone textured forms, arranged for
both actor movement and mood effect, to stand for an
entire castle, and he sketched his setting in such a way
as to give an evocative and deeply felt sense of mood
(Figure 1).

Although this form of scenic design was to be praised
over and over again by Simonson in his various articles
and books later in life, he began his career as a painter
who admired the exaggerated forms and bold colors of
the Fauvist. He was educated at Harvard between 1905
and 190 when teachers and scholars including William
James, George Santayana, Josiah Royce, Charles Townsend Copeland, and George Pierce Baker were on the
staff, and fellow students included Edward Sheldon, Van
Wyck Brooks, Robert Edmond Jones, Kenneth
MacGowan, and Walter Lipmann. After graduation he
spent several years painting in Europe, learning about
the latest in the European esthetics in both art and theatre. He was most impressed by two theatre events that
he witnessed, each very different. In Paris in the summer of 1909, he was carried away by the color and movement that he wi messed during a performance of the
Ballets Russesj while in Munich he was equally captivated by a Reinhardt production of Hamlet played mostly in a setting dominated by a single column lit by
changing shafts of light. These twO early experiences
were to influence Simonson throughout his design career in his use of rich bright color in conjunction with
plastic, spatial settings sculpted and controlled by lighting (which he always planned himself!.
Soon after his return to the United States, Simonson
was asked to design a stage setting for the Washington
Square Players, and from then on his entire life was devoted to raising the level of esthetic quality in New
York theatrical productions. When the Washington
Square Players matured and transformed themselves into the Theatre Guild, he became its principal designer
as well as one of the original members of the board of
directors, and during an artistic career that stretched

Figure 1. Adolphe Appie: Design for Parsifal, 1896, from Die Musik und die Inscenierung, 1899.

TD&T . FALL 1986

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