Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1987 - 4

TD&T

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

To the Editor:
This is a response to the Spring
1987 TDeJT article '~ction Design"
by Delbert Unruh. While I found the
article fascinating and useful, I have
an amplification to offer about its
context and a small quibble about its
content.
I was surprised by the absence of a
pair of well-known philosophical
terms which directly relate Mr. Unruh's observations, when viewed
from the psycho-philosophical context of being, to a world beyond scene
design in Czecholslovakia.
Action Design, as I interpret it, is
an existentialist approach as distinguished from the essentialist, or the
philosophical viewpoint which gives
priority to existence over essence.
Existentialism comes out of personalized, self-conscious, contemporary
experience. Essentialism is the mode
of thinking which gives priority to
the assigning, defining, explaining, and describing of persons or
concepts.
The essentialist attitude is characterized by being about "outerdirected" concerns which the participant observes, hears, judges,
analyzes, and conceptualizes. Such
concerns may rest with how well a
playscript was written or how well it
was performed, in addition to lying
with the intent for the creation of
scenic illusion.
The existentialist attitude resides
in the intent to achieve an honest,
individualized, direct theatrical experience among the participants.
This participatory theatre experience, as Mr. Unruh suggests, comes
from an emphasis on the actor, work,
and script in the context of an assembly of persons.
The absence of the preconception
of time and place, a characteristic of
Action Design as described by the
Mr. Unruh, is also a characteristic of
existentialism.
continued on p. 46
2

TD&T· SUMMER 1987

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1987