Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1991 - 46

that are so impressionistic that you could
not put them into a typical American
shop and expect anyone ro know what to
do. This suggests to me that either
designers in these countries work with
well-trained assistants with whom they
have a more than fleeting relationship
(rare in the American regional theatre)
or that the designer is in residence and
available to the shop continuously to
provide interpretation and make decisions throughout the production process. Perhaps the build period is more
process oriented than our typical shop
situation where there is litrle room or
funding to develop the final producr in
an experimental fashion. Or perhaps the
design work as an individual statement
of a particular artist is less important ro
individual artists and the responsibility
for controlling the details of realization
is shared with assistants and associates.
I believe that much of this has been
true in varying degrees for state-supported theatres and it will be interesting to
see if there is a change in the future. It is
also possible that some of these very
loosely rendered sketches are not even
intended for presentation to a shop, but
are meant for display or work with the
director. Sometimes, of course, there is

that extraordinary synthesis where the
sketch as information is balanced with
the idea of the sketch as art. In any case,
there was an extraordinary range of rendering methods, styles and approaches
in the exhibit as a whole that was interesting to me for what was implied about
how designers must function within
their theatres.
The student exhibits, tucked unceremoniously down in the parking garage
of the Culture Palace, actually contained
some of the most adventuresome work.
This will always be the case with work
that is not produced, since economic
constraints are not an issue. This section
of the exhibit also provided some
extraordinary insigh ts into the training
of young designers. American training
methods tend to focus, I believe, on
script analysis and interpretation, the
uses of research, concept development
and production process. It also seems
that we may have less stringent standards
in what we demand of students in the
way of drawing and technical skills.
What I saw of many of the European
design schools led me to believe that
whole sections of study are spent simply
in developing creativity and the visual
imagination apart from the theatrical

discipline or the business of producing
shows. Many of the study exercises on
display seem to be calculated to develop
technical (drawing) skills or free the creative imagination and expand the ability
to envision and observe in ways that are
experimental, whimsical and impractical. American design training, I believe,
tends to focus on what is practical and
possible. W/e tty to teach as much as we
can about how the theatre operates and
how to function within that structure
and that business.
I have made certain suppositions and
generalizations about how things are
based on my observations and I apologize for any ignorance of the facts or limitations of scope. Aside from my personal fascination with what designers are
doing with textural and painted effects
in costume, of which I saw relatively little, the most notable fearure of the
PQ'91 exhibit was what the displays had
to say about how we work, what we
value and how we are feeling about the
world.
ffi

Jeannie Davidson is the Resident CostIIme DesignerfOr the Oregon Shakespeare
Festival in Ashland, OR.

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1991