Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2001 - 17

As a designer who has
been the victim of a
director whose knowledge,
vision and talent were
unequal to the job, I liked
breathing the air in the
ESC's environment.

guage. A powerful image was of two women
pushing wire shopping carts that had computer monitors in them with prerecorded images playing. I found the experience
fascinating, but I was amazed to learn afterwards that the subject of the performance had
been the dysfunctional family as a metaphor
for the European Union. All three performance
pieces were time-based and progressed imagistically through a narrative that was visually
quite exciting but which I found difficult to interpret. This second project raised questions in the
group about the viability of collaborative author-

Rose Brand; PMS185; new
film; drop rules

W I N T E R

2 0 0 1

TD & T

ship. Brooks articulated the course's need to
guide these primarily visual artists to conceive
and structure a narrative that can communicate with a general audience. Some students
wondered if they had stories to tell that would
be interesting to anyone other than themselves? And even if they did, could they develop
the skills required to tell their stories?
The third and final studio effort of Phase
One of the courses was described as a "notional
project" and it occupied the final four weeks of
the autumn. Each student created a short version of the Independent Research Project, this
time on the assigned theme, "Britain's relationship with the sea." Working individually,
though with regular tutorial consultation with
Brooks, each student created a short theatrical
or video presentation containing a narrative element which was either original or based on a
non-dramatic text. The sole American student,
by way of example, based his work on Captains Courageous. His lengthy modelbook
documented an impressive effort of research,
analysis and creative process.
Fish and Ships was the whimsical title
given to the students' nineteen installations
that were exhibited in a purpose-built gallery.
The viewer/audience stood in a narrow hallway that had rectangular holes cut at eye-level
into the wall on each side. The individual installations were viewed through these holes. I was reminded of a bank of television monitors in an
appliance store or of a carnival peep-show. The
installations varied from live actors silently
miming an underwater scene, to a laptop computer with changing images on its screen, to a
model for a traditional scene design (Figure
8). The craftsmanship was impressive, as was
the variety of artistic visions the works revealed. I found Fish and Ships intriguing, but
while I understood the relation of each installation to the assigned theme, I wondered what
a general audience would make of this esoteric
display. I listened as some students voiced curiosity about how this exercise would lead to
their ability to create scenography that speaks
to the world at large.
I have tried to assimilate the flood of information and experiences of my four-monthlong observation of the ESC's next generation. I
was very favorably impressed by the multi-cultural
and cross-disciplinary premise of the course, and
I could see how the students' varied aesthetics,
technological expertises and scenographic
practices informed their individual and collective work. These scenographers are on the
threshold of imagining a brave new world.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2001