Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2006 - 73

book
reviews
ments, ruins of some fantastic city, the Tower of Babel collapsing, shattering in front of my eyes. I see the memories, shadows of the sets I designed strewn across the landscape as I continue this futile attempt to
rebuild this ideal, invisible, transparent nonexistent city, that can only be
found by traveling inside yourself: The City of Immortals." Most theatres
could probably not afford this vision, even if they wanted it. But Tsypin
has been fortunate in finding collaborators and theatre institutions
around the world that give him the luxury of time, space, money and artistic support to achieve these dreams.
His collapsing skyscraper for West Side Story on the floating stage
on the lake at Bregenz is a towering sculpture of twisted steel that harkens back to Russian Constructivism and Tatlin's famous tower and eerily
prefigures the destruction of the World Trade Center. For the Ring Cycle
in Amsterdam the stage explodes beyond the orchestra ("losing the pit as
its anchor, the orchestra appears to be either onstage or so far in the
house that you cannot distinguish between musicians and audience").
Glass, steel, brushed aluminum, and wood became the motifs and materials for each of the operas, and they were the primary materials for tilting platforms, some of which reached into the balcony. Flames leaped
out from beneath the stage; shards of steel pierced the stage.
The 2003 Ring created with conductor Valery Gergiev at the
Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg is dominated by four giant figures resembling a cross between prehistoric sculptures and science fiction
creatures. The figures move like enormous puppets, the ultimate manifestation of Gordon Craig's übermarionette. Writing about the latter Ring
production (coming to the U.S. in 2007), Tsypin declares, "Our seemingly apolitical approach became strangely subversive. Instead of a
quintessential myth about a German national idea, it was a search for a
universal myth."
Tsypin does not think small, and there is a degree of hubris in his
work. The St. Petersburg Ring, at least in its initial phases, was done
without a stage director. Gergiev and Tsypin conceived and staged the
whole work by themselves. Tsypin is very honest about his understanding
of the role of the designer: "I see my role as a designer of opera as equal
to that of the composer, conductor, and director. But because of the scale
of the space, the demands of today's visual culture, and the structural
rigor of the musical score, the role of the artist sometimes transcends all
others in making a plastic, emotional poem that creates a direct contact
with the music. Sometimes it even goes against the music, but always creates a direct electrical charge between the sculptural space, color, light,
and sound. The paradox of designing an opera is that while you have to
use existing materials on this Earth (the only ones available), you aim at
achieving an emotional impact and creating an atmosphere that is of another world."
Tsypin's approach is not for everyone and not for all situations. But
at a time in which too much theatre seems to be very much of this world,
it is good to be reminded that one role of art is to create something that
cannot be experienced in the normal course of life.
The book, which focuses only on Tsypin's opera work and a few

THEATRE

DESIGN

TECHNOLOGY
SUMMER

2006

other projects, such as the 1999 MTV Music Video Awards, is both awe
inspiring and frustrating. It is beautifully produced, with some 200 pages
of photos on glossy stock. Tyspin's commentary throughout is provocative and poetic, as the above excerpts suggest. But there are few full-stage
photos, so that much of the imagery remains evocative and startling without being informative. It is not always clear just what we are looking at
or, more important, what the experience of the audience was. There is
little sense of the whole and absolutely no sense of how things were constructed. The brief introduction by Grigory Revzin reinforces the historical roots of Tsypin's work and explains a bit about his process. The
afterword by Julie Taymor is little more than an extended dust jacket
blurb. But for anyone interested in the art of theatrical design, this book
is essential; and for anyone interested in seeing what has happened to the
ideas of Appia and Craig, this book will provide some real food for
thought.
Arnold Aronson is associate dean of the School of the Arts at
Columbia University. His most recent book is Looking into the
Abyss: Essays on Scenography.

Practical Health and Safety Guidelines for
School Theater Operations
Assessing the Risks in Middle, Junior, and Senior High
School Theater Buildings and Programs
by Randall W. A. Davidson.
Littleton, Colorado: Risk
International Publishing, 2005.
430pp. ISBN: 0977452506,
cloth, $75.
Reviewed by David R. Krajec
To write a book addressing
the health and safety issues in
secondary school theatres
would seem to be a daunting
task. However, after reading
this much needed compendium from Randall Davidson,
risk analyst and assessor for Risk International & Associates and a world-renowned consultant in all aspects of the entertainment industry, I feel that he
has accepted the challenge superbly and provided us with a valuable resource for this neglected audience.
To my knowledge, this is the first book that targets the particulars of
safety in the secondary school theatre. Davidson is a long-time member
of USITT (40+ years) and is commissioner emeritus of the Health and
Safety Commission. He also is the founder of the International Secondary
Education Theater Safety Association and active on National Fire Protec-

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