Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 2023 - 60

Nora Evison (left) and Roman Jones (right) responded to PQ performances with dimensional projects. | Images courtesy Evison, Jones, and Shane Kelly.
Vltava river; and in 2015, as associate director
for education/production manager
for Street Stories, performances presented
at Jungmanov Square. Given my experience,
I tried to prepare my students for the
events we would be a part of across the festival.
These included an audio recording of
the Amazon experienced while in Brasilian
hammocks, a color-changing costume that
is affected by UV rays and water as the
performer moves along the shore and then
swims in the Vltava, a shadow puppet performance
about housing in South Korea,
a community project building memories
from stock props and scenery, and a single
artist writing her text on the ground using
water and a paint roller.
The response prompt for the performances
sought a scenographic point of
view. Students were asked to include how
they might have approached this performance
from an ecoscenographic standpoint,
how what they saw may inspire
them to adapt it to their craft, how location
works in the piece, or how the work
is sustainable. One student explored place
through sound by taking the guest on an
audio journey through Prague during their
daily commute (elevator, breakfast cart,
tram, etc.). Another student reacted to the
doom and danger of a Chorus of Immortal
Toxins, while another commented on the
challenges of viewing a large cube of polystyrene-the
Slovakia country exhibition,
Home is Warmth-through an ecoscenographic
lens. This student noted " one of
my initial thoughts was, they are exploring
the creation of home, yet they are doing
something that is actively harmful to their
home-our planet-by using and destroying
a large cube of foam. "
Learning and Jamming
Twice during the PQ we held Jam Sessions
60 | THEATRE DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY | FALL 2023
with all our students-arts writers and
scenographers-to collaborate and devise
work inspired by and building on
their experiences in Prague. The first Jam
Session explored telling ecological stories
and using place as a part of storytelling.
The group jumped off from Jane Alison's
article " Beyond the Narrative Arc " from
The Paris Review in March 2019, which
advocates for considering a close connection
between the matter or content and the
form when exploring narrative. Using a
web, crystal, spiral, double-helix, or any of
the myriad forms and patterns that nature
creates to form our narratives can connect
us to the nature at the heart of the story.
The students not only explored the shapes
and patterns in the park in Prague, but
also considered natural phenomena such
weather and relationships in the world.
After a week of rumination and further
PQ exploration, the group gathered for another
Jam Session to develop the patterns,
relationships, shapes, and narratives into
potential performances. While some students
were challenged by the initial task of
imagining and creating of lists of patterns
and shapes in relationship to story when
everyone returned to build these ecological
structures into performance, everyone
thrived. The students created sketches of
pieces both for Prague and for their home
campus in Chicago, with at least one
group planning the implementation of that
performance this academic year.
As a part of the class focus on ecoscenography,
the students met with Ian
Garrett, co-founder and director of The
Concept drawings for ecoscenographic performances
in Prague by Grace Adams (left) and Kirsten Krieman
(right). | Images courtesy Adams, Krieman, and
Shane Kelly.

Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 2023

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