Teatro de Rua
The Observer and The Observed
Jessica Little Architectural Thesis Material and Form Masters unit University of Dundee 2015 090006563
Abstract
Teatro de Rua "Theatre demonstrates architecture, playing on exactly the issues of interpersonal relationships in space that architects engage most pointedly in designing buildings for public space and urban life. Through theatre, a designer may explore physical and social space in real time, at a real scale, and with real people" (Read, 2013) The two essential elements of any type of performance are a performer and an audience. These can exist in a whole manner of different formats, the performance could be that of music, dance, a piece of art but in order for a particular moment to exist as a performance there must be the presence of an observer. Architecture is often concerned with the control and augmentation of the relationship between watchers and watched. The place in which it most consciously does so is within the theatre auditorium. Fundamentally however, the idea of the theatre building as public space can be problematic in its contemporary construct. By returning the theatre experience to its ritualistic routes of outdoor activity and public gathering, the accessibility is opened up and the hierarchical nature that some theatre buildings have been known to adopt in post 18th century models is broken down. Taking Porto as a setting, the dichotomy of the watcher and the watched being simultaneously held together but somehow kept apart seems a prevalent presence in the streets of the historic centre. Porto readily exhibits theatrical qualities, the illusionary propped building facades, extreme topography and layers of balcony surveillance give the city a dramatic presence. This thesis sets up
a framework for the re-appropriation of theatrical space through Porto’s culture of street performance, creating a setting for dramatic performance that references Portugal's festival tradition. In order to define and create a sequence of theatrical spaces, examining different interactions between performer and audience, a series of Samuel Beckett plays was selected as the initial programme. The plays of Samuel Beckett offer a tableaux of social interaction and create spectacle from the quintessential nature of humanity. Each play was selected due to exhibiting a different relationship between the space of the performer and the space of the audience. They define a typological series of performer-audience divides. In this study, the spaces designed to house the performances are positioned in an outdoor or partially external environment along a processionary route from Sé do Porto down to Rua Mouzinho da Silveira. The designed spaces must now negotiate between the urban street setting and the setting of the performance, between the mediated space of performer and audience and the unmediated space of city setting and incidental observer. Noises, activities, people and architecture outside of the scripted action are, in places, allowed to permeate into the space of the performance. As Peter Brook tells us of unorthodox theatre locations there is a great “value of chance factors in an uncontrolled environment” (2003, p62) and, by allowing the city environment to permeate the performance space, the audience is “capable of using their imagination to join things together… it is unnecessary to provide a complete image” (2003, p64). Similarly, the Beckett performances are enriched by their new, somewhat alien setting. Although the scripts themselves are obviously not site specific to Porto, the embedded performance spaces allow them to create a dialogue with the city and its life.
Fig. 1
Rake Seating
Contents
8 The Body in Space Masters unit introduction 18 Spaces of Performance 26 The Architecture of Seperation and Relation 30 The Architecture of Event 36 Kinetic and Potenial Energy of the Stage Machine 42 Observing and being Observed City as Theatre 46 Porto Dramatic city 50 Thesis Method Teatro de Rua 56 Image References 58 Bibliography 60 Appendix Beckett in Porto
Fig. 2, 1:30 Scale model. Timber, balsa, waxed string, pins. 8
Material and Form Masters Unit introductory task
The Body in Space “Exquisite Corpse was a perfect parlour game, involving elements of unpredictability, chance, unseen elements, and group collaboration—all in service of disrupting the waking mind’s penchant for order.”(MoMA, 2005) The topics of this thesis found their routes on a trip to Porto, Portugal. As an introduction to the Material and Form masters unit, each individual (joining together as a group for some parts) completed a 6 week opening task. The assignment was structured using a working method favoured by surrealist artists of the early 20th century, “the exquisite corpse”. This process involved each development only being revealed at intermittent stages so that at no point were the subsequent stages or final outcome evident. Working in such a manner meant that each step was unhindered by preconceived notions of a finished piece. The steps themselves also involved a seemingly unfamiliar way of working, creating abstract drawings and forms beginning from an event captured and recorded in Porto. Through discussion and reflection predominantly on the final element of the “exquisite corpse task”, the 1:30 model, themes and ideas were identified for potential further investigation within the thesis. In addition to operating as a scaled representation of an imagined architectural space, the model now becomes a mechanism and a framework for constructing an ongoing narrative. Tension Performance Potential energy Drawing in space 9
Above, initial photographic collage of performers painting in the street in porto, same moment photographed by several people from various viewpoints in the street. Below tranformed into drawn study of viewpoins.
This drawing was then taken into the modeling program Rhino and a 3d form was extrapolated from it
Fig. 3 (left) and 4 (right), Sequence of stages from the “body in space� task 10
Solid created from planar form, space the given different scales via figures
Below, Physical model created of form to 1: 30 scale
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Fig. 5, The Mac, Belfast. Photograph of the foyer space where the opposing geometries of the building functions push against one another.
Fig. 6 Caruso St Johns suspended accoustic ceiling in the Barbican theatre audotorium
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The model relies upon the physical tension between the strings and the balsa wood from which the suspended curves are formed. The outer frame provides anchor points for the threads which pull the timber into the extreme arcs of what the material can take, the timber resists against this force, drawing the strings taught. Each of these two elements can only exist in such a form because of the force produced by the other. Although trying to recreate the form from the previous step in the exercise as closely as possible, the material constraint meant that this form again shifted and became a direct experimentation with material and the form it can create. The balsa was physically bent to the point of failure and then held in place with the fewest cables possible to form the desired surface. The material limits of the anticipated space were tested. In addition to the physical tensile force shaping the materials, there is a perceived psychological tension between the various elements of the model. Tension between the conflicting geometries of the frame and the suspended shapes within it, tension between the container and contained, tension between the two imagined spaces captured by the form. Taking a space in an existing building as example, perhaps the idea of tension can be created programmatically and then resolved in a physical manner. Hall McKnight’s Arts venue in Belfast, The Mac, revolves around two separate volumes, each containing a different performance space, coming together. Conflicting geometries of the plan jut up to each other, separated by the entrance lobby. This lobby space becomes a mediator between the two entities, holding them both together and apart. It is the tense space of the building, belonging to neither form but crucial to connecting the two together. The space is charged, feeling as though the walls may close together or spring apart at any moment.
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Fig. 7, Allan Wexler, Desk, 2009, wood, brick, latex paint, wax.
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Spaces which are constantly mediating the tension between two distinct elements are that of performance. There is a dialogue between the space of the performance and the space of the audience. In order to create a performer/performance divide. There must be a distinction between the two and yet they must also be held together for a length of time to facilitate the audience’s attention being captured by the performance. This separation between the observer and that which is being observer can occur on a number of levels. It can range from the space merely being defined by the performer’s body and the congregating audience members, such as a busker on a street, to a much higher level of intervention and divide such as the stage and seating of a theatre building. The undulating curves of the interior form of the model are in fact almost reminiscent of the acoustic paneling of a large scale auditorium and the negotiation between the formal outer frame and the contrasting form it supports seem suggestive of a theatre section. It is fitting then perhaps that the initial movement (or event) recorded for this exquisite corpse exercise was that of a performer (two people painting on the street) and their relationship to the various observers in the street. Visually, the kinetics of how the model has been constructed are quite apparent. The movement of bending, the tying of the anchors and even the tightening devices on the strings can be clearly read. This expressed assembly is somewhat mechanical in its nature and the model certainly resembles some sort of machine. It stores the potential energy of its assembly, much like a bow string, and holds in in place. For this reason, it seems as though the parts have the potential to keep bending and turning, moving within the frame. Looking to artists who pursue elements of architecture, machinery and potential energy within sculpture, Allan Wexler’s work seems to encompass these qualities. Wexler’s sculptures often take everyday objects and mechanise them, his works monumentalise the daily mundane and turn ordinary objects into performance pieces of 15
Fig.8, Caroline Broadhead, Chair, 2009, timber, wire, thread
Fig.9 Diller and Scofidio Slow house 1991 , projective drawing. 16
sculpture. The dynamics of the everyday activities such as sitting or eating are transformed into compelling spaces which contain them. His pieces seem to play on our normal conceptions of space and scale and create poetic apparatus that upset our standard construct of building. Wexler uses sculpture and scale model to theorise architectural fundamentals such as occupation, site and construction and express them such that their potential to engage with, and react to, the human body is visually apparent. Venturing the model as a projection of a drawing into a three dimensional space, Caroline Brodhead’s work appears to be a close reference. Her piece “Chair” describes the space a chair occupies using only strings within a timber frame. She subtracts the article down to its most linear form, taking away its material, its surface, its solidity and yet it still remains a very tangible facsimile of the original form. Similarly to the exquisite corpse model, each “line” of Broadhead’s sculpture is dependent on another and the suspended form in its seeming temporality relies on the solidity and permanence of the frame. The work of architecture studio Diller, Scofidio and Renfro often seems to reference a similar idea of perceiving architecture as a “drawing in space”, projecting the notional lines of a drawing into a built object. Their work often integates elements of architecture, visual and performing arts.
The themes identified in this exercise have gone on to formulate and inform the ongoing thesis topics discussed in this document. They are viewed in in relation to the prescribed setting of the Unit’s work in the city of Porto.
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Fig.10, Teatro Olympico, Palladio constructed 1585. Sets designed later by Scamozzi, use techniques of tilting the floors and contracting the angle between the street walls and the heights of their building facades to make foreshortened streets in perspective. This way the theatre building seems to contain an city within its finite space. 18
Spaces of Performance The two essential elements of any type of performance are a performer and an audience. These can exist in a whole manner of different formats, the performance could be that of music, dance, a piece of art but in order for a particular moment to exist as a performance there must be the presence of an observer. Usually this role of observer is occupied by the public, whether intentionally watching or incidentally glancing upon an event, they surreptitiously become part of the performance itself. Architecture is often concerned with the control and augmentation of the relationship between watchers and watched. The place in which it most consciously does so is within the theatre auditorium. Michel Foucault’s “Of Other Places” (1967) focuses around spaces which, as suggested by the title, allow a strange connection to other places by disturbing or reversing the relationships through which we can reflect or conceive them. A heterotopia creates an imaginary condition which serves to highlight its inexistence elsewhere, it is a space distinguished from the “real” world but which resonates with it. One of Foucault’s main examples of a heterotopia is a theatre. The theatre in his theory becomes both a physical and cerebral space where people come together to experience a shared moment in time. It is the lens through which we interpret our social and political society. “The heterotopia is capable of juxtaposing in a single real place several spaces, several sites that are in themselves incompatible. Thus it is that the theater brings onto the rectangle of the stage, one after the other, a whole series of places that are foreign to one another…”(Foucault, 1967, p73)
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Proscenium
Thrust
In the round
Traverse
Free form
Fig.11, Theatre Audotoria Arrangements 20
Consequently the theatre stands as a highly significant object for facilitating the unique experience of merging reality and fiction. In its built form it provides the stable environment conceived to persist beyond the ephemeral activities it houses. Traditionally the theatre building acts as the container for the performance. The permanent space is read though the temporary staged event within it. Often these staged theatrical events are seen as a mirror of society: “Theatre is the place where the life of a society is shown in public to that society, where that society’s assumptions are exhibited and tested, its values are scrutinized, its myths are validated, and its traumas become emblems of reality. It is a public event, and it is about matters of public concern”(McGrath, 1981, p76) In this theory, the theatre functions as the camera obscura of all which is outside of it and allows for the discourse of a society to be presented before it. By bringing together representations of the outside world into a singular moment it provides a catalyst for the scrutiny of social and political ideologies. The theatre therefore becomes the physical symbol for gathering together members of the public to partake in a shared experience. Fundamentally however, the idea of the theatre building as space for public gathering can be problematic in its contemporary construct. The institutionalisation of containing a performance within a facility, where you generally pay to cross the threshold into the auditorium, means that it is no longer a universally accessible experience. It places the event under a distinct ownership. Wihstutz maintains that the hierarchy and arrangement of seating and stage in the post 18th century European theatre means that better viewpoints often come at a higher price and hereby the theatre takes on a political role (2013). “The size of theatres was reduced, confrontational seating arrangements were developed… boxes were created for magistrates and other privileged guests” (Wihstutz, 2013, p133) 21
Fig.12 (top) Image depicting historical public gathering for relgious preaching and Fig. 13 modern street gathering for a buskers performance in Covent Gardens, London
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This is of course not true of the archaic roots of theatre in public gathering and street performance “Theatre began as ritual, with tribal dances and festivals celebrating the harvest, marriages, gods, war and basically any other event that warranted a party. People all over the world congregated in villages. It was a participatory kind of theatre” (Shakespeare Theatre Company, 2010) By returning the theatre experience to an outdoor activity in a public space, it opens up the accessibility and breaks down the hierarchical nature that some theatre buildings have been known to adopt in post 18th century models. In the truly public gathering, the viewer becomes aware of themselves as part of a social group that has joined together for the performance. The audience can now recognise the communal nature of theatre rather than standing in individual contemplation. Theatre becomes not only a place to see, but a place to be seen by others and a mode through which to see the surrounding world. The performance placed into the public space becomes a place of heightened public creativity and offers a resistance to an institutional imperative. Again, Wihstutz argues for a return to the more democratic routes of theatre, “open air theatres offered a view across the city space, were well integrated into the environment and also remained visible from the outside. This type of openness too would change when theatres withdrew indoors” (2013, p132).
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Fig. 14, Peter Brook’s performance space in The Callet Quarry, Boulbon 1985 24
Furthermore, theatre practitioners such as Peter Brook and Richard Schechner argue that theatre created outside of the typical theatre space or in an unconventional format allows for “a more fluid situation, sometimes to the performance being controlled by the spectators” (Schechner, 1968, p95). In fact Brook often returns to the ancient Greek format of the circular theatre, frequently in an external space so as to create a sense of mutual awareness and environmental involvement: “The audience forms a circle of community… this form opens itself up to the possibilities of chance interaction, inviting a subtle destabilization of the dichotomy of ‘us’- audience- versus ‘them’Performers. Furthermore, the selection of the spaces themselves denotes an openness to the independent reality of things. “(Lecat and Todd, 2003, p 4)
So rather than the audience and the performer being strictly stratified to distinct areas of an auditorium space, perhaps a freer spatial set up, could allow a richer significance to the performance. Where the lines between audience, performer and site become more fluid.
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Seat
Recess
Frame
Platform
Enclosure
Fig. 15, Defining the Performer 26
The Architecture of Separation and Relation Any piece of dramatic art will, inevitably, require some degree of separation between actor and audience in such a way that the performance can draw focus and attention from the onlookers. Often the most significant dividing factor and one that is the most readily recognisable as a detached space for performance is the stage. The performance must be highlighted as the focus point whilst at the same time creating a sense of relation to the action such that the spectator is engaged as part of the scene. Thus the staging of dramatic theatre and the creation of spaces to facilitate it, becomes a balancing act of spatial and human relationships. The design must create a close performer audience relationship whilst still allowing a functional distinction between the two. This generation and control of human relationship through constructed space is itself a fundamental of architectural design, consequently: “theatre demonstrates architecture, playing on exactly the issues of interpersonal relationships in space that architects engage most pointedly in designing buildings for public space and urban life. Through theatre, a designer may explore physical and social space in real time, at a real scale, and with real people� (Read, 2013) This separation and relation of one person to another and to the collective group is inherently more difficult to mediate and control in an external or found setting than in the enclosed theatre building. But the performance now has the opportunity to be enriched by features and environments external to it. The designed space of a performance, occupying that which is outside of the previously discussed traditional theatre has the option to either create an entirely new setting by totally obscuring and converting an existing space or can negotiate a tension with the existing condition and create a scenic dialogue within a site. 27
Fig. 15, Examples of site specific or orientated theatre from lowest level of built intervention to highest . Top, Punchdrunk Theatre company specialise in site-specific performance.. Often they create the separation between performer and audience, not by a physical distinction of the space but by the audience wearing masks throughout the performance. Within most of their work, the audience will not be seated but allowed to travel around the space as they please, the action leading them to new locations. Middle, Abberant Architectures tiny travelling theatre allows performances to take place in numerous locations. Bottom, Reno Piano’s Valletta city gate.The open air theater preserves the ruins with steel masts. The sky and surrounding buildings become the ceiling and backdrop for performances. 28
Regardless of the imposed level of built intervention, performance designs are concerned with the creation of a moment of suspended belief, whereby “real” physical space and the “unreal” actions of the performer can be experienced in unison. Whilst some of this is coded by the script, director and actors, other aspects are certainly accounted for by the physical space of the performance. Architectural elements such as lighting, stage, enclosure, frame, seating and acoustics heavily dictate the atmosphere of a performance space even in the open air setting. Ultimately, the architectural design of the performance space is concerned with the creation of a spectacle from the event occurring within it. “The spectacle is not a collection of images; rather, it is a social relationship between people that is mediated by images… Thus the spectacle, though it turns reality on its head, is itself a product of real activity”. From The society of The Spectacle (Debord, 1983)
The One Consciousness of Performer
Awe
Consciousness of Audience
The Many
Fig 16. Performance diagram 29
Fig 17. Tschumi drawing from The Manhattan Transcripts, progression from cinema still, to movement diagram, to suggestion of three dimensional form 30
The Architecture of event
Bernard Tschumi and Jacques Derrida were both, and still are, major protagonists in the movement of Deconstructivism, which found its roots in the 1980’s. Where Derrida sought to subvert notions of formality and power through the deconstruction of literature and textual meaning, Tschumi’s work sustains a similar theory through the separation of architectural form from historical language. Both explore a perception of reality through the notion of Architecture as “Event”. “Our work argues that architecture- its social relevance and formal intervention- cannot be dissociated from the events that “happen” in it” (Tschumi, 1996) Architecture is capable with its material and also its figurative presence, of occupying not only space but also time. So rather than the architecture being constructed as merely a container for a specific occasion, it is itself an event, occupying a specific moment. Tschumi and Derrida argue for an architecture that directly influences and alters the activities within it. “The dimension of the event is subsumed in the very structure of the architecture apparatus: sequence, open series, narrative, the cinematic, dramaturgy, choreography” (Derrida, 1986)
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Fig 18 (top) and Fig 19. Tschumi and Derrida worked together on the Parc de la Villette follies Paris, 1982-1998. 32
Rather than constructing a narrative through traditional architectural symbolism and language, Tschumi suggests an architecture defining space through movement alone without an independent and prior system of reference. He exchanges the notion of function and program with that of event and uses human physicality as a way to define the parameters of space. The architecture in this scenario no longer serves as a passive background to life happening before it but becomes “the place that confronts spaces and actions” (Tschumi, 1996). Tschumi’s philosophy of event seems to imply an unremitting relationship with movement. The Manhattan transcripts often depict frames of human action or a series of locations, implying movement between the different areas. He transcribes episodes of city experience using photographs and architectural drawings and, particularly in the final two chapters, gives these actions a three dimensional presence. The drawings embody the lines of force created by various activities and are almost a way of capturing the motion of the physical activity and the potential force in the space which the activity inhabits. The specific geometry of the inhabitation of the spaces become the form itself It could be argued that Tschumi’s architecture of event is in fact striving to be an architecture of movement. Whether or not this is fully realized in his somewhat static structures remains open to interpretation but, much of the human experience of architecture is indeed felt through movement. Even when much of the body is static, experience is still often dependent on the movement of the eye, across planes, around surfaces, into spaces. On a social level of public and private, people are very much programmed to know how to move in relation to certain spaces. Behavior within rooms of a private home would be observably different from behaviour 33
Fig 20 Alex Schweders, Stability, Doorway and Counterweight Roomate all rely on observer becoming part of the action to enact their full performance.
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in a public space. We subconsciously know how to react to certain spaces and buildings provide a set of instructions as to how you should perform within them. Not only does architecture impact psychologically on movement but also on a level of kinaesthesia, it has a physical impact on people’s bodies provoking various reactions dependent on the design. One might stoop through a doorway which seems small or stand tall in a high space. In this way the architecture prompts us to perform not only on a social and political level but also physically perform in a certain way. Alex Schweders work provides a more fluid relationship between body and space than the work of Tschumi, although he too is highly absorbed in altering the relationship between occupier and occupied. His performing installation pieces carry the notion that relationships between spaces and subjects are permeable and he creates structures that are physically altered by their occupation. His work emphasises the observer of a performance installation becoming a participant in the event. Spectators become participants in the overall piece, their movements choreographed, controlled and sometimes even recorded by the built structure. “...a subject first perceives his or her environment and is then changed by that perception. This person in turn alters their environment to make it correspond to their fantasy. This process continues until the scrimmage of objects and subjects produces an architecture where referring to the two as distinct becomes irrelevant.” (Schweder 2013) Schweder and Tschumi both attempt to demonstrate architecture and the built form as a performance in itself. This is often realised through movement and occupation .
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Kinetic energy noun, Physics.
The energy of a body or a system with respect to the motion of the body or of the particles in the system.
Potential energy noun, Physics.
The energy of a body or a system with respect to the position of the body or the arrangement of the particles of the system.
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Kinetic and potential Energy of the Stage Machine
“(T)he structure and the architecture of a space has always been an integral part of the image on screen, forming the boundaries of the artists’ mise en scène, and yet this bounding nature does not make the space just a container for human performers. The space can also be understood as enacting performance in its own right.”(MacInnes,2014) Theatre machinery means that the modern theatre often possesses the potential to physically move and change into a multitude of different formats. Often completely hidden from view, shrouded by the veil of the auditorium, are the stage mechanics. They play an integral part in the creation of the space of the performance and regularly play a role in the performance itself. But perhaps the stage machinery and workings of the theatre could come to be part of the overall aesthetic and lucid part of the performance, both during a staged event and the moments of inactivity of the space. The following pages illustrate a series of ways in which elements, some specific to theatre and others with the possibility to be appropriated to the theatre building, can embody and express kinetic and potential energy. The kinetic aspect is often the performance actually moving and reshaping whereas the potential might be the spectators seeing beyond the prospect of the actual space that is being offered. The elements consist of: Floor - Stage Wall- Scenery Ceiling- Fly Tower, Rig Furniture- Props, Objects 37
Floor “dianissino architecttura of swarming elevators, conveyor belts, and suspended catwalks� (Salter 2010)
Platform Hoist
Hydraulic stage Moving seating
Trap Door
Escalator Travelator Centre Pompidou
Fig.21 38
Wall “inside can become outside… the walls shift as in a troubling memory” (Cameron, 1986) “At times, this action is hidden as in the sense of the building’s response to weather on its climate control systems, while at other times it is made distinctly visible/audible, in the case of a media façade that becomes an animated surface for displaying hidden processes” (Salter, 2010) Rolling scenery Rotating sets
Safety curtain, moving wall Kungdig Gallery Facade
Projection Mirror Diller and Scofidio, Moving Image
Fig.22 39
Ceiling “The action in the scenes staged here is elevated above the viewer, so that one’s vision is drawn upwards… The center of the bridge is a moment: a location that is no longer here but not yet there” (Cameron, 1986)
Opening Sky Gdansk Shakespearean Theatre
Rig Lighting Troika installation
Fly Scenery Lowering Lifting Wyly Theatre
Fig.23 40
Furniture “Fittings and Furnishings are to rooms as clothing to actors. They reveal character. The furniture stands around, conspicuous or inconspicuous, old fashioned or super modern, and is used or gets in the way” (Schaal 1996) “the histories of animate objects such as self-propelling mechanical figures, statues, and robots seem curiously tied up with theatrical performance’s similar history of obsession with puppets and performing objects.” (Salter, 2010) Toys Cloud machine Sabbatini
Inflateables Pichler Schweder
Chairs and Tables Wexler
Fig.24 41
Fig.25 , Hitchcock’s Rear window, the housebound protagonist entertains himself with the performance of his neighbors. “The city is a trap. One of the basic threats within the mirrored labyrinth of the city is losing one’s own ego” ( Dieter Schaal, 1996) The performers are no longer subjects in themselves but objects of the performance.
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Observing and being Observed The city as Theatre
Referring to Jacques Lacan’s concept of The Gaze from The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis (1964), human behaviour is controlled and altered by the sensation of being watched. The Gaze creates an acute awareness in the subject that they are an object of another’s observation. Assuming therefore that people undertake a certain social role when they enter the public gaze, every space then contains the potential to become a space of performance. Almost all social interaction incorporates some element of this performance, someone performs whilst another watches. Never are we more aware of being relentlessly watched than in the dense urban environment. The architecture of the city constructs countless opportunities to observe and be observed. “I see only from one point but, in my existence, I am looked at from all sides” (lacan, 1964) Assuming then that our everyday public lives are then in fact a task of performance it seems apt to compare the city, where this sense of commonplace performance is heightened, to the theatre. Peter Brook poses that any space to have the potential of becoming a theatre: “I can take an empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks across this empty space whilst someone else is watching him, and this is all that is needed for an act of theatre to be engaged” (Brook, 2008, p10)
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Fig.26 , Multiple levels of balconies and windows offering surveilance over the Porto historic core 44
In fact the city has long been paralleled to the theatre in architectural theory and “public space frequently is arranged as if for a theatrical performance” (Boyer, 1994). Boyer in “The City of Collective Memory” (1994) tracks the historical development and changes of the theatre interior in relation to the changing society and city housing it. Boyer shows that the two have often been intertwined as ways to test each other. Gray Read’s analysis of The Experiments of Art Et Action even goes as far as to parallel the architects work to that of the theatre director (2014). Both work in a realm subsumed in preparation of future events, both construct human interactions via spatial relationships and both must allow their creations to play out in an unpredictable way. Every room in the city is a stage and every façade becomes a backdrop for the interactions of the street before it. There are places to enter on to the stage (to the public gaze) and exit, props and scenery and a constructed setting for potential interactions between people. “In the same way that buildings and cities create and preserve culture and a particular way of life, cinema illuminates the cultural archaeology of both the time of its making and the era it depicts. Both forms of art define the dimensions and essence of existential space: they both create experiential scenes of life situations” (Pallasma, 2001, p13) Thus the city becomes an infrastructure of scenes, some proposed and constructed by architects and others that have developed naturally over time which are then populated by the members of its society. “Outside the movies, mise-en-scene surrounds us every day. The architecture of a town might be described as a public mise-enscene.” (Corrigan, 2008,p42) 45
Fig.27 , Propped building Porto, seemingly whole from other side, then revealed to be pinned facade only. 46
The Dramatic City of Porto
The notion of the city as a theatre or theatrical setting seems particularly notable in relation to Porto. Theatricality can exist in many forms, here it is identified as a means of estrangement that transforms life into a spectacle both on stage and in reality. It is that which makes the mundane into ritual. Porto is peppered with these seemingly theatrical elements. Here not only is there the underlying feeling of being watched in a city environment but there is a magnified tendency for observing the streets and city life as part of the social culture. This is particularly apparent through countless levels of surveillance from the balconies which line many of the buildings of the historical core. Similarly to many southern European cities of temperate climate, there is a culture of sitting outside on your doorstep or in fact moving chairs into the street to watch the world go by The people moving around the city become the performance for the seated spectators. The density and typography of Porto dictates a strict sequence of viewing the city (much like the frames of a film) the viewer’s eye can only follow a predetermined route through the narrow streets. As Jean Nouvel states, “In the continuous shot sequence that building is, the architect works with cuts and edits, framings and openings.� (2001) The extreme topography of the city of Porto certainly dictates an extreme control over the sequence in which the city is viewed. Sometimes openings allow the entire city scape to be observed whilst at other moments in the narrow streets only very limited views are offered. This is intrinsically dramatic and this film-set like, and the aesthetic is exaggerated by interruptions which show that some 47
Fig.28 , Framed views dictated by narrow streets opening out to reveal vistas 48
of the building facades are merely that, propped to retain the line of the street but with no enclosure behind them. Spaces of drama tend to have a temporal dimension and these interruptions demonstrate the impermanence of the street buildings. Further examining Porto as a setting of drama, the culture is very much driven by the notion of events. At many times throughout the year there are festivals held to celebrate various saints. The most notable of these is the festival of São João which takes place in June and is a huge celebration of the patron saint of lovers. The processional nature of this festival activity massively increases occupation of aspects of the city, amplifying the social drama of the street and public outdoor spaces. The streets are given almost a ceiling of temporary bunting and populated at every opportunity by extra furniture of chairs, tables and stalls. The streets are transformed from corridor space to event space. “The tide of whistle-blowing locals flows into the precipitous labyrinth of narrow streets tumbling downhill from São Bento station to the river front Cais da Ribeira. This is where Porto’s best bars and restaurants are to be found, but during the festival they are outnumbered by hastily erected barbecues, stalls selling Superbock beer and makeshift stages blaring out live music varying from pop and rock to traditional fado.”(Guardian, 2004)
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Fig.29 , Festa de S達o Jo達o do Porto, Street decoration
Fig.30 , Performers during the festival
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Thesis Method The concluding portion of this thesis sets out a method for designing open air theatrical space in the predetermined location of Porto. It is drawn from the investigation and context laid out in the previous chapters.
Rua Teatro In order to define and create a sequence of theatrical spaces, examining different interactions between performer and audience, a series of Samuel Beckett plays was selected as the initial programme. The plays of Samuel Beckett offer a tableaux of social interaction and create spectacle from the quintessential nature of humanity. Beckett stringently defined movements and settings within his scripts and was notoriously fastidious about the staging of his work. As was recently published in The Guardian his estate still heavily polices productions of his plays to ensure they ring true to Beckett’s vision (Moss, 2012). The scenes he constructed are purposefully void of a specific visual narrative, allowing the audience to illustrate and interpret them through their own personal experience, Katharine Worth says of Becketts work, “it is a special mark of his dramatic genius, in fact, that he can draw his audience with astonishing directness into the physicality of interior events” (1999, p9) Each play was selected due to exhibiting a different relationship between the space of the performer and the space of the audience. They define a typological series of performer-audience divides. These plays are typically staged in an interior theatre setting due to the strict nature of the scripts and the required focus of attention. In this study however, they are positioned in an outdoor or partially external setting to re-appropriate the theatrical space through 51
Fig.31 , Modelling the cut and propped facade 1:33 scale, Plaster, Grey board, Card
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Porto’s culture of street performance. Henceforth creating a setting for dramatic productions that references Portugal’s festival tradition. The designed spaces must therefore negotiate between the urban street setting and the setting of the performance, between the mediated space of performer and audience and the unmediated space of city setting and incidental observer. The performance spaces are proposed along a processionary route from Sé do Porto down to Rua Mouzinho da Silveira seeking to reconnect a journey through the historical old town, from the high topology to the lower commercial streets. The selection of sites along a route and creation of open air event space was derived from Portugal’s tradition of festival whereby people come out into the streets to follow a celebratory route together through the towns and cities. The proposals occupy previously derelict buildings or disused space along the chosen route. If an audience member were to view all the plays over the course of a single day, the experience becomes similar to that of a promenade theatre. Here the audience walks from scene to scene, rather than the typical seated experience whereby the stage space changes to display different settings. Conversely the designs can also operate independently as small scale theatre spaces. Where the interventions have been inserted into derelict building sites, the facades of the existing buildings have been, at least in part, retained. This echoes the theatrical typology of the propped façade in Porto and also suggests a way to maintain but repurpose the existing streetscape. The interventions present their back-of-house activity to the city, inverting the traditional typology of elements such as the fly tower as being a hidden mechanism responsible for the delivery of stage drama. Instead they break the fourth wall to reveal the elements that make up the performances. Noises, activities, people and architecture outside of the scripted action are, in places, now allowed to permeate into the space of 53
Fig.32 , Plan collage showing performance spaces integrated into the fabic of the city
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the performance. The impact of the urban public setting on the performance is mediated with varying levels of control. Although this level of intervention ranges from a predominately open space down to a more formal theatre setting with seating, all the spaces have some aspects of street activity allowed to infiltrate into them. As Peter Brook tells us of his unorthodox theatre locations there is a great “value of chance factors in an uncontrolled environment” (2003, p62) and, by allowing the environment to permeate the performance space, the audience is “capable of using their imagination to join things together… it is unnecessary to provide a complete image” (2003, p64). Similarly, the Beckett performances are enriched by their new, somewhat alien settings. Although the scripts themselves are obviously not site specific to Porto, the embedded performance spaces allow them to create a dialogue with the city and its life. They begin to shape the spaces around them, encouraging people to occupy and congregate in the streets.
Fig.33 , Actor, Audience, Street. Diagrams for performances from top: Come and go, Not I, Act Without Words, Endgame, Quad 55
Image Credits Front Cover Image, Authors own Fig.1 Authors own Fig.2 Authors own Fig.3 Authors own Fig.4 Authors own Fig. 5 http://www.dezeen.com/2012/06/13/mac-belfast-by-hackett-hall-mcknight/ Fig.6 http://www.carusostjohn.com/projects/barbican-concert-hall/ Fig.7 https://thewildwood.wordpress.com/2010/02/10/allan-wexler/ Fig.8 http://marsdenwoo.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/spotlight-chair-by-caroline-broadhead.html Fig.9 http://www.dsrny.com/#/projects/slow-house Fig. 10 http://www.scholarsresource.com/browse/image_set/907?page=4 Fig.11 Authors own Fig.12 http://www.gospelfuel.com/street-preaching-practiced-by-christ-the-apostlesand-our-baptist-fathers/ Fig.13 Author’s own Fig.14 Lecat,J and Tood, A (2003) The Open Circle, New York: Faber and Faber
Limited. Fig.15 Top: https://alyssiamaisonpierre.wordpress.com/2013/02/05/new-technology/ Middle:http://www.dezeen.com/2012/05/31/tiny-travelling-theatre-by-aberrant-architecture-2/ Bottom:http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100324/local/ city-gate-project-the-final-judgment.299635 Fig.16 Author’s own Fig. 17 http://www.tschumi.com/projects/18/
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Fig 18 http://thelandscape.org/2014/09/08/bernard-tschumi-the-manhattan-tran-
scripts/ Fig.19 https://www.flickr.com/photos/william_veerbeek/11330050816/ Fig. 20 http://collabcubed.com/2013/03/25/alex-schweder-performance-architecture/ Fig. 21 Collage: http://www.boschrexroth.com/en/xc/industries/ , https://www. centrepompidou.fr/en Fig, 22 Collage: http://www.dezeen.com/2014/03/20/tom-kundig-242-state-streetgallery-california/, http://www.dsrny.com/#/projects/moving-target Fig, 23 Collage: http://www.dawn.com/news/1133525/hi-tech-theatre-resurrects-polands-shakespearean-ghosts , http://www.archdaily.com/37736/dee-andcharles-wyly-theatre-rex-oma/, http://archimess.tumblr.com/post/47015915518/ defining-the-space-with-light Fig, 24 Collage: http://www.artsalive.ca/fr/thf/histoire/concepteurs.html, http:// www.domusweb.it/en/from-the-archive/2011/03/19/pneumatic-design.html, http://www.alexschweder.com/,http://www.allanwexlerstudio.com/ Fig. 25 http://davidcampany.com/re-viewing-rear-window/ Fig. 26 Author’s own Fig. 27 Author’s own Fig. 28 Author’s own Fig.29 https://myspace.com/cristalcristal/mixes/classic-street-art-festival-5-october-367422/photo/94632756 Fig.30 http://onemillionphoto.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/porto-festas-do-sao-joao. html Fig. 31 Authors own Fig. 32 Authors own Fig. 33 Authors own 57
Bibliography Beckett, S (1990) Samuel Beckett, The Complete Dramatic Works, London: Faber and Faber Limited. Boyer, C (1994) The City of Collective memory, Cambridge: MIT Press Brook, P (2003) 3: The Rough Arena (interview by Andrew Todd) in Lecat,J and Tood, A (2003) The Open Circle, New York: Faber and Faber Limited. Brook, P (2008) The Empty Space, London: Penguin Books Cameron, D (1986) Art in the Anchorage Available at http://www. sanfordberman.org/catbul/guilio86.pdf (Accessed 10th April 2015) Debord, G (1937) The Society of The Spectacle, Translated by Knabb, K, London: Rebel Press Derriba, J (1986) Maintenant l architecture Essay accompanying the portfolio Bernard Tschumi, La Case Vide, translated by Linker, K, London: Architectural Association. Foucault, M (1967) Of Other Spaces in Collins, J and Nisbet, A (2010) Theatre and Performance Design, New York: Routledge. Lacan, J (1964), The Split between the Eye and the Gaze. In The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis. (1978) Translated by Sheridan, A New York: Norton Lecat,J and Tood, A (2003) The Open Circle, New York: Faber and Faber Limited. Macannes, N (2014) Stop with the performance already, Available at: http:// www.vtape.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Vtape-CIv11-Stop-with-thePerformance-Already-2014.pdf (Accessed 20th March 2015) McGrath, J (1981) The Cheviot, The Stag and Black, Black Oil, London: Eyre Methuen Ltd
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MoMA (2005) Cadavre Exquis Available at: https://www.moma.org/learn/ moma_learning/max-ernst-levade-the-fugitive Accessed 18/01/2015 Accessed: 14th December 2014 Moss, S (7th November 2012) All That Fall: the Samuel Beckett stage play that isn’t, Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2012/nov/07/allthat-fall-samuel-beckett(Accessed: 10th April 2015). Mumford, L (1937) What is a City?, Architectural Record, Vol.81 (1937), New York: McGraw Hill Construction Pallasmaa, J (2001) The Architecture of Image, Existential space in cinema, Hämeenlinna: Building Information Ltd Pattie, D (2000) The Complete Critical Guide to Samuel Beckett, London: Routledge Read, G (2008) Modern Architecture in Theatre: The Experiments of Art Et Action, London:Palgrave Macmillian Salter, C (2010) Entangled: Technology and the Transformation of Performance, Cambridge: MIT Press Schaal, H (1996) Learning from Hollywood, Stuttgart: Axel Mendes Schechner,R ( 1968) 6 Axioms for Environmental Theatre in in Collins, J and Nisbet, A (2010) Theatre and Per-formance Design, New York: Routledge. Schweder, A (2013) Work, Availible at: http://www.alexschweder.com/ (Accessed 14th march 2015) Shakespeare Theatre company, (2012) A Brief History of the Audience, Available at: http://www.shakespearetheatre.org/_pdf/first_folio/about_ shakespeare.pdf (Accessed 25th February 2015) Tschumi, B (1996) Architecture and Disjunction, Cambridge: The MIT Press. Worth, K (1999) Samuel Beckett’s Theatre, New York: Oxford University Press.
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Fig. , Plan of performance interventions 1:750
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Appendix Beckett in Porto
A description of the plays used and the design for their performance requirements follows All quotes from the scripts are cited from Samuel Beckett The complete Dramatic works published by Faber and Faber in 1990. The investigation into the required areas and geometries for the stage spaces of the plays is illustrated alongside the descriptions. All images and drawings are authors own.
Come and go
Not I
Act Without Words
Endgame
Quad
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Come and go (1965) Cast: Flo, Vi, Ru Duration: 15 minutes In the script : “Lighting Soft from above and concentrated on playing area …Seat Narrow bench like, without back and just long enough to accommodate all three figures …Exists They should disappear a few steps from the lit area… screens or drapes as little visible as possible” The action and dialogue is focused on a small bench at the front of the playing area. The conversation between the characters is of an intimate and fairly subdued nature. A key sequence in the script involves the actors crossing and interlocking their hands over each other’s laps. The configuration of the play means the ideal viewpoint is directly in front of the actors. Design: Due to the intimate nature of the play the design for the stage is of a small scale. The stage is raised up, allowing the key sequence of the characters interlacing their hands to be visible to a wider audience than if it occurred at ground level. This also allows some segregation between actors and audience as, due to the quiet conversation and low level of movement, the actors need to be given prominence to prevent the play from getting lost in a street environment. The most suitable stage format for this play is a thrust with wings, allowing the actors to leave and enter from either side of the back of the stage and remain out of the sight of the audience as specified in the script. Due to the short run time of the play the audience will stand for this performance so no seating provision is required, only a space for gathering. 62
Site: The site chosen for this play is an area at the junction between Rua Escura and Rua de Pena Ventosa. There is an existing raised platform that steps up from the street but is currently unoccupied. Opposite this platform the street widens and flattens out, making it a suitable gathering space for the audience of the play. The layers of balconies surrounding the site offer arena like viewing of the play from multiple levels.  
Diagramatic plan and section
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Seccon
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Stage boundary
Accoussc range
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Come and Go, Geometry and spaaal organistaaon
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Performance space transposed into site 1:500 65
Not I (1972) Cast: Mouth Duration: 15 minutes In the script : “Stage in darkness but for MOUTH, upstage audience right… about 8 feet above stage level, faintly lit from close up and below, rest of face in shadow. Invisible microphone… With rise of curtain ad-libbing from text as required leading when curtain fully up and attention sufficient into… Curtain fully down. House dark. Voice continues behind curtain… ceases as house lights up” Not I centers on the single motif a mouth surrounded by almost complete darkness. The abstract body part quickly recites through a dense verse of text. The stage and audience areas are in almost complete darkness for the duration of the play Design: Due to the close nature of observing just the mouth of a performer, this play is sometimes presented as a projected film rather than a live performance. In this design it will be staged as a dual performance, simultaneously being performed by the actor and projected onto a large screen. This enables the production to reach a wider audience whilst at the same time having an intimate space for the live performance to take place. The space occupied by the real performer is designed as a theatre for one audience member. It is a dark and intimate space inspired by places of private, one on one, interaction such as a confessional or peepshow booth and requires a place to sit for both the performer and the single audience member. In stark contrast, the projection of the performance takes on the notion of an outdoor cinema with a large screen and seating to view from. 66
Site: The performance is located in an entirely enclosed external space, backed on to by the surrounding buildings. It is accessed through the facades of two previously derelict building sites. The openings in the existing façade are retained as entrances but from the street the light from the projection and the hallowed nature of the site are visible. This becomes as an indication that there is something unusual happening behind the existing street front. The geometry of the space means that the screen must be located on the east most wall of the space to allow for the projection on to it. In order to maintain a relationship between the large scale and small scale performances, the live performance space is located directly opposite the screen, the spaces of the audiences are back to back.
 
 
Diagramatic plan and section
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Seccon
Plan View Stage boundary Accoussc range Visual range
Projeccon screen
Accoussc range
Visual range
Not I, Geometry and spaaal organistaaon
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Performance space transposed into site 1:500 69
Act without words (1956) Cast: Player 1 Duration: 20 minutes In the script : “Man is flung backwards on stage from right wing… A little tree descends from the flies… A pair of tailor’s scissors descends from the flies… A tiny carafe… descends from the flies… The rope is pulled up, lifts him off the ground…” Act without words is a mime which 1 actor performs in silence. Various props are provided and removed via ropes from above the stage area. This requires a fly tower and space for a technician to operate the system from above. There must be an offstage area for the actor to enter and exit. Design: The stage for this play needs to provide a frame for the action to take place in and also a form of fly tower above to facilitate objects being lowered into the scene. Due to the lack of dialogue and the physical nature of the play, the audience can be allowed to move around and view the action from numerous locations. The movement denoted by the script implies a linear orientation across the stage and the actor must enter via a side wing, as such the play could be viewed from both or either side of the stage. This design allows the audience to occupy both sides of the stage simultaneously, so that the audience is seeing not just the performer on stage but the framed view of another audience mirrored across from them. This instills an acute awareness in the watchers that they have gathered together 70
for the event and places them as part of the performance itself. The observers of the performance become part of the observed event. The duration of the performance means that the audience can stand to witness it. Site: This production is located on Rua da Bainharia, at an intersection of 4 streets which opens out somewhat amongst the narrower paths. The performance space runs parallel to the more open area allowing some of the audience to locate themselves in the square and some further along Rua da Bainharia. The offstage and auxiliary spaces are situated in the site of a previously derelict building, cornering the square and the stage and “fly tower� project from this building, bridging across the street. In order to not permanently obstruct the street, the stage is a suspended platform which can be lowered down into the street and taken away again after the performance. This movement of the stage becomes itself a signifier that the event is about to take place. The machinery which controls the descending stage is visible from the ground and so demonstrates the potential action and movement that might occur even when the objects are in stasis.
Diagramatic plan and section
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Seccon
Plan View Stage boundary
Visual range
Act without words, Geometry and spaaal organistaaon
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Performance space transposed into site 1:500
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Endgame (1957) Cast: Hamm, Clov, Nagg, Nella Duration: 90 minutes In the script : “Bare interior. Grey light. Left and right back, high up, two small windows… Front right. Hanging near door…. A picture... Front left… two ashbins Centre in an armchair… CURTAIN” Endgame is set in a domestic room and is performed by 4 actors, with 3 staying predominantly still for the duration of the play and 1 moving around the set. Design: This play requires a more formal theatre setting than the other productions due to its duration and format. Because of the length of time it occupies, seating is required for the entire audience, as are auxiliary spaces such as toilets. The design exhibits the most familiar, to theatre, performer audience divide with the seated audience physically separated from the actors on stage. In order to create the setting of a domestic room with the required stage entrance and exit, the format resembles an “end on” proscenium theatre type. The backstage area is enclosed and obscured from the audience, seating arranged to enable the best viewpoints to each audience member. 74
Site: The design is located along Rua Sauto occupying two derelict building sites directly opposite one another. On one side, utilizing an existing side passage that steps up along the building, is the space occupied by the audience, seating and services for the public. Parallel to this, across the street, is located the stage and auxiliary functions for enabling the performance. Since the area of the performance and the audience are physically cleaved from one another by a busy street, both spaces are raised up from the ground floor and sit just below the first storey level of the street. This means that, although the audience are aware of, activity occurring on street level it cannot directly interrupt the performance. Likewise the people passing on the street can get a glimpse into the stage space and witness part of the event. This is further enriched by windows on the street level which give views into the underside of the stage and seating areas, occupied mainly by the machinery and hydraulics which allow the seating and stage to be augmented for future performance. Similarly to the stage mechanics for Act without words by allowing the stage machinery to form part of the aesthetic of the theatre itself, the building can embody the potential energy of performance.
 
Diagramatic plan and section
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Seccon
Plan View Stage boundary
Accoussc range Visual range
Endgame, Geometry and spaaal organistaaon
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Performance space transposed into site 1:500 77
Quad (1982) Cast: Player 1, Player 2, Player3, Player 4 Duration: 10 minutes In the script : “The players pace the given area, each following his particular course… Without interruption begin repeat and fade out on 1 pacing alone… Light Dim on area from above, fading out into dark” The script of quad is accompanied by a diagram explaining the movement of the 4 players and describing a perfectly square stage space. .Although in earlier versions percussion instruments were used to make the sound of the footsteps, Beckett revised this so that the only sound was the footsteps themselves.
Design: Again, quad is one of Beckett’s plays which includes no dialogue and is based instead around movement and rhythm. To exaggerate the sound of footsteps on the ground, the stage will be a timber floor with hollow space beneath. To amplify the symmetry and rhythm, the play will be viewed from all sides with minimal enclosure. The audience will stand all around the stage space, which will be raised just enough that the players can be viewed over a crowd. The actors will enter and leave through the standing audience, creating momentary blur between who is performing and who is watching. There will be a roof required over the area surrounding the stage so that the stage area can receive light and be highlighted whilst the audience space remains darker. 78
Site: The piece is more a visual sculpture than a dramatic play and as such will become the centrepiece of a public square. The performance will be located in in Via do Anjo which permits the required geometry of the design and allows for the performance to be viewed from all sides. As it is located above a below ground car park, it allows for the area beneath the stage to be hollow, utilising the open space and car park beneath to create the echoes of the footfalls. The canopy required for creating the lighting set up will be temporary so as not to permanently cover the space but the stage beneath will be a permanent fixture in the space.
 
Diagramatic plan and section
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Stage boundary
Plan View
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Quad, Geometry and spaaal organistaaon
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Performance space transposed into site 1:500 81