Stage Design Propaedeutic 1

Tutor:

Jan NEBESKÝ

Synopsis:

The subject, combining exercises with a seminar, familiarizes directing, dramaturgy, stage design, theory and criticism students with the foundations of stagecraft „from within“. In the course, terms are arrived at by induction, i.e. by interpreting scenes authored by the students themselves in relevant roles (i.e. as directors, dramaturgs, stage designers and artists).

Prerequisites:

Creative participation in producing at least one (developed) staged scene with dramaturges, directors and stage designers in their respective fields and theorists generally as dramaturges.

Study Objectives:

The goal of the class is conscious development (cultivation) of the stage design feel of directors, dramaturges, stage designers, theoriticians and critics with respect to grasping and creating stage tableaux or dramatic situations. This involves both practical (instinctive) application at the level of imaginative thought and familiarization with relevant terms allowing reflection on relevant stage activity necessary with respect to successful formation in connection with possibilities for mutual understanding of the production team.

Outline and Syllabus:

The 1st semester proceeds from simple static scenes (tableaux) expressing a certain situation to their playing out in time and space. This playing out involves developing of students' stage sense, a decisive component of which is feeling for a spatial solution allowing relevant movement in a given arrangement, based on awareness of the corresponding energy properties of each (stage) space. This stage sense is developed both with respect to the visual (i.e. stage design in the narrow sense) at the level where there is a meeting of the view of the director, stage designer and public, and with respect to internal feel (i.e. the dramatic) that is decisive for actual, conscious stage action (and for audiences experiencing it). One could speak of acting sense, if directors, stage designers, dramatists, dramaturges and even critics and theorists did not also need it to an appropriate degree. Clearly the playing out of the given scenes is based primarily on developing stage sense at the level of directing/stage design or dramaturgy and not specifically at the acting level, although participation by students from all fields as actors is also important for real learning of the basics of stagecraft (i.e. learning „from within“). When conceiving and developing individual scenes, students alternating in various roles also learn teamwork or the art of a creative production dialogue.

Study materials:

Jaroslav Vostrý: Režie je umění, Praha (AMU) 2001

Otakar Zich: Estetika dramatického umění, Praha 1986

Michail Čechov: O herecké technice, Praha 1996

Also see the literature for the Creative Writing course

Note:

Schedule for winter semester 2008/2009:

	06:00–08:0008:00–10:0010:00–12:0012:00–14:0014:00–16:0016:00–18:0018:00–20:0020:00–22:0022:00–24:00
Mon
Tue	místnost K222 Učebna () VOSTRÝ J. 15:00–18:00 (paralelka 1)
Fri
Thu
Fri

Schedule for summer semester 2008/2009:

The schedule has not yet been prepared

The subject is a part of the following study plans:

• Doporučený bakalářský scénografie (compulsory subject)