Stage Design Propaedeutic 1

Tutor:

Juraj DEÁK

Synopsis:

The class combines exercises with a seminar giving students of directing, dramaturgy, stage design, theory and criticism the foundations of stage creation „from within.“ During the course, terms are arrived at by induction through the interpretation of scenes written by the students themselves who play their corresponding roles (i.e. as directors, dramaturges, stage designers, actors).

Prerequisites:

Creative participation in the production of at least one (developed) staged excerpt with dramaturges, directors and stage designers in their respective roles and theoreticians generally as dramaturges.

Study Objectives:

The goal of the course is the conscious development (cultivation) of stage feel of directors, dramaturges, stage designers, theoreticians and critics with respect to grasping and forming a staged scene or dramatic situation. This involves both practical („instinctive“) application at the level of imaginative thinking and familiarization with relevant terms allowing reflection on relevant stage activities, necessary with respect to successful creation including in connection with possibilities for mutual understanding among the production team.

Outline and Syllabus:

The 1st semester proceeds from simple static excerpts (scenes/tableaux) expressing a definite situation to their playing out in time and space. This playing out involves developing of students' stage feel, the decisive component of which is feeling for a spatial solution allowing relevant movement within a given arrangement, relying on awareness of the relevant „energy“ properties of each (stage) space. This stage feel is developed both from a visual (i.e. staged in the narrow sense) viewpoint such as that where the view of the director and stage designer encounters the view of the audience, and from the „internally tangible“ (i.e. dramatic) viewpoint that is decisive for the actual, conscious stage action (and for its experiencing by the audience). One might speak of an acting sense if it were not required of directors and stage designers as well as of authors and dramaturges and, to some extent, of critics and theoreticians as well. Clearly, the playing out of the given excerpts is based primarily on the developing of stage sense at the directing/stage design or dramaturgy level, and not specifically at the level of acting, although participation of students in all fields as actors is also important for real learning of the foundations of staging (i.e. knowing it from the inside). When conceiving and developing individual scenes, the students, alternating in different 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 2009/2010:

	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 (Karlova 26, Praha 1) DEÁK J. 15:00–18:00 (paralelka 1)
Fri
Thu
Fri

Schedule for summer semester 2009/2010:

The schedule has not yet been prepared

The subject is a part of the following study plans:

• Doporučený bakalářský teorie a kritika (compulsory subject)