Contemporary Scenography

Display Schedule

Subject guarantor

Jan ŠTĚPÁNEK

Name of lecturer(s)

Jan ŠTĚPÁNEK

Learning outcomes of the course unit

We will also explore ‘theoretical’ concepts and topics, including ‘scenography’ itself, visual dramaturgy, ecoscenography, costume agency, and possibilities of decolonizing scenography.

Mode of study

Lecture.

Prerequisites and co-requisites

None.

Course contents

This course focuses on developments and topics in scenography of the last 50 years. We will examine practices, styles, and artistic and ideological principles of theater makers in Europe and beyond who have used performance space and design in new, unconventional ways to contest the aesthetic, and sometimes political, norms of their communities. An important source will be Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space in its transformations; through discussions of visual and audiovisual materials, as well as readings, we will analyze the works of scenographers, directors, and theatre collectives, such as Marina Abramovich, Katrin Brack, Romeo Castellucci, Heiner Goebbels and Klaus Grünberg, Robert Wilson, La Pocha Nostra, or Wooster Group.

1.11. 11.

Introduction to the course, Contemporary (Expanded) Scenography and Performance Design: Framing concepts, questions, and problems

2.18. 11.

Visual Dramaturgy and Postdramatic Theatre: Robert Wilson, Romeo Castellucci, Wooster Group

3.25. 11.

Post-anthropocentric approaches and scenographic installation: Katrin Brack, Kris Verdonck, Heiner Goebbels and Klaus Grünberg

4.2. 12.

Costume as the Protagonist: projects Extreme Costume, Tribes, Costume Agency

5.9. 12.

Sustainability in Performance Design and Ecoscenography: Tanja Beer and others

6.16. 12.

Towards decolonizing scenography and performance design: Pocha Nostra and others

Recommended or required reading

Aronson, Arnold (ed.): The Routledge Companion to Scenography. Routledge, 2020.

Hann, Rachel: Beyond Scenography. Routledge, 2019.

Hannah, Dorita and Harsløf Olav: Performance Design. Museum Tusculanum Press, 2008.

McKinney, Joslin and Phillip Butterworth: The Cambridge Introduction to Scenography. Cambridge University Press, 2015.

McKinney, Joslin and Scott Palmer: Scenography Expanded: An Introduction to Contemporary Performance Design. Methuen/Bloomsbury, 2017.

Wiens, Birgit E. Contemporary Scenography: Practices in German Theatre, Arts and Design. Methuen/Bloomsbury, 2019.

PQ Catalogues and on-line PQ Archive.

Additional materials will be shared in class.

Assessment methods and criteria

The condition for fulfilling the credit is participation in 5 lectures out of 6.

Further information

This course is an elective for all students of this school

Schedule for winter semester 2021/2022:

Schedule for summer semester 2021/2022:

The schedule has not yet been prepared

The subject is a part of the following study plans