AHDS Collections

Designing Shakespeare Collection - Audio Interview Clip

- Shakespeare's Globe

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Designing Shakespeare Collection - Shakespeare's Globe
Filename	:	DS_JN_au15.mov
Description	:	Well, with the advent of lighting boards, and you were able instantly to cut from one person to another person doing a, you know... it was just magic, I mean suddenly you were in magic space because you could, you could just have a talking head and then open it up to a bigger picture. It wasn't really possible to do that before then and I think that's slightly underrated, that and also sound. So the thing that has made it more cinematic is the ability to be able to control light and sound. And I get away with an awful lot because of David Hersey and Andy Bridge or, other guys that I have worked with, the lighting designers, because it, they, are taking your eye to all the places you want them to be, I mean, I work very closely with them, but if, if the lighting set ups were the same as they had been in the 1950's, a lot of my stuff would look hokey as well. But it was the, it was the invention of abstract ways of dealing with reality that became more real than painted versions of reality Õ? stuck on a backcloth, so that a great tower made of slabs of wood as some kind of icon for a production, you know the Wars of the Roses, a great sort of conning (?) tower of things just had to start looming, you know, kind of, chess piece, you know atmosphere, that you just could not get with a painted backcloth or, you know, bright coloured flaggy tents Õ? it wasn't going to happen anymore. 'Answer: Well of course that was when I first, I first went to art school in 1959, 1960. I think there has been tremendous changes. I think there is a group of people who were at the foremost of that change [long pause] and thank god they did, I mean Ralph Koltai, John Bury, Tim O'Brien, the guys who were working at the RSC with Peter Hall. Things like the Wars of the Roses. The coming to London in the sixties of the world theatre season at the Aldwich which brought designers from, and companies, from every part of the globe: Japan, Czechoslovakia, so all those wonderful things that one could see. I mean it is so tragic that it doesn't seem to happen as much these daysÕ? I mean I think the thing that's happened is that audiences, I think that audiences have, haveÕ? partly due to cinema and television, become visually more sophisticated than their predecessors. And expectations rose, but expectations rose, but there was no way of fulfilling those expectations in a cinematic or Õ? in a way that was naturalistic and so designers started to, to reinvent the space to really be bold and not just put a backdrop with a painting of, you know, the I don't know, whatever it used, they used to put backcloths with these Agincourt or somewhere you know, rows of painted little tents you know someone standing there in armour they could hardly move in. And that was a Victorian concept and probably the, the, what we've gone back to in a way is much more of an Elizabethan concept, much more thrust stages, much more to do with delivery of the lines and character and everything. And much less scenery, but objects and space that create an atmosphere that has a certain mood, a dynamic and something that holds you in a world for a moment. Now, that would absolutely be in conjunction with the development of lighting, which hugely, hugely influenced how you could re-address a space. I mean, up until the 60's there was, there wasn't any such things as the kinds of dimmers and lighting boards, you know, there were men in the basement throwing switches, so it was all up or down, or, you know, a little bit of this, a little bit of that and the front lights and a ground row and horrible stuff coming in from the wings.
Source	:	DS_16_05_02 (2xmini DV tape)
Format	:	Quicktime Progressive (audio)
Type	:	Resource Audio
Rights	:	This clip may be used for educational purposes only, any commercial use of this material requires permission from the copyright holders. Misuse or misrepresentation may result in legal action. Copyright holder: Christie Carson, COMPH, Royal Holloway University of London.
Length	:	5 minutes 32.19 seconds