Contact: Mike Horyczun
Director of Public Relations
(203) 869-6786, ext. 330
For Immediate Release
December 31, 2008
Setting the Stage:
Twentieth-Century Theater Models
November 22, 2008 – March 15, 2009
Bruce Museum
1 Museum Drive, Greenwich, CT 06830
Mario Sala
Detail of the set model for Carmen, 1914
The Metropolitan Opera, New York
The Metropolitan Opera Archives, Lincoln Center, New York
The Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Connecticut celebrates the imagination of the
theatrical set designer and the craftsmanship of the model maker with its newest exhibition
Setting the Stage: Twentieth-Century Theater Models, which opens Saturday, November 22,
2008, and is on view through Sunday, March 15, 2009. The exhibition spotlights over twenty
scaled versions of sets designed for Broadway, dance, opera and other theatrical productions
and is the latest in a long-standing series of shows presented by the Bruce Museum that feature
traditional small-scale rooms and houses. Lenders to the exhibition include The Metropolitan
Opera Archives, Lincoln Center, New York; The Historical Scenic Collection, Northeastern Illinois
University/Lyric Opera of Chicago; and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT.
Setting the Stage: Twentieth-Century Theater Models is supported by the Charles M.
and Deborah G. Royce Exhibition Fund and a Committee of Honor chaired by Dorothy M.
Cholnoky, Erika Hall and Emily G. Toohey and formed in honor of long time Bruce Museum
volunteer and miniaturist enthusiast Renée Hack.
- more -
-2Through scaled set models, sketches, and photographs of the actual set used for
theatrical performances, Setting the Stage explores the process of planning imaginative and
elaborate sets for stage productions in the twentieth century. Visitors will have an opportunity to
compare and contrast sets created for dance, opera and theater throughout the exhibition and
explore the historic context of the models.
Setting the Stage: Twentieth-Century Theater Models features models made for major
Broadway plays including sets by Tony-Award-winning designers, with each model accompanied
by a brief summary of the play it depicts. On view are Tony Walton’s sets for Anything Goes,
Sleeping Beauty, and A Tale of Two Cities, which is currently playing on Broadway, Robin
Wagner’s City of Angels, Kiss Me Kate, and Young Frankenstein, which is also currently on
Broadway, and Ming Cho Lee’s A Moon for the Misbegotten, Enigma Variations, and Ah,
Wilderness. Designer Scott Pask will be represented with models from Les Liaisons Dangereuses
and Pal Joey, which is coming to Broadway during the coming season. Designer Heidi Ettinger
will contribute a model from the 1998 revival of The Sound of Music. Opera sets include models
made for early productions of the Chicago Lyric Opera such as La Bohème, Boris Gudonov, Le
Prophette and Tosca, and models designed for more recent productions of the Metropolitan
Opera. The show also includes early twentieth-century avant-garde studies done by Giorgio de
Chirico and Paul Colin for the Ballet Russe on loan from the Lifar Collection at the Wadsworth
Atheneum of Art. in the show.
A designer usually begins with sketches to translate ideas and works with the director’s
vision of the play. Eventually, especially for complicated productions involving a larger cast, the
designer builds scale models of the entire stage representing some, if not all of the sets. The
scale models allow the designer and director to view the stage from all angles, work out the
sequence and position of set changes, plan lighting, and create a pattern for the actors to move
around the stage - all before detailed construction drawings are produced. Set models are built in
a variety of scales, ranging from 1/4 to 1 inch to the foot, depending on each designer’s
preference.
Scenery, or set design as we know it today, is a product of the Italian Renaissance. To a
large extent, set design is based on the discovery of the rules of linear perspective by Filippo
Brunelleschi (1377–1446), who around 1415 developed a mathematical system for creating the
illusion of space and distance on a flat surface. In 1545, Sebastiano Serlio (1475–1554)
published Architetura, the first work detailing the design and construction of a court theatre with a
raised stage located at one end of the room.
The perspective scenery was designed to provide the Royal Chair with a perfect view.
The front half of the stage floor was level, the rear half sloped up towards the back wall increasing
the illusion of depth.
- more -3-
During the nineteenth century three major approaches developed in European stage
design. The trend towards historically accurate scenery began in Germany around 1810 and is
attributed to Josef Schreyvogel, the director of Vienna's Burgtheater. As early as 1804, the
manager of the Court Theatre at Mannheim, Germany, joined several pairs of wings with door
and window flats creating a more realistic scenic environment. Actor-manager Mme. Vestris
(1797–1856) is credited with introducing the box set to the English stage.
At the end of the 19th century, designers Adolph Appia (1862–1928) and Edward Gordon
Craig (1872–1966) revolted against the traditional European scenic practices. They objected to a
three-dimensional actor standing on a flat floor surrounded by acres of "realistically" painted
canvas. Their controversial ideas, published in numerous books and periodicals, would become
the basis of the New Stagecraft, one of simplification and suggestion. Appia developed a plastic,
three-dimensional set with steps, columns, ramps, platforms revealed in directional light. Craig’s
designs were monumental. Like Appia he broke the flat stage floor with platforms, steps, and
ramps and replaced the parallel rows of flapping canvas with an elaborate series of tall screens
which could suggest the essence of the locale.
Twentieth-century set design builds on all of these ideas combined with effective lighting,
but uses modern technology to dramatically change the set between scenes. Conventionally,
stagehands may move props in and out from the wings, but the entire set may be mounted on a
giant turntable, or set pieces are dropped from or lifted up into the large space above the stage,
often “on the fly” with the actors on stage.
Successful set design is not a means to an end, but rather it builds on close collaboration
and communication between director and designer. By visually depicting the place and the mood,
the set gives perspective to a play and validates the work of the actors.
____________________________________________________________________________
The Bruce Museum is located at 1 Museum Drive in Greenwich, Connecticut, USA. General
admission is $7 for adults, $6 for seniors and students, and free for children under five and Bruce
Museum members. Free admission to all on Tuesdays. The Museum is located near Interstate95, Exit 3, and a short walk from the Greenwich, CT, train station. Museum hours are: Tuesday
through Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., and closed Mondays and major
holidays. Groups of eight or more require advance reservations. Museum exhibition tours are
held Fridays at 12:30 p.m. Free, on-site parking is available. The Bruce Museum is accessible to
individuals with disabilities. For information, call the Bruce Museum at (203) 869-0376, or visit the
Bruce Museum website at www.brucemuseum.org.
*****