The Business Of Decoration Previous Page (79)
In France, also, there were out-croppings in the work of Jacques Rouche at the Thetltre des Arts and at the Th6ettre Antoine; but perhaps some of the most powerful and original work was done by Stanislavsky at the Moscow Art Theatre in Russia, a man who was deeply influenced by Gordon Craig and who actually produced a series of his designs for the setting of " Hamlet."
Although we have heard little concerning the details of theatrical work under the Bolsheviki we know that there are more theatres playing nightly in Petrograd and Moscow than anywhere in the world except in London and New York; and unquestionably there are profound artistic changes in the system of production going on there which we shall hear about as soon as Mr.
Page 96a
This design was submitted in the competition for " Iphigenia in Tauris," for the Metropolitan Opera House. It represents an altar and enormous columns set against a deep blue cyclorama. Slender birch trees form a partial background against this.
Page 96b
The interior of the new Ambassador Theatre, illustrating the fine, consistent treatment
throughout, which is altogether too seldom attained. The proscenium arch, the
side walls, balcony fronts, etc., are all in a harmony of very antique gold.
Page 97
STAGE SETTINGS97
Harding decides to establish relations with that country.
Among the other mechanical devices which have played a large part in improving production are the rolling stage and the sliding stage; the first consists of a series of wagons on which different parts of the setting can be placed and which can be quickly fitted together for the performance; the second can be rolled to the left or to the right, so that one half of it can be used for letting the scene while a performance is going on in front of the other half. Both of these, like the cyclorama, are products of German invention, and little as American readers may relish it, we have to admit that in this field of stage production, as in the field of theatre architecture which we shall take up presently, the Germans have been in every way the greatest contributors to our present-day enjoyment.
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