Setting the Stage

Most of today's class was dedicated to Setting the Stage. Although its suppose to be quite new (crica 2004), some of the musicals shown seemed quite out of date. Within the video we got to see a bit of The Starlight Express, Cats, Chess, Einstein on the Beach, and Civil Wars. The Starlight Express truly generated some interest, but as for Robert Wilsons's works (Einstein on the Beach) I'm not too sure about. Now I know he's an internationally acclaimed American avant-garde stage director and playwright, but the snippet that we saw about his lighting impetus didn't interest me at all. If anything, he sounded duller in person than when we actually saw his work. Though the motive of the video was to impart some more technical information about stagecraft and everything else, I felt as though the directors often spent more time discussing their own theories and ideas about theater. It did, however, link back to everything we've been discussing this past week about how theater has not really changed. Though all these directors were attempting to be innovative and pioneers in their own way, the technological explosion in theater just seemed to become normal. After the video we began discussion over various theaters involving masks. We covered African masks and Noh theater today. From Noh theater we branched off into Kabuki theater and Bunraku. I wonder if we'd every be able to see any Kabuki today, specifically in America.