Abstract
A Study on the Lighting and Setting Styles of Josef Svoboda to
Compare with Adolphe Appia's.
by Won-Kyoon Han
Department of Theatre and Film
Graduate School
Chongju University
The history of scenography has evolved with ever-developing mechanic -al,
electronic and material technologies. Scenography for performance shows a variety of
effects to audience to help them to be absorbed into drama, but it is required to exclude
any effect interrupting drama or inappropriate for its theme. Therefore, scenography also
needs to theorize in reasonable manners.
Adolphe Appia (1862 ～ 1928) creates innovative theories in scenographic
aesthetics and Josef Svoboda (1920～2002) implements Appia's theories for his stage
works. These two theatre artists are called as pioneers of the modern scenography.
Appia for his stage works focuses on the ‘Gesamtkunstwerk' theory advocated by
Wilhelm Richard Wagner (1813～1883), and establishes new modern scenographic
aesthetics. He suggests three-dimensional set scene instead of two-dimensional not in
harmony with solid appearance of characters. In addition he underlines the roles of
lighting on the stage. He argues that stage lighting should have a potential power to fuse
theatrical characters in the stage beyond simply shedding a light. He classifies the stage
lighting into two kinds of general and special. Appia arranges general lighting to identify
space and time, while using special lighting for illuminating critical spots. This refers to
his theory on spotlight introduced for the first time in history. Appia classifies arts into
two categories of time arts such as music and space arts substituted for painting, sculpture
and architecture. He emphasizes that performance by actors must combine the art of time
with that of space. He called music ‘a living time' because the music gets vitalized once it
meets with body of actors and then expresses the body in given space. In addition he
finds that actors play a role in turning the space on the stage into a significant one, so he
calls the stage ‘a living space.' He also suggests that the living time and space can be an
art in fusion with illumination.
Josef Svoboda, a well-known Czech scenographer, feels free to use advanced
stagecraft to realize Appia's scenographic theories. One of characteristics in Svoboda's
stage is theatrical application of image, ideas of using a harmony between slide machine
and film machine. For positive applications of image on the stage, he enjoys using all
mechanical techniques that can be operated in theatre. It is mirror that cannot be set apart
from the stage of Svoboda. He changes position and angle of mirror, and breathes air into
the mirror to make a variety of images with refraction. For him lighting is a biggest issue
in his applications of images. The role of actors in performance cannot be inferior to
anything else. The intensity of light must be high to make actors appear clearly behind
the footlights, but super-high illumination may cause images to fade out. Besides
unreasonable reflection of mirror becomes also a concern. To overcome these problems,
Svoboda devises low voltage lighting. Owing to development of the low voltage lighting,
Svaboda's images make more theatrical illusions, and this technique still succeeds and
evolves into various directions
Appia has one thing in common with Svoboda. Both of them are attached to
Wagner's dramas and Gesamtkunstwerk to accelerate the evolution of total arts. Their
passion for total arts shows possible future directions of contemporary performing arts.
Moreover, both of them focuses on the importance of lighting and sublime it conceptually
into a sort of arts, preparing a foundation for lighting art to account for more and more
parts in performing arts. This aspect is also revealed in Robert Wilson (1941～). Appia is
different from Svoboda, particularly in functional aspect. The development of
scenography under the influence of advanced stagecraft is different from theories. Appia
develops scenographic theories for physical expressions of actors who are in the center of
music and space bound with each other organically, while Svoboda's scenography puts
more stress on scene itself rather than actors. This makes difference between producer
Appia and scenographer Svoboda.
