Developement of Scene Desing

Theatrical spectacle is something that modern audiences expect. Heavy spectacle shows have spoiled the common theatre goer. Grand scales, breathtaking scenery and costumes, amazing light effects. I have seen firsthand how people will react to a minimalist set, drab color schemes and unobtrusive lighting: they claim the show was boring and no good. This is entirely unfair to the actors and the director, but it is a fact no the less. This high expectation leads to wonder the history behind the spectacle; where did it start and how did it progress? When did it first become an art form, and not a tool to put on the show? For the purpose of this paper, we'll focus on the scenery aspect. It's an aspect of theatre that has always drawn my attention, and the opportunity to dig a little appealed greatly.

Let's first look at an overview of the history of scenery itself. For roughly seventeen centuries, scenery was relatively inconsequential. Greek and Roman theatre had little more than the skene (the scene building in Roman), the stage itself, and dialogue to suggest the setting. Asian theatre focused heavily on stylized movement; the actors were the draw as oppose to anything else. It wasn't until medieval theatre that use of scenery really started to develop. Stationary staging of cycle plays used a chain of small, scenic building called mansions to represent different locations. The most extravagant often were representative of Heaven and Hell at opposite ends of the space. However, even though scenery was used, it wasn't really designed. It was simply a tool to assist the production. It wasn't until the Italian renaissance that the art itself was appreciated and sought. With innovation such as perspective, the raked stage, and angled wings to suggest depth and the chariot and pole system for moving scenery, characters and plot were less important to the production than the scenery. With Giacomo Torelli the innovations moved to France,