Design Meeting 2013

Last month I went to Design Meeting 2013, where the all of the graduating theater arts students of Yale, NYU, and CalArts present their portfolios to the general public and the theater industry.  Below is a photo of  the work of my dear friend the fabulous costume designer Kate Fry.  

I'm always inspired by the world of theater, and how it relates to architecture, but in a way that allows our imagination runs wild. 

Radiohole: Inflatable Frankenstein

My dear friend and talented costume designer, Kate Fry, took me to see Inflatable Frankenstein, by the anti theater theater company, Radiohole.  I've never seen theater like this before - messy, with no narrative, giant inflatable body parts, and messy gooey brains being flung towards you as the actors recite stories of Frankenstein and control the light and sound from the iphones they wear around their wrists. All in all, it was completely nonsensical, and I loved it. 

This image taken from the NY Times review of the show, found here. 

FORCES

I was lucky to see an Elizabeth Streb show back in December.  As I have been working on a set for an aerial acrobatics show, I find her work to be very inspiring. She explores movement on a very elemental level, and sometimes her work almost seems overly simplistic, and repetitive.  But I find it incredibly valuable to get to the root of the matter at hand, and as of yet I have not encountered anyone doing that in such a way as she.

I love the sketches she projects on the screen...

but the monologues are a bit much...

But then you forget about it when they start throwing I-beams around at you...

and flying around on pretty flying machines.

But probably my most favorite thing about Streb is their movable truss rig.  Its so simple, yet it affords so many different opportunities, simply by moving a truss along the Z axis. 

And  last but not least, we musn't forget about spatial sequencing!  Seeing a giant wall rotate forward before your eyes, to become the floor, and then a curtain slowly lowers to reveal a mini half wheel of death and the concrete wall beyond, is incredibly dramatic.

Ann Hamilton: Event of a Thread

Last week I was lucky enough to attend the opening party for Ann Hamilton's Event of a Thread at the Park Avenue Armory.  I can't even begin to describe how amazing it is.  And click here to read the New York Times review and see more photos.

More Movie Theater Musings

Last week I went to the movies with some friends.  It reminded me of everything I hate about the movies - Cheaply built spaces designed to herd people in, then herd them back out, and get them to spend more money in between.  Ugly carpets, bad lighting, nothing really feels clean, unhealthy food, the list goes on.

But ultimately, most of these problems stem from the fact that the typical movie theater typology actually doesn't fit with our movie watching experience.  The first movie houses were designed to simply look like other theaters.  They just replaced the stage with a screen.  To me, that is the beginning of all the problems.  I would like to build a cinema one day that starts at the beginning, and considers movies, how and why we watch them, separately from other forms of theater and performance.

Until then, you can read here about a cinema i designed in school, which I hope one day will become real.  And you can see some photos of this beautiful, but antiquated theater where I was last week.