68 / LIGHTING iii \ i CR1 \ I I S THE SCENE AND I k.ii i ING \s an ACTOR In recent years theatre scholarship in response to stage practice has begun to devote its attention to the production of plays in which unusual lighting effects arc employed Contemporary Czech practice has proffered various experiments, more or less successful, one of which is well-known outside the country the Falema Magica, first seen at the World Exhibition in Brussels in 1958 Theatre scholars are not yet able, I believe, to give a satisfactory answer to the question of the origins of this type of staging, a development facilitated by the modem technical explosion It is a fact, however, that from the early years of the century there have been many attempts in different countries, first to create a setting by use of kinetic lighting, and when this was established to substitute lighting for the live actor. I believe the first major success in Kurope to establish the so-called "light theatre" was achieved in the 1920 productions of lirwin Piscalor, which made a synthesis of all that was known about stage lighting at that time.1 In this paper I am going to tell you about the work of two Czech lighting designers who made unusual advances in stage lighting tecluiiques in Czechoslovakia (faring the 1930 s I refer specifically to F. F. Hurian and M Koufil and their Theatregraph, which was first introduced in Prague in 1936 in the production of Frank Wedekind s Spring '.v Awakening Emil FrantiSek Burian (1904-1959)2 was the most significant director in the Czech avant-garde theatre between the two wars. In the context of European theatre he belongs to the younger group of avant-garde directors along with Brccht. Ochlopkov, Cocteau, Artaud, Frejka, Stupica. and others, while Meierhold, Tairov, Vachtangov, Baty. and Schiller were members of the older group, their teachers Burian s work culminated in the thirties at a time when the German avant-garde theatre was decimated by Nazism, when the work of the Soviet theatrical avant-garde had declined as a result of administrative interference stemming from Stalin s cultural policy, and when the opportunities for avant-garde theatrical production in many other countries were also considerably reduced The cultural and political atmosphere in Czechoslovakia allowed its theatrical avant-garde at this time 1 For Ihc basic Tacts about the varied utilization of lighting, particular!) in the German theatre, sec F KRANICII. Huhncmcihnik dcr Grgemran II. Munich - Berlin. 191V Sec also S.SONTAG. Film and Ihcairr. Tulanc Drama Rcvvicw II (No I. 1966) For Piscalor s experiments see E PISCATOR. Dm polmsche Theater. Berlin. |9*9. The theoretical aspects of lighting in the modern theatre arc dealt with b\ D BAOLET. la hmiiit m ilnoire. Theatre populaire. No 38. I960 - OBST. M - SCtICR! . A . K ik'jimtm teskf di\-aik-lnl avanit-nrth (On the hisiors of the C/rch atant-gnrdc theatre). JmiHuh Ifonzl ■ £ I Hunan Praha 1962; SCHERL A . 7: F Hunan. Berlin 1966 69 relatively more freedom than anywhere else in Central Europe to develop further the avant-garde heritage of the twenties, and thus to play a significant tole in the history of the avant-garde theatre in Europe as a whole. In 1933, E. F. Burian, an all-round musical and theatrical talent, established an avant-garde theatre in a small concert hall in the center of Prague - the Mozarteum It caught on particularly among left-wing intellectuals and young people Bunan had been active in theatrical life since the mid-twenties, and had gathered around him young artists, dissatisfied, iusi as he was, with the ideational and artistic profile of the theatre of the time. Foremost among the designers with whom he worked was the architect Miroslav Kouřil (1911 - 1984) who became an outstanding theoretician of sccnography after the Second World War. In 1957, M Kouřil, with the close cooperation of architect Josef Svoboda, founded the Scenographic Laboratory, now known as the Scenographic Institute, which he still directs From 1933 to 1941, Burian worked out his idea of the theatre on a small concert platform, 6 by 4.5 meters, which provided him with an acting space no bigger than 32-34 square meters. If for any reason he needed more space on the stage, it had to be found at the expense of seats in the auditorium, of which there were a mere 383.3 Burian's theatre was a typical theatre pauvre, very much like the European experimental theatres of today. Burian was an advocate of "synthetic theatre," a concept which was theoretically elaborated by scholars of the Prague Structuralist School, primarily by Professor Jan Mukařovský4 According to this theory, which I can only outline briefly here, theatre is a synthesis of many arts. A stage performance is a structure composed of several elements - acting, music, setting, lighting, etc. - all of which have a certain relation to each other. It is not the sum of parts casually attached to each other, but all of the elements have a close mutual relation and these relations are constantly changing. The artistic and conceptual effect of a performance depends on the deliberate manipulation of the relations between the individual elements. This theoretical principle, derived from avant-garde theatrical practice and reminiscent of it, was of prime significance for Burian's creative work as a director. Indeed, characteristic of his work in the thirties was a subtle J BURIAN. E F - KOUŘIL. M. Dejte nám diwdla (Give us Theatre). Praha 1939. pp. 5-6 4 J MUKAŘOVKÝ s theoretical studies on the theatre are to be found in his books Kapitoly z teske pririikv I (Chapters on Czech poetics). Praha 1948 and Studie : estetiky (Studies in aesthetics). Praha 1966. A selection of Mukafovsky s articles was published in the GFR in 1967 (MUKAŘOVSKÝ. J. Kapitel au\ der Poetik Frankfurt am Main. 1967. Kapitel aui der Aesthelik. Frankfurt am M . 1970). in USA (see A Prague School Reader on Aesthetics. Uterary Form and Style. Ed P L Garuin. Washington. D C. 1964. J MUKAŘOVSKÝ. Aesthetic Function. \'orm and Value as Social Facts, trans M E Suino. Ann Arbor 1970). in Itah (sec J MUKAŘOVSKÝ. Ixi funzione. la norma c il valore tstcltco come fatt sociali. Sfinmhtgia e sociologa dell arte. Torino 1971) etc BURIAN'S basic articles on the theatre are to be found in his book O nove divadlo (The nc« theatre). Praha 1946 Sec also his article O novy di\-ailelni prostor (The new space in the theatre). Stavba XIII. 1936. No S. and Di\-adelni syntesa (A theatrical synthesis). Žisot XV. 1937. No. 3-4. 71 70 interplay of changing relations between the elements of stage structure, or the substituting of one clement for another. Thus, for example, he might temporarily substitute lighting or music for the actor, or the actor might serve as scenery, lighting as stage settings, etc. During \his period the musical element has special significance in Burian's productions, no doubt because of his own talent and education as a musician, lighting was cqualh important After his first experiments with lighting in the "synthetic theatre," Burian together with Koufil proceeded to synthesize his own experience with that of foreign theatres in his use of the Thcatrcgraph in his production of Wedekind's Spring's Awakening. lie used the same principle in an improved form in his dramatization of Pushkin's Eugene Oncgin (1937) This discussion, however, will treat only the production of Wedekind's play premiered on March 3, 1936. * Typical of Burian's repertoire were dramatizations of poetic and prose classics of Czech and world literature, dramatizations which he prepared himself and therefore the staging of dramatic text was an exception for him As was true of all his productions, Burian's staging of Wedekind's play reflected his ardent desire to help transform the world in the spirit of socialism The production was an attack on a society which twists the physical and spiritual growth of young people Burian wanted it to be "a voice crying out in times as terrible as those in which we are forced to live" ' For his production of Spring's Awakening Burian adapted the text6 in order to bring it closer to his avant-garde aesthetic conception and to his s BURIAN. E F. Vroi Mwime Ueiickindi (Why we arc producing Wcdckind). D 36. 1935-1930 season. Vol 7. * BURIAN's textual adaptation of Wedekind's Spring's Awakening would repay independent study His alterations concerned mainly the composition of the play, transforming the original three-act play of short scenes into I two-part theatrical work The first pari opening with Mclchior Gabor and Morris Sticfcl talking about the meaning of life (orig Act I. Scene 2) and ending with Mclchior'; seduction of Wcndla (ong Act II. Scene 4) was dc\otcd to the sexual maiming of the young characters, and was delicate and lyrical in mood. The second part, opening with Mrs Cabot s letter (orig Act II. Scene 5) and ending m lite added scene in the reformatory where Mclchior defends himself behind bars is mainly concerned with the stress situations experienced by young people, unable to find a solution In this pari the mood is satirical and critical. The changes in the composition of the play, enabling greater concentration on the problems dealt with and adapting it to the director's personal touch, were achieved primarily by Burian's shifting of the order of the scenes and the addition of font short scenes of his own He broke up some of Wcdckind s scenes and omitted Jan Rilow s monologue (orig Act II. Scene 3). the scene in the reformatory (orig Act III. Scene 4). and the final scene in the cemetery (one Aci III. Scene 7) Burian also omitted some passages in the text The story of the headless queen was made into a six-verse ballad b> the poet l-rantisek Halas and set to music by Burian Burian transferred some of the interior and cit> scenes to the open air and into natural setting? to emphajisc the unity of maturing in man and in nature more than Wcdckind had done The storx of the young people now evolved primarily in the lap of nature, from early spring through lOCialist philosophy. Wedekind's literary style was not foreign to him, for although the play was written in the early 1890 s it strikingly foreshadowed the father development of playwriting and the theatre. The point that Burian tried to drive home in his production was that the whole of society is to blame for the tragedy of young people, whereas Wedekind saw the culprit in the educational system and in the morality of the-petty bourgeois family. Burian's alterations in the content are thus more decisive than those dictated by aesthetic considerations alone. On its contemporaries, the performance had the effect of a powerful, shocking protest. For the staging of Wedekind's play Burian and Koufil used two low platforms and joined them by a footwalk on which stage props were f tonally placed - chairs, a lounge-chair, a bed - by actors or stagehands. I he rear of the actual playing space was enclosed by a velvet drop made of two overlapping pieces so that the actors could appear imperceptibly out of the dark background. To the right, in front of the backdrop, was a narrow, semi-transparent screen on which slides could be projected from the wings on the left of the scene. Throughout the performance the playing space was cut off downstage by a large transparent screen framed in the same plane as the proscenium portal and measuring about 6 x 4 m. Slides or 16 mm films were projected onto this screen from the boxes above the heads of the audience. The screen was a transparent grey scrim stretched tight, giving an almost imperceptible haze to the scene, and offering a clear, though not bright, image when a slide or moving picture film was thrown onto it; the audience could thus follow both the image on the screen and the parallel action behind it. The lighting was arranged so as not to make the screen too solid by reflection of the light thrown onto it. The white or colored organdie which was commonly in use at that time was rejected because it was thicker and more "solid" in effect, and because it "gave living action the effect of late spring and summer to the autumn. Burian reduced the number of characters by omitting inessential episodes (the porter Habcbald Pastor Kahlbauch. Uncle Probst, the locksmith, men and women in the vineyards) He also omitted the Man in the Hood because his adaptation of the final scene transformed it into a protest against the existing social order The characters who appeared in the original reformatory scene were also dropped (fellow dcliqucnts, Dr ProkrustcsVOn the other hand, the film projections introduced a few new figures to the play. Comparing Burian's adaptation of Wedekind's play with the changes he made in other plays he produced, we come to the conclusion that in this case they were not great, they merely tended to sharpen, according to the spirit of the day and the spirit of the modern theatre, those tendencies which were already present in Wcdckind s play The translation used for the production was that of F V KREJČÍ, published in Prague in 192^ Burian s adaptation of the plas and his director s notes arc preserved in the E. F. Burian Cabinet. National Literature Museum. Praha: title page: Frank WEDEKIND. Springs Awakening. A Tragedy of Youth Dramatic version by E F BURIAN. T 1798. 90 pp Partly MSS. mostly from the 1923 edition of Krcjii's translation, with Reiner's manuscript notes on the music on the odd pages, as well as detailed notes on the actors "business" in the hand of L SKRBKOVÁ. assistant producer There arc some notes in REINER's and SKRBKOVA's writing on the even pages too. 72 mvstcry indeed unreality".7 With the stage arranged in this way, spotlights, slides, and film projection could he used separately in various combinations or simultaneously. Let us turn first to the use of lighting to model the setting and the actor From a technical point of view it was already characteristic of Burian to make the figures on the stage - or groups of figures - stand out by the use off the spotlight. We have pictorial evidence of this use of lighting Often, however, and this is also true of Spring's Awakening, Burian used the spotlight to bring out more details of a figure or a group on the stage, making them stand out in the surrounding darkness when he wished to emphasize them This allowed the actors to appear suddenly "out of the darkness" and enter directly into the action. The scene as Burian created it by his use of spotlights was kinetic in the true sense of the word, a constantly changing scene of light, changing in color and intensity. It created a changing space within the abstract darkness, a space in which the kinetic performance of the actors took place Together with the acting it helped to give spatial location to the two platforms joined by the footwalk. In this stage production another no less important function of spotlights emerged by the narrowing down of the field of light the figure on the stage was modelled with a definite aesthetic and conceptual aim in view. To put it another way, the lighting helped the actor to perfect the characterization or even the stylization of his part The spotlight helped to emphasize the essential points in a given piece of acting, and to hide in the background what was not important This hierarchy of importance was constantly changing The lighting also helped to establish the scale of importance of the actors at a given moment in the action, and made it possible to change this hierarchy rapidly. At the same time, the light helped to stylize the characters, for a sensitive lighting technician like Jiff Mandaus, KOUftn.. M. Procitnuli jara. Kapitoly ; automonografie (Spring $ Awakening Chapters from an auto-monograph) j. Acta scaenogmphica 8 - VI On the principle of the Thcatrcgraph sec. b> the same author VnrijeviStnl material. D M 1935-1936 season. Vol. 7; Tvar a funkrt (Form and function). Sta\ba XIII. 1936. No 5. Dramatich prostor (Dramatic space). Ži\oi XV. 1937. No 3-4. Dimrf'ii a film (The theatre and the cinema). Amatérská kinematografie. May 1936 See also KOUŘIL. M - BURJAN. E F. Divadla Práct. Studit divadelního prostoru (The theatre oT the Work. The essay about the stage space). Praha 19^8. pp 46. 51 For a more serious studv of the Theatregraph sec GROSSMAN. J.. 25 lei ntlelného divadla (25 years of the light theatre) Acta scacnographica. Vol 58. March 1961. 8 and 58 Vol, April 1961. 9; H1LMERA. ).. Poetický princip v moilernl teskř scénografa (Tlíc poctk principle in modern c/ech sccnngraph)). Acta scacnographica ] - VII. CILI.AR. J. Miroslav Kouřil a scénografu D 34 ■ D 41 (M Kouřil and the secnography of the D II • D 41 theatre), thesis 1966. in the archi\cs oíthe Philosophical Facult\ of Charles Unricrsilv Praha. CII.I.AR. J . llifntrrgraph 0H-D4I, Divadlo 1967. March 73 who worked with Bunan, was able to help the actors round off their gestures. With lighting set in this way, and with the slides and film projection, the actor was made to respect composition and timing already fixed during rehearsals to a greater extent than ordinarily. This manner of working with spotlights had a fundamental significance in Burian's conception of Wedekind's play By picking out the figures of the actors, of specific details, spotlights effectively emphasized the feeling of isolation young people hold towards society, their feeling of being unsettled, of having a precarious position in the world and in life itself Because the action took place behind the screen, audiences appeared to be seeing actors in a faint haze which corresponded with the way these young people experienced life. Critics of that period confirm that the effect of the acting behind the transparent gauze screen was that of delicate, poetic images much like dreams "The stage space becomes a space of airy sights and visions," wrote theatre entic Jindřich Vodák, "gradually emerging from mists and deep haze as though from drowned, spellbound distances."• Critic Irma Fischerová remarked that "the stage is constantly hidden behind a veil, placing it further off in imaginary spheres".9 Others found that the "light veil of mist"10 helped to make the action "less earthbound,"11 so that the actors resembled "illuminated apparitions in a dreamy haze".12 This effect was intensified, as we shall see, by the use of slides and film projection As a matter of fact, although this way of using lighting was not common at that time, it cannot be considered the invention of Burian and Kouřil It becomes more interesting when we consider it in conjunction with the projection of slides and films. The image projected onto the front screen - and occasionally on the narrow, rear screen at the same time - means that both light phenomena are perceived simultaneously by the eye of the viewer, creating conceptual and aesthetic tension. Bunan s adaptation of Spring's Awakening, which substituted natural exterior settings for some of Wedekinds interior and city scenes opens in early spring with an evening scene by the water. This opening lyrical scene IS created by a slide showing an old willow tree by the water projected onto the front screen. It creates a metaphorical background to the conversation 1 jv (VODÁK l) Krtjjtafew Procitnuti jara v D 36 (Wcdekind s Spring s A.vekcning in the D 36). Ccskc slovo. 6 III 1936. '* **m!SÍ L) Vitné :aly m etcrn*'wmw*of pubCT1>)- Národn'osvobo*"1- 10 RUTTE. M . Hedckind36, Nirodni list). 5 III. 1936 .'J AMP (PÍSa- A. m>- »td*k,nd v D 36 (Wedekind in the D 36). Práxt) lidu. 5 III 1936. A V (VESEL Y. A.). Procitnuti jara (Spring s Awakening). Pražské noviny. 4.III 1936 74 between the two students, Moms Sticlel unci Mclchior Gabor, during which they compare their initial erotic experiences A film shot of clouds was to be projected on the front screen It is a pity that the photograph does not record any acting, but we arc able to observe acting in the scene in the classroom, which was suggested first by a slide showing stuffed birds from the school museum and then by one showing dead butterflies One of the greatest scenes in this production is the meeting of Mclchior and Wendla in a flowering meadow, created by the projection of a picture of marguerites on the front screen. Mclchior's room was suggested by the projection of a window. The final scene in the reformatory, when Melchior is defending himself against the accusation of blame for Wendla s death, was created by the projection on the front screen of bars made from a photograph of a cut glass plate There are other slides which were used to set the scenes, but they are less pertinent to our discussion because they were not used in combination with the acting. The use of slides to set the scenes made rapid transformations possible The scene came slowly out of the darkness, or suddenly, and disappeared in the same way. In some scenes several slides were projected at once. All the slides used were black and white photographs of actual objects." The use of color filtres was an exception for catkins, butterflies, a wild rose The purpose served was not - and in this Burian and Koufil were openly in dispute with Piscator - to create the stage setting in the accepted sense, replacing painted or architectonic scenery 14 The aim was to create a metaphorical scene. The detail in question is always deliberately overexposed, many times larger than in real life, and has metaphorical validity. For the most part these metaphorical details are taken from nature The selection reveals the influence of Surrealism and of Freud, which affected both Burian and Koufil during this period. The choice of natural details, typically Czech, helped to bring this German play closer to Czech audience - the willow tree, marguerites, and dogrose arc very characteristic of the Czech countryside. These scenic-metaphors heightened the lyrical mood of the production, a mood which was emphasized also by the actors through the musical aspect of speech Music played an intricate and essential part in the whole performance, further heightening the lyricism Spotlights picked out and plastically modelled actors in the dark, in defined areas of the stage. The addition of slide projections placed the action in a given locale or environment, concretizing it, either for an entire scene or for only a few a I he photographs used for ihc slide-scene were the work or J FUNKE. A HACKENSCirMIFD and F KALISTA The anthoror the slide of marguerites was C ZAHRADNIČEK M - The earlier ircatmem of film material n.crclv illustrated a panorama (eg in ihc work or Piscator) " KOUŘIL. M - BURIAN. F. F . Divadlo prove. Studie divadelního pnnloru. Plana l*lkovsky The pictures were the work oí M ALES Sec the reproductions of these drawings in ihc book by V HEPNER, Scénická výprwtw na /MM Sorodnlho di\-adla (Stage setting in the National Theatre). Praha 1955 As far as we know, the slide projections documentary photographs or drawings - for instance, those of Grosz - to set the scene. The original contribution of Bunan and Koufil was that of bringing the scene thus created into close relationship with that created by the spotlights. Unlike Piscator and the Soviet experimenters, Burian and Koufil did not use projections to provide a documentary scene but to make a metaphorical one. In our view they succeeded in breaking up the perspective of the stage inherited by the twentieth century from Renaissance and Baroque cultures. The evolutionary contribution of Burian and Kouřil appears in all its originality only when wc consider the use of film projections, the third element of the Theatregraph." Special shots taken during rehearsals of the play were used at several key points, and then projected onto the front screen (6 x 4 m) only Unfortunately the film itself, about 120 m in length, has not been found yet (1969), and so wc can study the use to which it was put only from the surviving photographic material, the director's notes, and reviews. The film image used in the Theatergraph can be considered a kinetic film decor whenever actor's action is taking place on the screen. In several cases the film has an explicit space-forming function (e.g. a flowing torrent) Kinetic lighting decor created by spotlights, sometimes by slides, is multiplied by this film decor. But in most cases these film projections have a more complex meaning The first shots, such as clouds and a torrent, projected at the very beginning of the production, can be considered both decor and metaphor of actors action just proceeding it. However, the film projection for the most part takes over the part of actors, especially in extremely important situations In two cases the film takes up the actors' actions and carries on with them. The scene in the haybarn where Melchior seduces Wendla was presented in the form of a film projection; a close-up of Wendla's face covered the whole screen, followed by the boy's hand tearing at her dress, a momentary flash of the girls breast, and then the whole screen was covered with lily buds, slowly were used for the first time for scenic purposes bv K H Hilar in the production of Krasinski s The Profane Comedy (1911) and Fischer s (ftmUn (192(1) in the Municipal Theatre in Prague 17 For the basic facts about film projections in the Czech tlicatrc before the Theatregraph. sec J KUCRRA Film na feikěm /«•«// (Films on the Czech stage). Život XV. 1917. No. 3 • 4. As J kuccra introduces first occasion on which a film was projected onto tlic stage was in 1921. in the Municipal Theatre Vinohradv. Prague, during a performance of Stolba's comedy Crime in a Mountain Inn. produced bv F lllavatv The film image sened as scenery As a matter of fact, film in the Czech theatre - in small theatres in Prague - was used for theatrical purposes in the first dcradc of the MM century I POPF.I.KA. Iitmme prvemtvi Hohmtava Mariinu (B Martinů s pioneer work) Acta stenographic* VII - IX. deals with the attempts of Bohuslav "' nů at the end of the twenties to make use of film projection in opera opening to full beauty.1* The death of Wendla was expressed in large scale detail with a rose bloom slowly falling. In addition, a red-colored slide of dog-rose was projected onto the front screen, increasing the excitement of the moment, and at the same time a slide of delicate lace was used for projection onto the back screen. • Furthermore, on two occasions the film image took the place of the actors, while they spoke their lines into a microphone in the wings. The first occurred in the added scene, during which Morris Stiefel leams by degrees from Professor Sonnenstich that he has failed in three subjects. The voice of the Professor in the loudspeaker says: "Morris Stiefel, you have failed in Latin - mathematics - physics!" Each of the three last words was accompanied by a shot of the same angry teacher's face." First, the profile is seen on the left, then the half-profile on the right, and finally there slowly appears between them a close-ups of the angry teacher, full face. In the second instance, close-ups of the faces of the main protagonists accompanied the words of the accusations made against them which were hurled at the audience - at the whole of society. Shots of the boys' and girls' hands are also projected. The text for this added montage was inserted into the scene between the Gabor parents and was therefore particularly effective: It was your crime! You are guilty! You and your principles, your laws, your prejudices! You and only you are guilty! You! Do you hear? You!» In another instance the film projection accompanied the actor antithetically In Wendla's death scene, which Burian opens with Wendla's short monologue in the blossoming garden, taken from Wedckind's Act II, Scene 6, the actress lay on her deathbed, and her monologue was heard in the context of a film projection showing Wendla, happy, strewn with flowers. A description of this film technique is given in an unsigned article entitled (MUM Erwachen mm "*? £ 2 HE Dic ,S,unde (The light theatre - fashion or neccssih ">). Film a divadlo. VIII. 1964. No 6 " "The film composition is Ihc work of the prodncci E F Burian and C Zahradniček " KOUŘIL. M . Diwdlo a film. Amatérská kinematografie. Ma> I9M 24 GREGOR. J.. Dit Fntstehung rims ncuen Thcahrtfih. Dcr Sonntag. Bctlag des Wiener Tag. N I 111. September 19% 79 In Burian s production of Spring's Awakening the action was carried primarily by the actors, and at certain moments by the film projection Unlike the actors, whom the audience perceived as whole entities even if the spotlights emphasized only certain details, the acting projected by the film v\as perceived only in details This film-acting enabled the audience to sec the performance both in the traditional way of the theatre as a whole, and in the way of the cinema - in detail. The viewer had the unusual opportunity of combining two methods of perception in the course of one stage performance. The film projection enabled him to see the acting from angles and in dimensions impossible in the usual proscenium theatre, and therefore deepened and intensified his experience of the acting. The treatment of light, which we have been discussing, played a significant part in determining the rhythm of the production. The alternation of film and straight acting was not regular: in the first part of the play the acting predominated and the film took over at one or two points only, actually only at the end, in the second part the two alternated more frcpucntly, at shorter and shorter intervals, until, in the concluding scenes, the intervals were very short indeed. Thus, the film projections helped to rhythmize - and thereby to dramatize - the crisis, the peripetia, and the catastrophe. The rhythmization of the evening was also helped by the music, arranged by Karel Reiner from the works of Ravel, Debussy, Milhaud, Beethoven, and Scriabin. The outcome was a performance that achieved its ideational and aesthetic objective by a very calculated, sophisticated attack upon the spectator. The best appreciation of the general impression created by the use of this Thcatrcgraph came from the theatre critic Karel EngelmQller: the rapid succession of images and settings, together with tltc use of light to model the characters on the stage, and with the accompaniment of subdued music, accomplish true wonders here The action seems to go on in a vision of budding, pulsing, blossoming spring, in waves of blossom, through the apparition of accusing, terrifying eyes and faces, in an alternation of light and darkness, out of which scenes and images emerge one by one B Burian's and Koufil's production of Wedekind's Spring's Awakening arose extraordinary interest among Czech and foreign critics Such treatment of lighting was then considered an innovation. The contribution of Burian's and Koufil's Thcatrcgraph did not consist of making the use of slides and film projection in one production Likewise, it did not consist of using the light (film) in the function of an " ENGELMOLLER. R Dnadlo D-36 , Sfozaneu. Procimt, jara (The D 36 theatre in the Moarlcum. Spring s Awakening). Národní politika. 5 III 1936, 80 actor. All this was already being used in the experimental productions of Erwin Piscator and other directors in the 1920 s. The contribution of both artists can first of all be seen in the organic exploitation of all kinds of lighting in a theatrical production. In the case of film projection the Theatrcgraph succeeded in taking full advantage of cinematic techniques as a pure theatrical medium Thus, the specifics of film were used for theatrical aims. The film in Theatrcgraph docs not stick out as an autonomous and somehow incongruous element of the production, but becomes an organic pari of the theatrical structure. All the uses of stage lighting - spotlights, slides, and film - were linked together, brought into complex and flexible relationship, contributing, together with other elements of production, to the expression of the director's ideal and artistic goals. Burian's and Koufil s project also contributed to the application of single lighting elements. The metaphonc scenery using slides and the kinetic film scenery was a step forward, compared with the lighting documentary, basically illusionistic, of Piscator's scenery. 81 production of Šambcrk s farce The Eleventh Commandment (1950), and his stage setting for the Vienna (1968) production of Topol's End of the Carnival, directed by Krejča, made use of slide-projections. Nor did the realization that the film can take the actor's place fall into oblivion. Recently, for instance, Svoboda made use of this principle in his setting of Radok's production of Gorki's 77ie I^st Ones (1966), and he used the principle of Polyecran in the production of Topol s Their Day (1959) The designer Antoniu Vorel (b. 1920) even used the Polyecran principle for Pásek s production of Wedekind s Spring's Awakening in Brno in 1968. The use of spotlights to built up the setting, which is common theatrical practice in Czechoslovakia, is also a legacy of Burian's and Koufil's pioneer work in the thirties. Innovation, in Stage and Theatre De«g„. Ncu York 1972. p 126-145 As we have already noted, the Theatregraph was used in two productions staged by Burian in his D theatre, productions in which he attempted to develop the principle. In Eugen Oncgm he used a much larger number of screens, a procedure which can be considered the forerunner of the Polyecran developed by Josef Svoboda and Emil Radok (1958). He also increased the part played by film projections. The director and designer of the Thcafregraph, however, were too experimentally minded to stop there They probably also realized that they had gradually exhausted all the possibilities of the "light theatre" at the stage of technical development then obtaining. Nor should we forget that work with film was not cheap The increased part played by the element of film also began to threaten the specifically theatrical character of production. The principles of the Theatregraph were taken up again in the fifties, at a much more advanced technical level, by Josef Svoboda and Alfréd Radok in the Laterna Magica (1958)-* and by Svoboda and Emil Radok in the Polyecran (1958). Neither of these two forms, however, although they grew out of the theatre and take account of the theatrical element, are really theatre in the true sense of the word. The Czech theatre soon took advantage of the possibilities discovered by Burian and Koufil in their experiments. Thanks to the Theatregraph. projection as a theatre technique soon became firmly accepted. Josef Svoboda (b. 1920) used projection techniques to set the scene in Radok's 16 For Ihc Laterna Magica sec eg the article of ihnt title in the Tulnnr Prnmn Revirw 1%6. Vol II. No l.fTJJ).