1. Stage scenery
As a form of stage performance, the importance of stage scenery to musicals is self-evident. It can not only create an appropriate dramatic environment for the play, but more importantly, it can turn a brief moment in the theater into an eternity in the audience's mind. It is the emergence and development of stage scenery that expands the performance space of musicals and visually strengthens the contrast between time and space, thus allowing all stage activities and scenes of musicals to proceed smoothly.
Stage set design is an extremely important part of the musical's actual creation. The stage designer must read the script carefully and understand it deeply. On this basis, according to the director's creative ideas, he can construct a future performance space for the musical, provide reasonable scheduling for the performance, and use artistic means to reveal the connotation and implication of the play. .
Scenic design is a comprehensive and complex work that usually involves aspects such as architecture, materials, lighting, technology, and aesthetics. Its style and form are crucial to a play and can fundamentally affect the style and style of a musical. Therefore, the tacit understanding between the director and the stage designer and the appropriateness of the stage set design often determine the success or failure of the play.
Similar to the development of the musical itself, the stage setting has also experienced a development process from scratch, from simple to complex. In the early musical repertoire, because the plot of the musical itself was relatively simple, there were usually only a few scenes, or even a one-act play that took place in one scene. In addition, the number of actors in a musical was relatively small, so the stage setting could Optional, no special requirements. At that time, the stage set designer in musicals was not a full-time fixed job. Often, before the play was staged, the theater manager felt that it was necessary to design the stage, so he would temporarily find a designer to direct it. However, the stage set designers at that time did not have an overall design idea, and musicals did not have unified requirements and specifications for stage sets, so stage sets were often improvised by designers.
The scenery produced in this environment is basically closely related to the designer's own level and interests, but has no direct relationship with the plot. Although designers can draw beautiful stage curtain backgrounds, they can only be seen as beautiful canvases that have nothing to do with the plot and cannot play a role in shaping characters and promoting the plot. Moreover, the setting largely follows the traditional methods of old operas and musicals, which are limited to a flat framed stage model, and the dramatic environment is only displayed through a canvas hanging behind the actors. If it takes place in a palace, a curtain depicting a magnificent palace will be hung. If it takes place in a forest, a green forest scene will be put on the stage. Early plays such as "The Song of Phoenixes" and "Oklahoma" all adopted this setting method to varying degrees. Since early plays had fewer scenes and did not need to carry more dramatic content, this flat design could also adapt to the requirements of musicals at that time.
However, with the development of various components of musicals and the continuous improvement of the status of scripts in musicals, the role of stage scenery and design in expressing musicals has become more and more prominent, and has begun to gradually shift from flat to Development in the direction of three-dimensional and materialization. The traditional curtain method has been questioned and challenged. Scenic designers began to break the stage frame model and seek newer scenographic device forms that adapt to the development of reality. Stage scenographic design has also become one of the indispensable arts for musical performances. Flat curtains were gradually abandoned and replaced by lifelike stage props creating a realistic theatrical environment. The "Post Office" set already appeared in "Girls Crazy" in 1930, and a small staircase was built above the stage and a door opened on one side of the stage, which made the actors' performances more natural and real.
The advancement of technology has also greatly enhanced the capabilities of stage design and performance. Many achievements of modern science and technology have been applied to the stage, thus creating for us more and more exquisite scenery and props, and more and more grand stage spectacles. The reason why Weber's another masterpiece "Phantom of the Opera" has achieved great success and has long-lasting popularity is not only the thrilling plot and gripping dramatic suspense, but also the contribution of the stage setting. The ever-changing stage mechanism has become an important means for it to attract the audience. Perhaps the most impressive thing for the audience is the underground lake scene in the play.
As the residence of "ghosts", this underground lake is full of mystery and horror. Maria Bjornsson vividly creates this illusory and beautiful world for us through sound, light and various lights. A cinematic montage-like approach makes this terrifying world less daunting and gives the audience a deeper understanding of the lonely and sensitive "ghosts".
In addition to completing the basic tasks of highlighting the plot and creating an atmosphere, the stage setting sometimes also needs to carry more missions. In the eyes of theater director genius Harold Prince, stage scenery can often be the most powerful means of contrasting a theme, and is sometimes more direct and effective than scripts and dance. In his most famous work, "Hotel" in 1966, he adopted a brand-new design to enhance the stage performance of the play. A huge mirror hangs from the stage curtain, which directly reflects the appearance of the theater audience. The distorted faces of the audience reflected in the mirror reflect the theme of the play: the philosophy behind the mirror alludes to the rampant racism in the United States at the time, while the distorted faces hint at the dark side of the human heart. Prince pointedly pointed out that the United States at that time, like Germany, was in danger of fascist centralization and degeneration. This idea was a hit and made Prince famous in one fell swoop.
Examples of this include Prince and Sondheim's later collaborations in "Partners" and "The Show". Prince's concept of attaching importance to stage settings also runs through these two plays. Among them, the stage designer Harrison understood the director's intention well, thus presenting a unique spectacle of stage performance to the audience.
In "Partners", in order to show the contradictions, alienation and lack of communication in modern marriage that this play explores, Harrison used his years of understanding of New York life to design a A unique stage: different platforms are built with metal frames. Between the platforms are curtains made of transparent glass. In the middle of the entire platform is an elevator that can move up and down. This "structuralist" approach vividly presents a deserted and depressing picture of urban life to the audience.
In this stage design, the actors can see everything happening in the elevator in the center of the platform through the transparent glass, but they have no way of knowing the world around them. This is a good metaphor for the city. The man-made barriers in life. The elevator in the middle not only provides convenience for people to go up and downstairs, but also has a deeper meaning: the activities and interactions of urban men and women are mostly vertical and rarely horizontal. People keep climbing upwards for the status, fame and fortune that are highly respected by society, but they always ignore the most precious family ties and other things around them. The elevator becomes their best tool to escape reality and numb themselves. This profound design technique perfectly completes the "concept" that Sondheim wants to express.
The stage set design in "The Rich Show" perfectly reproduces the artistic conception of "rubble and ruins" pursued by director Prince, creating an environment full of memories in the Winter Garden Theater. The stage set designer Boris Aronson made full use of the height of the Winter Garden Theater and built multi-level platforms on both sides of the stage. The platforms can be moved at will, so that reality and memories can be skillfully passed through the same platform. Connect at different heights. But when all the high platforms appear on the stage, the actors complete the transformation from the past to the present on the high platforms. The different heights represent the different performance periods of the actors; and once all the high platforms are withdrawn, the entire stage becomes more spacious. The emptiness brings people back to the magnificent show venue of the past. In addition, missing statues, withered stage frames and other props suggesting incompleteness were deliberately placed on the stage. These alternating "wrecks" complemented the "ruin" feeling created by the entire play, leaving the audience with unlimited reverie.
To put it simply, the set design in musicals can be roughly divided into two parts: one is the set design, and the other is the set production team. The set design is of course done through the set designer. Generally speaking, the work of a set designer can be divided into the following steps:
First, after studying the script in detail, discuss and communicate the creative concept with the director, and then combine your imagination with the director's Use imagination to find a suitable entry point as the starting point for creating stage scenery.
Then you will start to draw a sketch to roughly outline the stage image and layout in your mind, and then discuss it further with the director.
Next, once the plan is accepted by the director and the entire creative team, the designer must fully understand the theater for the performance, especially the stage space and its equipment, and have an accurate understanding of the parts that need to be adjusted and improved. grasp and understanding.
After the on-site inspection, the designer will draw a plan plan and a three-dimensional perspective view. In the plan plan, the location and size of each scene's scenery and the specific placement time and location of each prop must be accurately noted. And the use of stage locations, etc., as the basis for making installations, scenery and props. At the same time, it is necessary to provide lighting designers with a clear stage environment so that their work can be synchronized and continuously adjusted according to changes in reality.
Finally, after everything is basically determined, the stage designer can scale down the production model according to the proportions of the entire device and scenery as a reference for further scenery production. The set model has great reference value for other work parts of the theater, allowing the director and actors to better understand the theatrical environment they will be exposed to.
The work of the set production team is even more trivial in comparison. After getting the designer's plan and three-dimensional drawings, they need to purchase materials and follow the illustrations to produce various sets that meet the performance requirements. It is the unknown efforts of the entire group that create the colorful and wonderful landscape on the colorful stage.
In the past, audiences watched various performances and drama scenes through framed scenery on the stage, but today, everything has been improved, and stage designers have broken through the traditional constraints and limitations. The three-dimensional and humanized stage gives the audience more theater experience. The relationship between the audience and the performance area has been completely changed. The performance has become more and more integrated into the audience, and the on-site feeling has become more and more the director's goal. location. I believe that as the scenery technology is further strengthened and improved, the stage performance techniques will become more diverse and the stage will become more and more beautiful.
2. Stage Lighting
When talking about the role of stage lighting in drama, one of the pioneers of the dramatic art innovation movement in the 20th century, a Swiss stage artist and one of the leading designers of stage lighting Adolphe Appia believed that "this kind of light that can bring changes and movement rhythm to the stage space is the soul of the stage." When electric light was first used on the stage at the end of the 19th century, he predicted that lighting would change the entire theatrical world. Indeed, the combination of light, color and music is both highly expressive and extremely beautiful. With the development of stage lighting technology, the role of lighting in any form of stage performance is becoming more and more obvious. As an art form that performs on stage, musicals are also inseparable from the strong support of lighting.
Stage lighting, also known as stage lighting, is one of the important means of stage art modeling. It uses stage lighting equipment such as lighting fixtures, slides, control systems, etc., as well as technical means. During the performance, as the plot progresses and the needs of the characters are expressed, the environment is displayed with light color and its changes, rendering the atmosphere, and creating a sense of stage space. , sense of time and artistic conception required by the play, and provide necessary special effects such as wind, rain, clouds, water, lightning, etc. It is the presence of lights that unifies the three-dimensional scenery on the stage with the moving actors, forming moving pictures.
Andrew Webb's early work - "Starlight Express" performed at the Apollo Victoria Theater in London on March 27, 1984, is a typical high-tech musical. In order to show the starry sky effect on the background curtain, 1,500 lamp heads, 1,200 sets of different lighting equipment and 6,000 decorative light bulbs were used in the play. When the audience enters the theater and waits for the curtain to open and the lights to flash, they will feel like they are really under the starry sky.
The role of stage lighting is deeply affected by lighting technology, and its development and evolution process is inseparable from the rapid progress of science and technology. In early theatrical performances, torches and candles provided light sources for the stage and played a role in lighting. Later, with the invention of kerosene lamps and gasoline lamps, more stable and dazzling light appeared on the stage, but this still did not change the nature of lights as simple lighting tools. Edison's invention of the electric light was not only an epoch-making event in the history of human technological development, but also had an important and far-reaching impact on stage performances. Electric lights not only brought unprecedented brightness to the stage, but also opened up a colorful sky. The continuous progress of human modern industrial civilization and science and technology has provided a solid material and technical foundation for the development of stage lighting.
Stage technology, especially lighting technology, made great progress in the late 1980s, which caused a huge change in the stage style of musicals and made dramas increasingly dependent on lighting technology.
Lighting technology was quickly applied to musical performances and greatly enhanced the charm of the play. In 1907, the song and dance king Ziegfeld shouted the slogan "Let American girls shine" and launched a series of luxurious song and dance variety shows - "The Gorgeous Show", which was performed in the small rooftop garden theater on the top floor of the Olympia Theater. The performance won with colorful lights, brilliant decorations on the golden walls and young and beautiful dancers. The lighting decorated this luxurious, live, live-action entertainment show with grandeur, earning Ziegfeld countless dollars. At the same time, the role of stage lighting began to really attract the attention of the musical theater industry.
In the development of musicals in the 20th century, any advancement and invention in lighting technology was quickly applied to the stage of musicals. The development of science and technology has enabled lighting to transcend basic lighting functions and become a specialized stage art method. Today, lighting technology has become a comprehensive, high-tech stage technology. While bringing light and color to the entire stage and theater, it can also effectively assist the director to complete the plot, create a dramatic atmosphere, and shape the audience. Character image, plot twists and many other functions.
Looking at Broadway's successful productions in recent years, they are all distinguished by their wonderful lighting design. From "Fancy Show" to "Les Misérables," from "Cats" to "Miss Saigon," from "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" to "Hairspray," which won eight Tony Awards in 2003, there are excellent and innovatively designed stages. light. Their radiant stage effect, dynamic line beauty, romantic color beauty and lyrical melody beauty formed by various computer lights and a large number of new light sources give the entire stage a harmonious and unified overall beauty.
Generally speaking, stage lighting in musicals has the following functions:
1. Visual lighting. This is the basic function of lighting, allowing the theater audience to clearly see the entire stage and the performances of the actors.
2. Highlight the characters. This additional function is mainly realized through stage light chasing, using a beam of bright light to sweep across the darker stage. Due to the principle of human vision, people will naturally pay attention to the brightest areas on the stage, thereby completing the analysis of the characters in the play. close up.
3. Enhance the aesthetic feeling. This additional function can only be realized through the combined efforts of various factors on the stage. Under the combined effect of lighting, stage scenery, costumes, makeup and other elements, the audience is brought into a dream-like atmosphere, thereby controlling the development and progress of the story. The theatrical environment has an immersive feel.
The lighting in musicals is usually completed by a specialized lighting engineer. He needs to accurately grasp the number of lights required for the theater and stage, the load of the lighting fixtures, and the lighting requirements after constant coordination with the creative team. The approximate location of the layout. After the script, music, and dance are basically determined and rehearsed, the best lighting plan is designed based on the plot and the actual conditions of the performance theater. After entering the final rehearsal stage, as an important part of stage art, lighting should participate in the actors' dressing and walking rehearsals to check whether there is any unreasonableness in the lighting design until the lighting plan is finalized.
Stage lighting can not only create a strong dramatic atmosphere, but also help to form a unified dramatic style. The theme of the play, the director's concept, the beauty of the costumes, the brilliance of the dance, and many other musical theater spirits that can only be understood but cannot be expressed mainly rely on lighting to express them. As an important element of stage beauty, stage lighting has increasingly become an important means to successfully shape characters and decorate the performance stage.