THEATRE DESIGN

New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 930, 7 June 1957, Page 11

THEATRE DESIGN

Sir, Mr Gillespie Meldrum’s article on "Design for Music" was most informative, and I would like to congratulate him on the fine acoustics achieved in the Lower Hutt new Town Hall; but please, please, when will architects, or eyen Mr Meldrum, learn something about theatre design? How can Mr Meldrum say ". . . that as much attention should be paid to the design of the stage and its facilities as to the rest of the hall," when one of the most important stage areas at the Town Hall has been completely ruined by the installation of a rehearsal room -a rehearsal room in the flies! The designer responsible will be laughed to

scorn. How can scenery be shifted efficiently, how can lights be set, how can borders be eliminated, how can a skycloth or cyclorama be used? Was much attention paid to the incredibly smal] scene dock and its door? Was much attention paid to the wing space? Or to the useless power plant for driving the curtain? Or to the stage manager’s corner, which is isolated 20 feet above the stage? Or to shifting and storing Mr Meldrum’s reflectors? My fury at even thinking of the time and money that has been wasted on these and other elements of bad design backstage prevents me from discussing the matter further. I shall now become furious over what Mr Meldrum has to say about audi-toriums-i.e., "merely an enclosed space accommodating the audience.’ How dare he dismiss the traditional classical and enlightened work of 18th century theatre architects? Surely very few architects before or since have been able to give the audience a "space" which binds them. to the stage by use of colour, decoration and the horseshoe shape that creates intimacy. The great actors of today appreciate this. Has no New Zealand architect studied the work of Pierre Sonriel, who re-designed and re-decorated the Old Vic Theatre in London, and who hag recently created a theatre of inestimable value at Strasbourg, a brilliant example of efficient designing; or of Richard Southern, who has a unique practical -knowledge of civic theatre design?

Personally, I feel little specialist knowledge was required to make the orchestra pit large enough for a chamber orchestra-or to provide more than one lavatory for all the large orchestras and choirs Mr Gillespie Meldrum envisages.

RAYMOND

BOYCE

(Wellington).