Architecture, Actor and Audience (Theatre Concepts Series) - Hardcover

Mackintosh, Ian

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0415031826 ISBN 13: 9780415031820

Publisher: Spon Press, 1993

Synopsis

Until recently the contribution of architecture to the theatrical experience was seldom analyzed. The evolution of theatre design, or the use of the dramatic space tended to be the sole concern of architects or directors. Seldom did critics or practitioners stop to consider the "metaphysical functionalism" of theatre design: its ability to heighten the theatrical event. This silence, Ian Mackintosh argues, has resulted from a historical misunderstanding of the active role of the audience, and a failure or architects since the 1930s to discern the difference between cinema and theatre. The result has been the proliferation of dreary and unpopular theatres. In "Architecture, Actor and Audience" the author draws his own practical experience of theatre and design, as well as the testimony of theatre workers and audiences to examine the importance of theatre architecture from the time of Shakespeare, to the proliferation of Civic auditoria in the 1950s and 1960s, and the minimalist "black boxes" of the 1970s.

About this title

About the Author

Ian Mackintosh is Director of Theatre Projects Consultants in London.

Review

'Mackintosh's considerable achievement is to turn what might so easily have become simply anecdote or a display of professional partiality for this of that form, into the subject of a detailed historical analysis, pursued with rigour and architectural understanding.' - Theatre Research International

'Thank goodness for this visionary book. ... if we wish to build playhouses which help provoke the energy, buzz and interaction of good theatre ... this enthralling and truthful book provides a marvelous foundation stone. Read it. Build on it ... This is also the best book on theatre buildings, I have seen for A Level Theatre Studies, students.' - Mark Howell, Theatre Notebook

'Environmental theatre history at its best: analytical, informed, involved.' - Michael Coveney, The Observer (1993 'Books of the Year')

'Iain Mackintosh knows things about the mystery of the theatre that nobody else does. And because he writes with charm and passion we can know them, too. This is the best book on how architectural environment affects our work since Peter Brook's - The Empty Space -

'Thank goodness for this visionary book. Read it. Build on it.' - Mark Howell, Theatre Notebook

'The most informed historian and the most able consultant on the theory and practice of theatre design in Britain ... Mackintosh's book is for all of us, the 'Coles notes' of theatre design ... without question, required reading for anyone engaged in building theatres, but more than that it is simply a jolly good read for all artists concerned with the development of good theatre.' - RADA Magazine

Edition details

• Publisher: Spon Press
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0415031826
• ISBN 13: 9780415031820
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 184