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The Studio and Forum of Stage Design was an American training school for theatre designers that was started by scenic designer Lester Polakov in 1958 in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York. [1]
Polakov was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1916 and studied in New York with George Grosz and at Columbia University. He began his career designing sets in summer stock theatre and in 1939 made his debut in New York City as the scenic designer for The Mother . This was quickly followed in 1940 by designing the costumes for Reunion in New York , as well as assisting scenic designer Harry Horner on Lady in the Dark . After service in World War II, he resumed designing and also painting, with several exhibitions of his paintings as a result. [2]
In 1958, he established the Lester Polakov Studio of Stage Design, later known as the Studio and Forum of Stage Design, where he employed some of the best-known designers of sets, lights, and costumes to teach design. In addition to teaching and overseeing the operation of the school, he continued to design sets and costumes for the stage.
In 1993, Polakov published his book, We Live to Paint Again. [3] [4]
In 1999, Polakov was the recipient of the Distinguished Achievement Award in Scenery presented to him by the United States Institute for Theatre Technology. His credits include Call Me Mister (1946, scenic design), Crime and Punishment (1947, costume design), The Member of the Wedding (1950, scenic, costume, and lighting design; also replacement stage manager), [5] The Skin of Our Teeth (1955, scenic design), Great Day in the Morning (1962, scenic and lighting design), and Charlotte (1980, scenic design). [6] [7]
He was a scenic designer who, through his years of working in theatre, gathered together a group of like-minded designers to create a teaching environment that was esteemed, though it was not connected to any university or academic institution. [8]
Through this school, and the corresponding work done by union members of United Scenic Artists l.u. 829 (now a part of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees), they created and promoted the idea of conceptual-based designing.
All the teachers in the school were working professionals, usually Broadway-based designers. The list included: Lester Polakov, John Gleason, Tom Skelton and Arden Fingerhut. [9]
The school had courses that included scenic design, scenic painting, still-life sketching, costume design and lighting design.
Today, none of the original creators of this school survive.
Scenic design is the creation of theatrical, as well as film or television scenery. Scenic designers come from a variety of artistic backgrounds, but in recent years, are mostly trained professionals, holding B.F.A. or M.F.A. degrees in theatre arts. Scenic designers create sets and scenery that aim to support the overall artistic goals of the production. There has been some consideration that scenic design is also production design; however, it is generally considered to be a part of the visual production of a film or television.
Scenography is a practice of crafting stage environments or atmospheres. In the contemporary English usage, scenography is the combination of technological and material stagecrafts to represent, enact, and produce a sense of place in performance. While inclusive of the techniques of scenic design and set design, scenography is a holistic approach to the study and practice of all aspects of design in performance.
United Scenic Artists, Local USA 829, formerly known as United Scenic Artists of America (USAA), is an American labor union. It is a nationwide autonomous Local of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. It organizes designers, artists, and craftspeople in the entertainment and decorative arts industries. The organization was part of International Brotherhood of Painters and Allied Trades, however it reaffiliated with IATSE in 1999. United Scenic Artists was organized to protect craft standards, working conditions and wages for the entertainment and decorative arts industries. The members of Local USA 829 are Artists and Designers working in film, theatre, opera, ballet, television, industrial shows, commercials and exhibitions. The current membership totals nearly 3,800. Local USA 829 establishes wages for designers and artists, and negotiates with employers the best possible terms and conditions of employment, as well as Health Insurance and Retirement benefits through employer contributions of Pension, Welfare, 401(k) and Annuity plans.
The Bowery Theatre was a playhouse on the Bowery in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City. Although it was founded by rich families to compete with the upscale Park Theatre, the Bowery saw its most successful period under the populist, pro-American management of Thomas Hamblin in the 1830s and 1840s. By the 1850s, the theatre came to cater to immigrant groups such as the Irish, Germans, and Chinese. It burned down four times in 17 years, a fire in 1929 destroying it for good. Although the theatre's name changed several times, it was generally referred to as the "Bowery Theatre".
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Performing arts – are art forms where the participant engages in a physical performance using their body, voice, language, or use of specific equipment for entertainment purposes.
A costume designer is a person who designs costumes for a film, stage production or television show. The role of the costume designer is to create the characters' outfits or costumes and balance the scenes with texture and colour, etc. The costume designer works alongside the director, scenic, lighting designer, sound designer, and other creative personnel. The costume designer may also collaborate with a hair stylist, wig master, or makeup artist. In European theatre, the role is different, as the theatre designer usually designs both costume and scenic elements.
Neil Peter Jampolis was a light designer, set designer, and stage director. He was best known for the light designing he did for the Royal Shakespeare Theatre’s 1975 production of Sherlock Holmes for which he won a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award. Jampolis went on to win an American Theatre Wing Hewes Design Award in 1982 and three more Tony Award nominations for The Innocents, Black and Blue, and Orpheus Descending. He also won a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for lighting Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner's Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe. Jampolis had also worked as either a light designer, set designer, or stage director with Pilobolus Dance Theatre the Vienna State Opera, La Scala, the Metropolitan Opera, the Santa Fe Opera, Opera Pacific, the New York City Opera, Pasadena Playhouse, and Hollywood's Matrix Theatre among others. He was most recently one of the main light designers for the Seattle Opera and a distinguished professor of theatre at UCLA's School of Theatre, Film, and Television. He also occasionally worked as a stage director and set designer for Seattle Opera.
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The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to stagecraft:
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David Zinn is a costume and scenic designer based in New York, New York. He has been nominated seven times for the Tony Award for both his costume designs and scenic designs, winning one Best Scenic Design for a Play award for The Humans and one Best Scenic Design in a Musical award for Spongebob Squarepants. He has over 80 Off-Broadway credits in his lifetime.
Dane Laffrey is an American scenic designer best known for Broadway shows Once on This Island (2017), Spring Awakening (2015), and Fool for Love (2015), and Off-Broadway shows The Christians (2015), Cloud Nine (2015), and Rancho Viejo (2016).
Merris Shirley Prendergast was a theater lighting designer notable for being the first African-American woman admitted to the United Scenic Artists’ lighting division in 1969. She was also the first African-American woman lighting designer on Broadway in 1973. Prendergast designed lighting for Broadway shows such as Waltz of the Stork, Amen Corner, and the Paul Robeson one-man show. She designed lighting for fifty years, well into her mid-80s. One of her last productions was Zora Neale Hurston: a Theatrical Biography in 2016.
