1979 » The Netherlands » Stage and costume design

HOLANDSKO

For the Netherlands exposition at the Prague Quadrennial wehave chosen the work of stage designers such as Floris Guntanaar, Paul Gallis, Leonie Polák, Paul van den Perg and the stagedesigners of the Independent Theatre. This selection was more or less determined by the fact that these stage designers have a number of characteristics in common: 1/ They all use constructivism as a source of inspiration. This constructivist trend is manifest for instance in experiments with lighter constructions, with geometrical shapes and in a clear prediliction for the use of technology. We find these traits especially in the stage designs of Floris Guntenaar, Paul van den Berg and the stage designers of the Independent Theatre. 2/ They use all traditional theatrical forms such as decorative elements, but at the same time they use them is such a manner as to implicitly criticize them. Compare for instance the designs for Hedda Gabler in the Independent Theatre and The Divorce as staged by the Centrum troupe. 3/ Since all these stage designers are forced to stage plays in theatrical auditoriums which greatly differ one from the other, they have arrived at the idea of making mobile sets, as is the case for instance in the Electric Circus at the Metropole in Rotterdam. 4/ All are members of the same generation, of approximately the same age.

Exhibiting artists / ateliers

• Paul van den BERG

Additional information: Born in 1945 im Amsterdam. He graduated as an architect at Delft. Since 1973 he works in Amsterdam as an architect and stage designer. In collaboration with director Peter Oosthoek he has designed sets and costumes for the following productions: A Very Strange Day, The Fire of the Setting Sun and Babyphone /Herman Lutgerink/, as well as for The Overturned Lamp by Per Justessen and The Freshness of the Lakes of Death, The Divorce and Mata Hari by Ton Vorstenbosch, for A Whole System of Wheels at the New Comedy Theatre and for Teeth' s Smiles by David Hare. He has also worked for ballet productions, where he designed the stage for I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass and Sunlight by Leon -Konig, produced at the Netherlands National Ballet.

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• Paul GALLIS

Additional information: Born in 1944. He is a very talented stage designer who came to the theatre without any preliminary professional training. He worked first for seven years as an accountant; he then became acquainted with the actor Paul Vermeulen Windsant, together with whom he openned a shop with various objects for animals in a suberb of Amsterdam. In 1973 Paul Vermeulen Windsant directed the play Eva Peron, presented at the Holland Festival, for which Paul Gallis designed the sets. He continued in his career as a stage designer with sets for Pre-Paradise Sorry Now by Rainer Fassbinder, The Twentyfifth Hour by George Tabori, The Soldier' s Tale by Ramuze and Stravinski, Sunday by Michel Deutsch and The Misanthrope by Molière. Besides Paul Vermeulen Windsant, Gallis has also collaborated with directors Gerard Jan Rijnders, Leonard Frank, Paddy Stone, Ger Thijs and Lodewijk de Boer.

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• Hinderik de GROOT

Additional information: Born in 1941. He is now the art and bussiness director of the Hinderik Puppet Studio. He belongs to the avante-gard and is considered to be an interesting innovator in the area of contemporary puppet theatre. He made his debut as an assistant puppet manipulator to Feik Boschm. On the basis of Boschm´ s iniciative, he began to play on his own in 1967 in the small puppet theatre at Bests, a small town in northern Holland. He first worked alone, later with a group with which he produced full length performances, such as Horror, Pantalon and a play which he prepared especially for a tour to Rumania and which he designated as an "anti-capitalist pamphlet ". The theatre later obtained a larger auditorium, but nevertheless financial problems forced Hinderik de Groot to again perform alone. On the basis of a government subsidy he was able to produce two experimental performances: The Magician fromm Elsewhere and The Bird Man which were produced especially for older children and adults. The foundation of these performances is no longer only the puppet theatre but just the theatre which makes use of the opportunities provided by puppets. Hinderik de Groot uses va- rious scrap material, deformed or decayed materials, sometimes directly garbage.

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• Floris GUNTENAAR

Additional information: Born in 1946. Between 1960 and 1966 he attended the Rietveld Academy of Fine Arts in Amsterdam, where he specialized in industrial design. He has worked in this field for Dutch and multinational corporations. As a graphic artists he has worked, among others, also for the Foundation of Netherland Art, for a number of journals and for publishing houses. He has also designed posters. Among others, he has designed stage sets for the Norwegian Dance Theatre and for the Netherlands National Ballet, for the Netherlands Opera Foundation and for several theatrical companies. He has also taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Enschede and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Amsterdam.

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• TONEEL ONAFHAKELIJK

Additional information: The Independent Theatre in Rotterdam is considered by its members to be an experimental workshop. It was founded in 1972 from the need to make more specific the problems which interest actors. From this collaboration theatrical performances, ex - hibitions, publications, posters and finally an administrative unit were born. The Independent Theatre is a cooperative. Its members are also its managers; there are no employer-employee relationships, every actor is at the same time a producer of the theatre. The tasks are in no way divided, all members of the cooperative do all kinds of work. In performances, the main stress is placed upon form. In these endeavours, the authenticity of materials and the given space are primary points of departure. For these reasons the Independent Theatre began its activities with a program based on the works of Vladimir Maya - kovski /in 1973/. The style of the Independent Theatre might be characterized as "minimum playing". As an example of this style, Ibsen's Hedda Gabler and Chekhov's The Seagull might be mentioned.

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• Leonie POLAK

Additional information: Born in 1945. In the years 1967-1970 she studied at the Rietveld Academy of Fine Arts in Amsterdam, where she specialized in free graphics. Later she devoted herself to costume designing for a number theatrical companies in the Netherlands such as The Globe, Baal and the Hague Comedy Theatre. She has designed costumes for Brechť s plays, for Dumas' The Lady of the Camellias and for The Passion According to St. Matthew with texts by Louis Ferron and music by Louis Andriessen. She has also collaborated with the Netherlands Opera Foundation.

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