1987 » Spain » Stage and costume design

Katalánie

Of the other cultures of Spain, has undergone a pronounced process of normalization which is the result of the new political situation and a sound immediate tradition whose main characteristic is creativity In this context, the consolidation of experiences from 1960 to 1975i has given rise to a new institutional theatre supported by public institutions and diversified private offerings which range over all fields of dramatic creation from repertoire to new visual forms or frontier genres such as theatre-dance. One of the most original and creative aspects of the Catalan theatre is stage design. With a historical background of a very rich stage design tradition, brilliantly developed from romanticism to the decade of the „isms", with their immediate background in the radical renovation of the last two decades, stage and costume designers have created a diverse plastic language. Among these professionals Fabiá Puigserver with his ripe style and professional virtuosity stands out He has become one of the specialists in greatest demand by the Catalan theatre and theatres in the rest of Spain and his work has begun to penetrate in Europe and America. At the same time, because of the need to provide well-empted spaces for performing adequate to the volume of productions and the new audience of recent years, a quite important creative movement of theatrical architecture has started, which concerns both new buildings and the restoration and adaptation of old ones. One of the latest and most successful examples of restoration of old buildings is the Teatres de 1'Institute with its aim: to provide a stage for public performances those companies and genres (mime, puppets, experimental theatre) which encounter obstacles to performing in professional or public theatres. Spain (Catalonia), through the Theatre Institute of the Country Council of Barcelona (Institut de Teátre de la Disputació de Barcelona) presents at the Prague Quadrennial 1987 some of the stage designs made by Fabiá Puigserver during the last five years: 17 productions with the stage and costumes designs made by him. This is our first time in the Prague Quadrennial and we take part in it with the work of a very important stage designer. That is the reason why at the beginning of the exhibition we would like to furnish briefly some information concerning Puigserveťs previous works based on five important titles dating from 1963 to 1978. Three different factors characterize Puigserveťs work: his accuracy in projecting and making the work; the large variety of formal and structural concepts and the unusual poetical power and dramatic insight of the spaces and costumes designed by him. He has influenced the contemporary Catalan theatre a lot and has opened new horizons for the Catalan stage design tradition.