Space in Performance ~ Introduction to Performance Week 6 ~ How space shapes and influences performance ~ Explore both concrete and abstract ideas of theatrical space ~ Think about how space determines performance 'I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks across this empty space whilst someone else is watching him, and this is all that is needed for an actor of theatre to be engaged.' ~ Peter Brook, The Empty Space, p.11 Space is never empty or neutral just as the body is never neutral. 'Space - whether a suspended pause, a blank area, an empty room or limitless cosmos - Performs ... Space is the stuff of architects (who construct it) and scenographers (who abstract it); experienced by inhabitants (immersed within it) and spectators (who regard it).However the it of space is multiple and fractured.' Taxonomy of Space ... ~ The social reality - physical space ~ Theatre Space - subdivided into different areas with distinct relationships ~ Audience Space ~ Performance space ~ Box office ~ Practitioner space ~ Rehearsal space . The Physical/ Fictional relationship ~ Space is always abstract and concrete within the stage, presentational space (physical space) and fictional place (what is conjured) Location and Fiction ~ Onstage fictional place and the offstage fictional place which is either localised (specific e.g. the offstage exit leads to a kitchen) or unlocalised (more general outer space) in relation to the performance space. This is dependent on the play and the places created and used. The audience space can also be used as a fictional extension of place. Textual Space ~ Written as it is in the play Thematic Space ~ Not as clearly apparent, but space in relation to a theme to create exploration for an audience. Space and Place 'In experience, the meaning of sauce often merges with that of place. 'Space' is more abstract than 'Place'. What begins as undifferentiated space becomes a place as we get to know it better ... ' (Yi Fu Taun, Space and Place, p.6) The practiced space you are familiar with becomes a place as you add value and meaning to it as opposed to new places which are viewed as more abstract as they hold no personal value.
Reading the Stage Picture ~ Levels of operation ~ Functionalistic - Responding to a level of need found within the play text. ~ Sociometric - Readability, set and staging to provide meaning to the audience ~ Atmospheric - Using the space to create an atmosphere and information e.g. opulent room where only one chair is used. ~ Symbolic - Influence on the space to provide information on power or status as an allegory. Metonymic Design ~ Based on the contiguity of the presence onstage to the absence it represents Metaphoric design ~ Based on the similarity between the signifier and its referent.