Possible Worlds—Designing for Shakespeare in Canada
January 11 to June 10, 2007
The Possible Worlds exhibition, curated by Pat Flood, features some of the finest examples of contemporary Canadian theatrical design for Shakespeare. The work derives from the L. W. Conolly Theatre Archive at the University of Guelph—the largest archive on theatre in Canada—and from the Canadian Theatre Museum, Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, Stratford Festival Archives, and private collections.
This exhibition offers a rare public forum for the documentation and public presentation of work by contemporary Canadian theatre artists. The exhibition features a selection of set and costume designs for King Lear by Canadian artists spanning a century of artistic production, from Rolph Scarlett (1889-1984) and Herbert Whittaker (1910-2006) to contemporary designers Cameron Porteous, Patrick Clark, and Charlotte Dean. Port Hope artist Arline Smith’s miniature “Dream” Theatre (2006) adapts the play within the play from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, featuring a full cast of characters animated by fibre optic lighting and accompanied by an archival performance recording set to Mendelssohn’s Wedding March. Smith, a set, prop, jewelry, and costume maker who began her career at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford (England), has rendered the “Dream” Theatre in exquisite detail. Teresa Przybylski’s animated set design for The Comedy of Errors (Stratford Festival, 1994) was constructed of simple frames manipulated by the actors during the performance to conjure rooms, walls, and doors. Przybylski’s design was so effective that at one point in the production, when an actor was pushed through a frame that had previously represented a wall, the audience gasped! Astrid Janson’s set and costume designs for Harlem Duet, an adaptive prequel to Othello written by Djanet Sears, was the first all-Black play produced at Stratford and is the only work included in the exhibition that is set in a contemporary time period. These are but a few examples, among many extraordinary works, of set and costume designs by contemporary Canadian artists on view in this exhibition.
Gallery Talk with Pat Flood
Tuesday, May 15 at noon
Images:
Left: Astrid Janson, costume sketch for Harlem Duet
(Stratford Festival, 2006)
Right: Susan Benson, costume design for Romeo and Juliet
The National Ballet of Canada, 1994)
Last modified: March 14, 2007