Schneider-Siemssen's
10 COMMANDMENTS
for a Stage Designer |
| I |
Thou shalt study two years of psychology before thou beginneth to study
stage design. |
| II |
Thou
shalt study several disciplines: Painting, graphics, interior-and exterior
architecture, sculpture, art history, style doctrine, theater science, costuming,
geometry, theater perspective, stage acoustics, stage technology, lighting,
basic physics, laser graphics, holography, projection art, materials, TV
and cinematic art. |
| III |
Thou
shalt not kill a composer's or author's work! |
| IV |
Thou
shalt not break up a marriage with a good stage director. |
| V |
Thou shalt serve the work and let thyself be transformed. Thy handwriting
will thus never become unfaithful. |
| VI |
Thou
shalt be able to interpret music visually. If thou hast no musical empathy,
keep thy hands off musical works. |
| VII |
Thou shalt be like a composer, who hath every instrument in his ear; and
understand the whole instrumentation of stage technology, of light and special
effects, so that from this knowledge, creative mastery may emerge. |
| VIII |
Thou
shalt do thy best to avoid material conflicts on the stage, for these are
only a capitulation to thine fantasy. |
| IX |
Thou
shalt bequeath sets that enableth audiences to visualize in a space of light
works ranging from antiquity to the avant-garde that contain a cosmic body
of thought. |
| X |
Thou shalt heed what Goethe sayeth: "Man is the measure of all things."
Thus on stage, the singer, actor, dancer... shalt be the measure of things. |
| [From
G. Schneider-Siemssen in conversation with K. Pahlen: Die Bühne,
mein Leben , Selke Verlag 1996;
(The Stage, My Life
- English translation by James Mulder, in press] |
