Art Round-Up – All the World’s a Stage at Bruce

– By Arthur Stampleman –

Greenwich’s Bruce Museum is now showing “Pal Joey” and “Tosca” – the theater sets, that is. They are among the almost two dozen scale versions in the Bruce’s new show, “Setting the Stage: Twentieth-Century Theater Models”.

The models on view were designed for Broadway, dance, opera and other theatrical productions. On loan from producers, collectors, other museums or theaters, they range in age from a 1908 Met production of “Tosca” to the current Broadway staging of “Pal Joey”.

Many award-winning stage designers are represented in the exhibit, including Robin Wagner (“City of Angels”, “Kiss Me Kate”, and “Young Frankenstein”); Tony Walton (“Anything Goes”, “Sleeping Beauty”, and “A Tale of Two Cities”); Scott Pask (“Les Liaisons Dangereuses” and “Pal Joey”); and Ming Cho Lee (“A Moon for the Misbegotten”, “Enigma Variations”, and “Ah, Wilderness”.)

Opera is well represented too, from the Chicago Lyric Opera’s early production of “Boris Gudonov” to the Met’s 2008 production of “Peter Grimes”.
Ballet lovers will enjoy the sets from the American Ballet Theater’s 2006 production of “Sleeping Beauty” and early twentieth-century avant-garde studies done by Giorgio de Chirico and Paul Colin for the Ballet Russe.

Alexander Woollcott, the early 20th century critic and commentator for The New Yorker once said, “The scenery in the play was beautiful, but the actors got in front of it.” The actors would have to be especially tiny to get in the way of these sets. The models are built in the scale of 1/4 or 1/2 inch to 1 foot.

While it’s unusual to find a whole museum exhibit of theater sets, the art that goes into them is undeniable. Stage sets unites and supports many arts, from literature to music to costume, serving the practical needs of the writer, the director, the producer, and the movement of the actors on stage.

The sets on display at the Bruce include examples of three specific configurations: theater-in-the-round staging (the audience is seated around the stage), thrust or three-quarter staging (the audience sits on three sides of the stage) and proscenium staging (the audience sits in front of a stage that often has a curtain). Some of the pieces are grand and enormous in scale. Some are simple and symbolic of the scene they represent.

The one opera represented twice in the exhibit is Puccini’s “Tosca” and provides a good contrast between the realistic and the abstract. The 1908 Metropolitan set is very realistic, while the 1990 production for the Santa Fe Opera by John Conklin is as abstract as a set can be. This reviewer appreciates abstract art but it seems to work better with the fantasies of Wagner than with Puccini’s verismo or realistic opera.

The museum has organized two lectures in connection with the exhibit.
On January 28 at 7:30 p.m., Don Bovingloh, writer, producer, and guest curator of the exhibition, will provide an overview of modern theatrical design. On February 25, John Conklin, who has designed for the Metropolitan Opera and numerous other international opera theaters, will speak on challenges in designing for opera. Each lecture is followed by a cocktail reception. Advance reservations are required. Admission is $15 for members, $25 for non-members.

“Setting the Stage” runs through March 15. The Bruce Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 1 to 5 p.m. Admission is $7 for adults, $6 for seniors and students, and free for members and children under 5. Admission is free on Tuesdays. Museum tours are held Fridays at 12:30 p.m. For further information, call 203-869-0376, or visit their website at www.brucemuseum.org.www.brucemuseum.org.