The second draft designs for the theatre

The narrative for this project is: 'A theatre for the actress to entertain her lover.' Below is the floor plan for the dressing room, the paths to the stage and the privacy of the wings.

The staircases have glass to separate the actress and her lover in terms of their roles, but they also allow awareness of each other and their journey from their personal relationship allowed in the dressing room to the performance on the stage where the two are divided into the actress and the audience. The glassed in space in the wings is a sunken area for the actress to contemplate about her character.

The elevation shows the transcendence of the lover (the fan of the actress) as he attains the privilege of watching from the wings. The separate staircase that leads down and then up again captures the transformation as the actress becomes emotionally immersed in her role. Her lover can watch this transformation from the ramp above and contemplate the change.

Below are some sketches of the exterior parts of the model. I was interested in the play between what is 'real' and what is artifice. The materials chosen to represent this involve the use of natural timber and manufactured concrete. The timber facing of the building was inspired by 1920s film and 1920s theatres where ornament was extravagant and theatrical. Glass was considered for its clarity and ability to reveal the identities of the characters. The glass would encase some of the exterior.


Finally, here are the images of the second draft model. The stage light is drawn in by the 'chinks' in the mass of the wings. The light then fades out towards the hallway and dressing room.

This view of the stage from the dressing room showing the brightness of the stage lights.

Draft model - the theatre

The draft model for the rooms relating to the narrative: 'a place for the actress to entertain her lover' has a single vertical window opens onto the first room which is the dressing room. The window symbolises awareness of the shift from reality to theatre. The light from the window illuminates the room and the act of transformation.

The dual path above represents the journey from actress to character on the one side, and the journey of her lover as he walks to the wings to watch her perform. The wings will have varying internal walls and alcoves representing the different states through which the actors, stage hands and the lover pass as they coexist behind the curtains.

This view is from the dressing room to the wings. It shows the two paths representing the different emotional shifts of the actress and her lover. It relates to the inevitable stages of transition through which the actress and her lover pass.

Preliminary parti sketches

The parti in plan demostrates the journey from dressing room to the wings. The dressing room is a place where the actress can be herself but the pathway to the wings involves transition into character, and is a narrower, more inward looking and lowered space. At the same time, there is a direct path to the stage representing the lover's simpler journey to watch from the wings, and it is also the direct link between reality and artifice - the transformation into character and the performance.

Preliminary sketches

Some early sketches explored the poché for these spaces - from a simple unadorned corridor to the textured walls of the dressing room. The dressing room is cramped but elevated, followed by a narrow lowered corridor as a transitional space leading to an open space representing the wings of the stage.

Second attempt at interpretation

The initial narrative - 'The resolute actress reached her decision to leave their meeting place and return to the freedoms of the city' did not have a specific activity from which to base a design.

I thought about the background story of the character in the painting - an actress, watching her lover leave the building. The setting of the painting, in a simple apartment, led me to the narrative 'a place for the actress to entertain her lover.' This led to the story of the actress being financially supported by her wealthy fan who provides her with gifts, money, and an apartment and who has the role as her lover. Finally, based on this story, I decided that the place that the actress would entertain her lover would be the empty theatre, a place that he had a deep respect for and the place of some of her work. The location will be a theatre in New York in the 1920s - a place which suits this actress who is confident and independent and part of an optimistic generation. Below are some historical images of theatres that are not necessarily from the 1920s but that will provide some inspiration.

The interpretation of 'Eleven a.m.'

The female in the painting seems like she does not need to work for a living as she is at home in the late morning, implying that she is financially secure. She is not dressed which implies that she does not have to uphold household duties with servants. At first, it seems that this room might be a hotel room, but the books on the table in the foreground identify this room as personal and possibly as a bedroom. The messy sheets imply some disorder in her life. The darkened lamp and drapes seem to reference the night. The empty chair in the foreground implies that someone is missing in this picture and it seems like she is watching that same person on the street below.

The woman's pose is not that of a completely independent, highly sexual woman because of her pensive and closed form. The pose appears naturla as she folds her arms on her knees as she watches something out the window. Her pose seems relaxed, as though no one is watching her, and reveals a subtle sexuality as her body is partially hidden. But, a different reading of her complete nudity could be of her as overtly sexual. The shoes on her feet draw attention to her nudity, but also seem to symbolise that she is ready to leave the situation that she is in - to take up a journey. The simplicity of the room seems impersonal, like she does not spend much time in the apartment. To me, it seems like she is involved in an affair and has just bid her lover goodbye. Her promiscuity and involvement in such a relationship reflects the popular belief of the time that young women were overly sexual and out of control. But her independence reflects another view of women at this time, and may have been influenced by Hopper's strong role model of his wife. My sentence for the upcoming design would be:

The calm, resolute actress reached her decision to leave their plain meeting place and return to the freedoms of the city.

Gender in the 1920s

By the time of Hopper's painting 'Eleven a.m.' was realised in 1926, a major change in women's roles had taken place. The Suffragist movement's campaign of the early 20th century resulted in women gaining the ability to vote in 1919. At the time, women's gender roles were in the process of shifting from the traditional archetype of the mother/wife role to a more independent role. Freud's theories were used by young women to advocate the new exploration of sexuality and to prolong the wait for them to take up roles as wife/mother. [x] Changes in gender roles were rapidly documented by the "mass culture of the burgeoning magazine and movie industries, as well as the new medium of motion pictures and expansions in advertising.' [x] It can be assumed that these changes were also documented in art.

Edward Hopper's marriage and relationship with his wife conformed to the new shift in marriage from strict family organisation roles to that of the companion relationship model which was mutually sexually gratifying and affectionate. [x] Hopper's wife often modelled for his paintings and they came up with the identities of the female subjects together. [x p67] The strong relationship between Edward and his wife Jo would have heavily influenced his work.

Image reference: http://threadforthought.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Clara-Bow-in-1920s.jpg

Research about Edward Hopper

Edward Hopper was influenced by French art and the Fauvist movement, applying those stylistic ideas in his earlier work.” [1] However, later, Hopper tried to move away from these origins and “to establish an American" aesthetic consciousness.” [2] Hopper’s work was said to convey a sense of alienation about American existence as “a purely contemporary one, without roots in a continuum of tradition.” [3]

Hollander identifies the room as “defined, rather than impinged upon, by enclosure.” [4] He then asserts that the blankness of Hopper’s rooms encapsulates them as the place of his subjects - of human beings. Hollander is concerned with the metaphors of Hopper’s “scenes of openness and closure, of emptiness and possibility, of minimal occupancy and uncontested possession of place.” [5]

Hopper’s painting - Room in New York, 1932: The closeness of the two figures is said portray their heightened isolation and their absorption in their own private worlds. The painting has been likened to Camus’s image o f the Absurd where the “talking figure [is] seen through the glass door of a telephone booth, so that the movements of his mouth and his gestures appear meaningless. ” [6]

I have chosen the painting Eleven a.m. I am interested in the story of the undressed woman in the morning sunlight. She wears only shoes, which dramatise her nudity. In addition to the enclosure of the room, Fryd discusses her inward turned pose and her clasped hands – ways of embodying enclosure. The question Fryd raises is about her role – that she is gazing out of the window naked in the late morning, which “increases our unease over her sexuality and our voyeurism, and establishes reasons for her containment. She is a threat to herself, the artist, and to us, the viewer.” [7] There is a strong story in the room that I need to decipher.

Endnotes:

[1] Coffin Hanson, Anne, ‘Edward Hopper, American Meaning and French Craft,’ in Art Journal, vol. 41, no. 2, (Summer, 1981), 142.[2] Coffin Hanson, Anne, ‘Edward Hopper, American Meaning and French Craft,’ in Art Journal, vol. 41, no. 2, (Summer, 1981), 142.[3] Nochlin, Linda, ‘Edward Hopper and the Imagery of Alienation’, in Art Journal, vol. 41, no. 2, (Summer, 1981), 136.[4] Hollander, John, ‘Hopper and the Figure of Room’, in Art Journal, vol. 41, no. 2, (Summer, 1981), 155. [5] Hollander, John, ‘Hopper and the Figure of Room’, in Art Journal, vol. 41, no. 2, (Summer, 1981), 156. [6] Nochlin, Linda, ‘Edward Hopper and the Imagery of Alienation’, 139. [7] Fryd, Vivien Green, ‘Edward Hopper's "Girlie Show": Who Is the Silent Partner?’ in American Art, vol. 14, no. 2 (Summer, 2000), 58.