Theatre designers manipulate building materials—metal framing, Styrofoam, muslin, wood, paint, and electrical equipment—reimagining stages as dense forests, winter wonderlands, swirling oceans, or surreal landscapes. Costume designers stretch their imaginations, as well as the limitations of fabric and embellishments, to transform a performer into a tree creature, a flying owl, a supernatural fairy, or an earthly element. The new Tobin Collection of Theatre Arts exhibition, Is It Real? Staging Nature, explores the technical side of recreating aspects of nature—flora, fauna, air, water, fire, and earth—in performance.
To illustrate examples of these designs, Is It Real? Staging Nature presents artworks from The Tobin Collection of Theatre Arts that highlight nature as depicted in stories from opera, ballet, and musical theatre. Artworks by theatre artists Boris Aronson, Franco Colavecchia, Natalia Gontcharova, Helen Pond, and Tony Straiges create conversations with sculptures by artists like Mary Frank and Barbara Hepworth. In addition, a magnificent set-piece—an expansive tree trunk and four projected canopies—both anchors and umbrellas the exhibition, giving guests the impression of standing center stage.
Explore how theatre artists breathe life into nature on stage using creative and technical skills. Foley artists like Stefan Fraticelli, recreate the everyday sounds heard in movies, tv shows, and on stage like walking down the street, wailing rainstorms, and screeching animal noises. You can learn more about the work of Foley Artists by visiting the Staging Nature exhibition at the McNay.
Is It Real? Staging Nature remains on view through October 24, 2021.
Is It Real? Staging Nature is organized for the McNay Art Museum by R. Scott Blackshire, Ph.D., Curator, The Tobin Collection of Theatre Arts.
This exhibition is a program of The Tobin Theatre Arts Fund.
