The Set Designs of Adolphe Appia

EVENT DESIGN

In every industry, once in a long while, a genius comes along. Born in 1862, Swiss painter Adophe Appia was among the new wave of set designers to reject then-standard 2D perspective backdrops in favor of creating 3D pieces because he believed that shade was as necessary as light to form a connection between the actor and the setting of the performance in time and space. Through the use of control of light intensity, colour and manipulation, Appia created a new perspective of scene design and stage lighting .

Wikipedia goes on to say, Directors and designers have both taken great inspiration from the work of Adolphe Appia, whose design theories and conceptualizations of Wagner s operas have helped to shape modern perceptions of the relationship between the performance space and lighting. One of the reasons for the influence of Appia s work and theories, is that he was working at time when electrical lighting was just evolving. Another is that he was a man of great vision who was able to conceptualize and philosophize about many of his practices and theories.

The central principle underpinning much of Appia s work is that artistic unity is the primary function of the director and the designer. Appia maintained that two dimensional set painting and the performance dynamics it created, was the major cause of production disunity in his time. He advocated three elements as fundamental to creating a unified and effective mise en scene:

Dynamic and three dimensional movements by actors
Perpendicular scenery
Using depth and the horizontal dynamics of the performance space

Considering the event industry s current 3D set design trends, we thought we d look at work by one of the men who revolutionized stagecraft and was at the forefront of creating some of the same effects and techniques we use in stage design today. Most of the photos and illustrations below were made or taken between 1917 and 1930.

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You can see the strong use of light and shadow from these images, and indeed, Appia was one of the pioneers of using lighting to create depth and illusion, rather than to simply illuminate a particular area of the stage. Event producers today particularly those who do set design or manage set designers reap the rewards of Appia s work.

Images from the UBC.

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