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This study explores the formation, establishment, expansion, and disintegration of stage design as a modern profession and a recognized artform in Finnish theatres.
Drawing on oral or written recollections and thoughts of stage designers from different decades, the author asks how their artistic agencies, occupational identities, and theoretical self-understanding have been constituted. She analyses Finnish theatre history from new perspectives by shifting the focus from finished performances to largely unknown practices behind the scenes. This book examines the cultural institutions that have constituted the stage designers' role and position, like the professional city theatre system, the craft union, and education. This research shows how modern and postmodern scenographic innovations have been assimilated to local contexts, and how material and cultural circumstances have reshaped the artistic practices. Without bypassing canonical trendsetters or hegemonic cultural mindsets, the focus is directed on the everyday grassroot level of stage design practices. Personal interviews with over 20 designers make visible an ample repertoire of unwritten knowledge stored in habitual ways of working and dealing creatively with the complex system of theatre making.
This book will be of great interest to students and scholars in theatre and performance studies with a focus on scenography.
List of contents
Acknowledgements
1: Introduction
2: Looking for early set painters in Finland
3: The institutional theatre system as occupational environment
4: The changing professional community of Finnish stage designers
5: Constituting artistic expertise
6: The function of stage design in the creative process of theatre making
7: Stretching the boundaries of stage design
8: Reformulating design practices
9: Stage designers on their art and practices in the 2020s
10: Towards future scenographic design: summary and conclusions
Index
About the author
Laura Gröndahl is a University Lecturer at Tutke (Performing Arts Research Centre), Theatre Academy and a Vice Dean for research at the Theatre Academy of the University of Arts, Helsinki.
Summary
This study explores the formation, establishment, expansion, and disintegration of stage design as a modern profession and a recognized artform in Finnish theatres.
