Designing Prague: Theatre professor, students participate in Prague Quadrennial

When it comes to stage design, the Prague Quadrennial is as good as it gets—and this year, a pair of Department of Theatre alumni will help represent Canada. “It’s the Venice Biennalie of stage design,” says theatre professor Allan Stichbury. “It’s the top in terms of recognizing stage design in the world.”

With leading designers from 80 countries, the Prague Quadrennial is the biggest theatre exhibition in the world. Canada will be represented by six different submissions, selected from 33 entries by the three-person jury—which included Stichbury. Among those entries was the Belfry Theatre’s 2008 production of The Turn of the Screw, which featured design work by theatre alumni Patrick DuWors (set & lighting) and Erin MacKlem (costumes), plus frequent Phoenix contributor Brian Lynds (sound). 

“It’s fantastic that UVic is represented in at least one of the six shows,” says Stichbury. “It’s already a big victory, because there’s a lot of pretty amazing stuff across Canada.”

Much like any major international competition, the Canadian teams will be competing for gold, silver or bronze awards. Stichbury—who, along with theatre professor Mary Kerr, has exhibited at the Prague Quadrennial before—will also be taking 13 current Phoenix students to the event. “Our students have exhibited in the student exhibition since 1995—and they will again this year—but it’s not the same as being juried into the competition,” he notes. “But it’s still an amazing opportunity. The attendance is supposed to be about 80,000 people—and a huge percentage of that will be students, so our students get to meet colleagues from all over the world.” 

As for the competition itself, Stichbury said the jury was obviously impressed by the stunning Belfry design by DuWors and Macklem. “It really met the criteria of inserting itself into the heart of the production—not just paying it lip service or commenting on it.” 

Macklem, who graduated with a BFA in 1998, has been the artistic associate and outreach coordinator at the Belfry for nine years now and is “thrilled” at being selected. “The event itself is so inspiring—it gives you a sense of the national identity of the aesthetic of different places, and how the approaches to scenography vary according to geography.” 

Macklem is quick to credit UVic for her current success. “I had a great experience with the design department,” she says, citing Stichbury, Kerr and past instructor Debra Hansen as strong influences. “Allan is very much a director’s designer, which put me in good standing and helped me understand how bodies move through space, how you really need to analyze a play’s text to understand the traffic patterns—what the positions of power are and how to optimize those in the design.” 

Stichbury notes that it’s their unique hands-on approach that makes UVic’s Theatre department stand out in a crowded university field. “Unlike many Canadian universities, our students actually get to design something and put it on a stage,” he explains. “At the undergrad level, most universities have faculty members exclusively designing, but we allow our best undergraduates to do it—so when they get out into the profession they’re much more capable of stepping up at an earlier date than many others. They learn by doing—don’t get me wrong: learning by theory is great, but you also have to practice. Our students get more opportunity to do that on a significant scale than most do.”

While Macklem has attended the Quadrennial in the past—in fact, her nominated Turn design was inspired by a Latvian entry she saw there—Macklem won’t be going this year due to family and production commitments. 

“I told Patrick that we’ll just have to work together on something exciting in the future so we get invited again,” she laughs.

The Prague Quadrennial runs June 17-28, 2015. Find out more at http://www.pq.cz/en