Evocative Designs to Represent US in Prague

The final brick has been placed, and the doors have been closed on the container carrying the USITT/USA exhibits that will be part of the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space from June 16 to 26 in Prague, Czech Republic.

A team of faculty and students at the University of Montana in Missoula constructed the exhibit, which will be part of PQ 2011, along with displays from more than 60 other countries and regions.

Curators selected 37 productions for the USITT-USA National Exhibit. They reflect the social and political issues consuming American performance-makers today.

Many of the productions were generated by ensemble-based companies in warehouses, converted garages, and found spaces, so the exhibit, designed by Bill Bloodgood, evokes these theatrical homes. Visitors in Prague will enter a garage-like structure and see production artifacts displayed on sawhorses and paint buckets, evoking a production meeting.

Projections from multi-media productions, and interviews with the artists involved in their creations, are incorporated in the design. The exhibit will include live performances by puppeteer and object artist Paul Zaloom, of Adventures of White Man. Costume activist, Pat Oleszko, will perform her satiric See/Change and GreenPiece: Walking Talking Topiaries.

Technology in this exhibit has been enhanced by the support of Barbizon Lighting Company, d&b audiotechnik, ETC, Green Hippo, PRG, SeaChanger, and Sennheiser whose equipment and technology help create the special environment evoked by the exhibit.

Examples of just a few of the works being showcased are the issues of identity and race evident in The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, a comment on unthinking American racial stereotypes told humorously through the medium of televised wrestling. Obsession with death, loss, and healing were explored in 3 Legged Dog's Losing Something, a response to the traumatic effects of 9/11; and in Paul Chan's production of Waiting for Godot, staged in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward after Hurricane Katrina. Alternate visions of what it means to be an American were explored in Arias with a Twist, a cross-dressing fantasy developed through collaboration between Basil Twist and Joey Arias, and Nancy Keystone's Apollo, exploring racism and the space race.

The National and Student exhibits of PQ 2011 are showcased in Veletrzini Palace, but many other spaces in the city are being utilized for workshops and performances. Organizers of PQ and Scenofest have arranged for a full program of performances, workshops, and seminars for the 11-day celebration of theatre design.

The USITT-USA Architecture Exhibit will be shown in a different location, Prague Crossroads, a deconsecrated church.

Susan Tsu is artistic director of the USITT-USA Exhibits Committee, which received major financial support from USITT and its Samuel Scripps International Fund.