Accommodating the Lively Arts: An Architect's View

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Summary: Comments From the Author
Review: As the year 2000 approaches, burgeoning forms of simulated entertainments -- via film, tape, laser disk and emanations of virtual reality from cyberspace -- are threatening the very survival of live performance. Without face-to-face interaction, performers and audiences alike are being deprived of the vitality that only on-the-spot involvement in a creative process can provide. Facilities which are capable of skillfully supporting such interaction are especially prized both by the performers, whose rehearsed offerings can be enhanced by the physical presence and reactions of a lively and supportive audience, and by the audiences themselves, whose reception of an event can be made manifest directly through laughter, tears, stunned silence or thunderous applause as the occasion might warrant. I have written ACCOMMODATING THE LIVELY ARTS to articulate the principles that should inform the planning or rehabilitation of any performance facility regardless of size, shape or specific cultural context. Through a review of significant past achievements, the book sets out to explore ways of clarifying present-day needs and establishing the potential for generating forms for any contemplated solution in the design of structures for the performing arts. As I indicate in the Foreword, ACCOMMODATING THE LIVELY ARTS is intended for anyone who has ever experienced and derived pleasure from attending or participating in live performance. More specifically, it is meant for those who might be involved in the planning or renovation of performance facilities -- arts advocates, real estate developers, theatre professionals (producers, directors, performers, technicians) as well as architects and city planners. It is also intended for the guidance of non-professionals who might one day find themselves serving on committees charged with the responsibility of deciding on the location, financing and shape such facilities may take.

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Summary: This is a little sweetheart of a book.
Review: By no means a glossy record of dramatically realized theater designs, it is rather a gentle manifesto of theater design principles. The author, a practicing designer of theaters, cultural centers, and exhibition structures, says that spaces for live performances should consider three fundamental elements: focus, platform and frame. It all makes perfect sense. The author has added some helpful little sketches, and there is an introduction by Chris Marowitz.

Rating:
Summary: This is a little sweetheart of a book.
Review: I picked up this book expecting to read a fairly technical account of how to design and build "better" theaters because I happened to know that it is by an architect who has spent much of his professional life designing theaters and performance spaces. What I discovered is not a "how to" book (although all architects might well profit from its many insights into how architecture should "accommodate" the intended functions and users of a structure.) No, this turns out to be a book by an individual who has spent much of his life involved with theatrical productions on various levels and is here passing on his compressed wisdom about the very essence of what makes for a satisfying and significant visit to the theater. It is not a history of theaters as structures, although it does weave its insights around the historical development of performance spaces, from the earliest Greek threshing floors to contemporary theaters-in-the-round (and there are drawings to help us see the essential elements). It is not particularly concerned with individual buildings by architects, whether well-known or otherwise. It is, rather, about how the elements of physical spaces affect our experience of theatrical productions--serious drama, light comedy, musicals, whatever. On one level, we are all aware of this--whether the seats are too cramped, how the sight lines are obstructed, yes, and whether the ladies room is inadequate. But Martin Bloom has thought much longer and harder and deeper about al these matters, and you end up feeling he has revealed something essential about the point where architecture, theaters, drama, and life intersect.

Rating:
Summary: Essentials & insights about theater as experience in space
Review: I picked up this book expecting to read a fairly technical account of how to design and build "better" theaters because I happened to know that it is by an architect who has spent much of his professional life designing theaters and performance spaces. What I discovered is not a "how to" book (although all architects might well profit from its many insights into how architecture should "accommodate" the intended functions and users of a structure.) No, this turns out to be a book by an individual who has spent much of his life involved with theatrical productions on various levels and is here passing on his compressed wisdom about the very essence of what makes for a satisfying and significant visit to the theater. It is not a history of theaters as structures, although it does weave its insights around the historical development of performance spaces, from the earliest Greek threshing floors to contemporary theaters-in-the-round (and there are drawings to help us see the essential elements). It is not particularly concerned with individual buildings by architects, whether well-known or otherwise. It is, rather, about how the elements of physical spaces affect our experience of theatrical productions--serious drama, light comedy, musicals, whatever. On one level, we are all aware of this--whether the seats are too cramped, how the sight lines are obstructed, yes, and whether the ladies room is inadequate. But Martin Bloom has thought much longer and harder and deeper about al these matters, and you end up feeling he has revealed something essential about the point where architecture, theaters, drama, and life intersect.

Rating:
Summary: Essentials & insights about theater as experience in space
Review: I picked up this book expecting to read a fairly technical account of how to design and build "better" theaters because I happened to know that it is by an architect who has spent much of his professional life designing theaters and performance spaces. What I discovered is not a "how to" book (although all architects might well profit from its many insights into how architecture should "accommodate" the intended functions and users of a structure.) No, this turns out to be a book by an individual who has spent much of his life involved with theatrical productions on various levels and is here passing on his compressed wisdom about the very essence of what makes for a satisfying and significant visit to the theater. It is not a history of theaters as structures, although it does weave its insights around the historical development of performance spaces, from the earliest Greek threshing floors to contemporary theaters-in-the-round (and there are drawings to help us see the essential elements). It is not particularly concerned with individual buildings by architects, whether well-known or otherwise. It is, rather, about how the elements of physical spaces affect our experience of theatrical productions--serious drama, light comedy, musicals, whatever. On one level, we are all aware of this--whether the seats are too cramped, how the sight lines are obstructed, yes, and whether the ladies room is inadequate. But Martin Bloom has thought much longer and harder and deeper about al these matters, and you end up feeling he has revealed something essential about the point where architecture, theaters, drama, and life intersect.

Rating:
Summary: A sound, "reader friendly", technical reference guide.
Review: Martin Bloom's Accommodating The Lively Arts provides a technical guide to the design and renovation of theater spaces, from location and shape through fundamentals of theater design. Any involved in theater will find this an important consideration on organizing and building spaces.