Scenography, a Special Form of Art and Basic Component of Total Theatre
Scenography, a Special Form of Art and Basic Component of Total Theatre

Summary/Abstract: In classical theater, the dramatic text, the direction and the interpretation prevail over the other elements of the show. Scenography, an area of particular interest in the present article, represented a minor direction of theatrical development until the 20th century, so that, with the proliferation of modern, postmodern and especially post-postmodern art, it would become a basic condition and a landmark of total theater. The hybrid and eclectic character of this interpretative artistic form implies not only the coexistence of theater with dance, music and visual arts, but also with new technologies, from electric lights and projector, to computer-assisted devices through highly performing (often responsive) software. Over time, the scenographer was an architect, engineer, craftsman, fashion designer, visual artist (sometimes recognized on all meridians, as in the case of Picasso), and in the last (three) decades he became a graphic designer, digital artist or even a programmer. The fact is that between the actors and the public there is an interdependence relationship, which leads in the theatrical plane to solutions that move the artistic discourse from the convention to the immersive (sensory). For this reason, contemporary theater is at an unprecedented point in its history of over two and a half millennia, to reconfigure itself according to the “modern” times or to exalt traditional values.

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