stagedesign - Blueprint by Theresia Enzensberger

When it comes to a theatrical design we need to focus on a dramaturgical approach of a space. We will get to know a design method that leads us to the fundamental issues of the material and helps us to formulate ideas for possible spaces. Focusing on the main narrative, we will rather work on a basic space than creating a bunch of tableaus for every scene that happens in the piece. Dealing with the novel „Blueprint“ by Theresa Enzensberger we immerse in Luise Schillings life, studying at the Bauhaus University in Weimar and Dessau. Different than expected, she encounters a fractured social world of mystics and formalists, communists and fascists. She pours herself in the new challenges this new life brings for her. In the beginning she is part of a cult-like spiritual group where she grows in finding her own way. Step by step she breaks away from her origins and acts quite spirited while convincing Gropius with her progressive ideas for her self-indicated project.

Using interpretation techniques we will approach with the narratives of the novel and turn the material to a stage design that tells the audience a story itself. Going deeper into the story we will find out its basic and its driving circumstances. These fundamental issues, together with the question of its historical, actual and personal relevance and a detailed analysis of the main characters, will lead us to our dramaturgical approach and to a room concept. In the seminar we will develop stagedesigns and show them in suitable models and visualizations. We get to know how to frame a design with a narrative structure and increase our awareness of dramaturgical meanings of spaces. The Therese-Giese-Halle, a stage of the theater Münchner Kammerspiele, will be the stage wherefore we plan our designs. We will visit the stage and also have a tour around the workshops of the Münchner Kammerspiele. We will visit a theater performance as well.

To learn how to create narrative structures is quite helpful in architecture and urban design, for instance when it comes to transformative designing and planning processes that are based on maintenance and repair or participation and performance. For the course its obligatory to read the novel, so that we can start designing quite early in the semester. You find the book in german or english quite easily in bookstores or in the internet.

First meeting and introduction:
Thursday, 10.10.24, 10:00 am, room 207