History of Technical Theatre

History of technical theatre is an intrinsical part of the working field of technical theatre as a technical-artistic practice and especially of the thin line in between art and technique. What is key is the context of the means that designers and technicians use to practice their trade.

Additionally, it is clearly essential for the education and the entire sector that know its own professional history in the context of the development of the identity of the students as professionals. There exist no complete course materials at this moment.

The Expertise Centre for Technical Theatre adds to the conservation and researching of the history of technical theatre and has challenged itself with the following:

researching the history of technical theatre from a technical-artistic point of view
developing tools and course materials on the history of technical theatre
creating awareness in the sector and the broader society
supporting heritage-related activities

Tags: history, Research

Fading lights

The “Fading lights, the cross over from candle to LED” project researches historical lighting methods. When doing so, the focus lies on the influence on the light image caused by […]

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Time line project

The timeline project originated from the informal collaboration between several educational programs. At different locations in Europe, students were working on a timeline of the history of technical theatre at […]

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Heritage

History and heritage go hand in hand. Without well-preserved and –documented heritage, it is not evident to conduct research on history, especially when concerning technical elements. This is why the […]

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One-to-four theatre

An important tool to research historical (and contemporary) working methods is the scale model we developed together with HOAC stage technology and Solution NV. On a scale 1 to 4 […]

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Technical theatre between WOII and now

In het kader van het onderzoek rond de geschiedenis van de podiumtechnieken werkten studenten van de Pianofabriek, samen met hun lesgevers en verzamelaars een tentoonstelling uit rond de geschiedenis van de podiumtechnieken tussen de tweede wereldoorlog en nu. Het kenniscentrum begeleide hen bij het structureren van de informatie, het dateren van de toestellen en de totale opzet.

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Changement à Vue

The Expertise Centre for Technical Theatre of the RITCS and the research cell of SADA (Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts) studied the history of baroque theatre machinery together. The different […]

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Channel tour

Visit Theatres is a unique initiative which promotes the possibilities of visiting the historical theatres of great-Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands as part of the so-called ‘Channel Tour’ of the […]

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Wood and Canvas

The Expertise Centre for Technical Theatre collaborated on the congress “Wood and Canvas (and rabbit glue) in the modern world” in June 2014. The theme of the congress was the […]

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Students’ work

The technical theatre students regularly add to the different research projects. For example, the first version of the scale 1 to 4 model was developed by a student, and students […]

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Colleagues and organisations

Of course, the Expertise centre is not the only one working on the researching, protecting and unlocking of our theatre technical heritage. Both in and outside of Belgium, research groups, […]

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Sources

Online archives and collections Backstage Heritage Collection The Lighting Archive, lighting designs documented Database historische theaters Telescan collection of Jocelyn Morel BackStage Pass, interviews met iconen uit het werkveld Vintage […]

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