Staging design Olympics

By LINDA HERRICK Arts editor

They are the Olympics of the theatre world, officially saluted by Unesco for excellence, attended by more than 1000 competitors and a magnet to thousands of visitors from around the world. The Prague Quadrennial of International Scenography and Theatre Architecture - that's set, lighting and costume design to you and me - has been held in the Czech Republic every four years since 1967, when Salvador Dali was an entrant.

In 1999, New Zealanders Dorita Hannah and Helen Todd commissioned an exhibition, Landing: Seven Stages Aotearoa NZ, which won a Unesco prize for "excellence, creativity and originality".

A New Zealand contingent has attended regularly since 1983, but next month we will have the biggest presence yet. One of the nine New Zealand designers heading to Prague - one of Europe's most beautiful old cities - in a couple of weeks, Auckland designer Tracey Collins, says the first time she attended the quadrennial in 1995, "I found it life-changing, seeing theatre from all over the world - I have never been able to stop thinking about it."

Earlier this month, the nine designers "dress-rehearsed" the theatre installation they've since freighted to Europe. The nine-part interactive work, entitled part, will be set up in the PQ's National Exhibition section in the prosaically named "Industrial Palace", a massive art nouveau structure built in 1891, relatively modern in a city dating back more than 1000 years.

Collins and Helen Todd head the team as commissioners, along with some top names in innovative design: Tracy Grant, Amy Wright, Martyn Roberts, Tony De Goldi, Sue Gallagher, Mark McEntyre and Bryan Caldwell. Collectively, these names represent substantial depth of experience in theatres ranging from the Mercury, the Auckland Theatre Company, the Court in Christchurch, NZ Opera, Taki Rua and the NZ Actors Company, as well as various teaching positions at tertiary institutions.

All the designers taking part in the Creative NZ-funded Prague project submitted proposals last year, which have gradually been refined and redefined right through to the dress-rehearsal, constructed at Elam Fine Arts School before being packed up. Part, explains Collins, is made of strips of elastic stitched on to Velcro tabs stretched over a scaffold frame, with nine cubes each showcasing nine different theatrical concepts. "It's a physical experience," says Collins. "You burst through the elastic and inside each cube, the audience can create their own journey depending on which way they choose to go through the elastic. Each designer is trying to get the audience to understand their mental process, their design process."

Photos or drawings of a theatre design concept simply do not work in the Prague context, she says. "When I was there in '95, I felt there was huge potential to explore ideas. A lot of people were doing interesting installations, others were just sticking photos up and putting models on plinths. I don't think you get that understanding of the design process from photos or models - whereas for the audience walking through this space, you get to see how a designer puts a piece together. It creates theatrical participation."

To that end, some of the designers in this project have used light to tell stories, such as Helen Todd and Bryan Caldwell. Amy Wright has created a swing which sets off fibre optic lighting. Mark McEntyre's cube contains drawers which, when opened, tell fragments of a story. Collins has created a metal costume structure called Feeling, Seeing which the participant steps into, setting off tactile devices.

The National Exhibition participants are all chasing the big prizes of the gold, silver and bronze medals - known as the Golden Trigas - handed to the creme at the end of the PQ, but there is wider New Zealand representation at Prague, as well. Wellington theatre architect Dorita Hannah is leading a small team supported by Massey University College of Design in an installation called The Heart of the PQ: a Performance Landscape of the Senses. And dancer-designer Lemi Ponifasio, of Auckland dance group MAU, is presenting the first Pacific exhibit in the history of the PQ. Collins, Elizabeth Whiting and Tracy Grant will also display costumes from Ihi FrENZy, Leah, Viva Verdi and Falstaff at the quadrennial. The New Zealand installations and costumes will tour this country later this year.

The Prague Quadrennial opens on June 11 and runs until the end of the month. Collins and the team will be there for most of that time, observing audience reaction, giving talks, soaking up design ideas from around the world. Being in Prague is no chore, she says. "It is a fairytale place." Heaven, too, for anyone interested in culture. For a city with a population of 1.8 million people, Prague has more than 50 theatres.