As days grow shorter, Stage Frights explores what happens when the house goes dark. From its origins in sacred ritual, theatre has always expressed the supernatural. Gods have withdrawn from the stage, but magic and madness, ghosts and ghouls remain. We continue to look to performance to explore the demons and dreams that torment and inspire us, as individuals and societies.
Stage Frights features scene and costume designs for plays, operas, and ballets by writers and composers—from Shakespeare to Lorca to Anne Rice’s adaptations; from Wagner to Stravinsky to Scott Joplin. Drawing on diverse folklore traditions and popular-culture forms, scene and costume designs entice both adults and children to explore the dark side of their imaginations and the world.
Image: Georges Wakhévitch (French, born Russia, 1907-1984). Scene design for El Amor Brujo (Bewitched Love), ca. 1954. Watecolor, ink, and graphite on board. Gift of The Tobin Endowment. THEATRE PRODUCTION INFORMATION: Ballet by Manuel de la Falla, with choreography by Ruth Page. Produced at the St. Alphonsus Theatre, Chicago, 1954.
