3. “Whatever talent I may have,
it lies in recognizing the accident
when it happens.”
4. “The play isn’t about a door,
it is about somebody coming on stage.”
5. Ralph Koltai
Ralph Koltai
stage design workshop under the stage
designer Ralph Koltai.
6. Biographic Note
Ralph Koltai:
born Berlin 1924; came to England 1939;
served in British Army after the war;
Central School student 1948-51, then Head
of Theatre Design 1965-72; Associate
Designer with RSC 1963-5 and again from
1976 to the present. Lives in London. He is
the recipient of many awards, including the
CBE in 1983, and the subject of several
retrospective exhibitions.
7.
8. As You Like It
“The Forest of Arden is real to those who dream it.”
The Old Vic
1967
p. 16 – 21
9. As You Like It
1967
Set Model
Perspex, acetate, paint, plastic, and wood.
10.
11.
12. Back to Methuselah
The Old Vic
1968/1969
“A cosmic prologue,
transformation into the Garden of Eden
and the Tree of Knowledge.”
p. 100 – 101
24. Cyrano De Bergerac
Royal Shakespeare Theatre
1983/1984
Model
“Act V – A Convent Garden. The autumn of Cyrano’s life:
the crown of a tree shedding its leaves, hinting at stained glass, a rose window…”
p. 58 – 61
25. Troilus and Cressida
Royal Shakespeare Company
1985
“[…] Koltai's beautiful baroque ruin – grey speckled like a grotesque vulture's egg
and hung with rotting canvasses and… spectral drapes… serves as a war room
and battleground […]." Ros Asquith, Observer
78. Bibliography
Backemeyer, Sylvia, ed. Ralph Koltai: Designer for the Stage, 3rd ed. London:
Nick Hearn Books, 2003. Print.
Backemeyer, Sylvia, ed. Ralph Koltai: Designer for the Stage, 1st ed. London:
Nick Hearn Books, 1997. Print.
Brockett, Oscar G., Margaret Mitchell, and Linda Hardberger. Making the Scene: A History of Stage Design
and Technology in Europe and the United States. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2010. Print.
Davis, Tony. Stage Design. East Sussex:
RotoVision, 2001. Print.
McKinney, J. and Butterworth, P. (2009) The Cambridge Introduction to Scenography. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press