The theater of Lina Bo Bardi: preexisting, repositioning the audience and scenic constraints

Abstract

This paper discusses part of the work by the architect Lina Bo Bardi dedicated to the theater on the light of three main elements: pre-existence and construction from ruins, repositioning of relations staging / audience, stage / seating plan, performer / viewer and scenic possibilities as well as constraints. These analyses are mainly about the constructed theater buildings and the staging architecture, but it also includes a wider study of this kind of creation: costumes, furniture and graphic design, developed for each project, understood as inseparable from the design of the building. The argument starts from the idea that the analyzed production is a counterpoint to the theatrical building of Italian stage and the set designs of illusory depth that dominated Brazilian theatre scene; in order to highlight to the contemporaneity of the solutions employed in these projects that still today call attention for innovation.