Change through Rapprochement

Without space, theatre cannot be made, perceived, or even conceived of. The aesthetic of theatre is determined by the spaces in which theatre takes place, and by the spaces produced by theatrical action. The significance of space led the theatre scholar Max Herrmann to assert in 1931 that “the performing arts are spatial arts,” and its recognition turns the specific mediality of theatre into a central component of the art of staging. ¹ The simultaneous presence of performers and spectators, which marks it as a cultural performance, generates and shapes specific forms of attention. ² Theatrical space is therefore necessarily also an intermediary space that stems from the interplay of stage and audience and enables particular experiences for the performance's participants. It was with this in mind that Herrmann described the “theatrical experience of space,” which actors and spectators, as well as directors and playwrights are able to create: “The space intended by theatre is both ⋯ an artistic space that is brought about by a fairly substantial internal transformation of real space, and an experience by which the theatre space is transformed into a space of another nature.” ³