Accommodating the Lively Arts: An Architect's View [Paperback]

Martin Bloom (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1575251280 | ISBN-13: 978-1575251288 | Publication Date: August 1997 | Edition: 1

Architect Martin Bloom has written Accommodating the Lively Arts to encourage the building and preservation of spaces that can nurture live performance in an age increasingly threatened by the steady encroachment of simulated electronic entertainments. This book is essential reading for anyone who might ever be involved in making decisions about the design or renovation of performance facilities -- architects, designers, students, theatre professionals (actors, directors, producers, technicians) and all those who might find themselves on committees charged with deciding on the location, financingm and shape such facilities may take.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

"It is one of the theatre's greatest ironies," playwright and critic Charles Marowitz says in introducing Bloom's fine book, "that those who design its stages and auditoria . . . are very often baboons when it comes to creating a space in which actors and audience can happily cohabit." Architect Bloom hopes to rectify that sad state of affairs by focusing on all aspects of theater design: types of stages, ways of arranging the audience, and the advantages and disadvantages of each. He also provides, with plenty of accompanying illustrations, an interesting history of performance spaces from the theater's earliest times, when a smooth, flat surface was enough, to the magnificent palaces built in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries. Written in a spare, dry style clearly not appealing to just any reader, Bloom's effort is yet, for anyone interested in theater design or who is planning to renovate or build an auditorium, a vital source of information. Jack Helbig

Review

..essential reading for anyone who might ever be involved in making decisions about the design or renovation of performance facilities. -- The Midwest Book Review, October 1998

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Smith & Kraus Pub Inc; 1 edition (August 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1575251280
• ISBN-13: 978-1575251288
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,890,689 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essentials & insights about theater as experience in space, February 9, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Northampton, Mass., USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Accommodating the Lively Arts: An Architect's View (Paperback)

I picked up this book expecting to read a fairly technical account of how to design and build "better" theaters because I happened to know that it is by an architect who has spent much of his professional life designing theaters and performance spaces. What I discovered is not a "how to" book (although all architects might well profit from its many insights into how architecture should "accommodate" the intended functions and users of a structure.) No, this turns out to be a book by an individual who has spent much of his life involved with theatrical productions on various levels and is here passing on his compressed wisdom about the very essence of what makes for a satisfying and significant visit to the theater. It is not a history of theaters as structures, although it does weave its insights around the historical development of performance spaces, from the earliest Greek threshing floors to contemporary theaters-in-the-round (and there are drawings to help us see the essential elements). It is not particularly concerned with individual buildings by architects, whether well-known or otherwise. It is, rather, about how the elements of physical spaces affect our experience of theatrical productions--serious drama, light comedy, musicals, whatever. On one level, we are all aware of this--whether the seats are too cramped, how the sight lines are obstructed, yes, and whether the ladies room is inadequate. But Martin Bloom has thought much longer and harder and deeper about al these matters, and you end up feeling he has revealed something essential about the point where architecture, theaters, drama, and life intersect.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a little sweetheart of a book., October 8, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Accommodating the Lively Arts: An Architect's View (Paperback)

By no means a glossy record of dramatically realized theater designs, it is rather a gentle manifesto of theater design principles. The author, a practicing designer of theaters, cultural centers, and exhibition structures, says that spaces for live performances should consider three fundamental elements: focus, platform and frame. It all makes perfect sense. The author has added some helpful little sketches, and there is an introduction by Chris Marowitz.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A sound, "reader friendly", technical reference guide., February 3, 2000

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Accommodating the Lively Arts: An Architect's View (Paperback)

Martin Bloom's Accommodating The Lively Arts provides a technical guide to the design and renovation of theater spaces, from location and shape through fundamentals of theater design. Any involved in theater will find this an important consideration on organizing and building spaces.