Listen to part of a lecture in a Theater class(male professor) So, let’s continue with our discussion of set design in the theater.Uh we were about to talk about the nineteenth century when we finished last time.Now, the traditions I’m talking about today mainly concern the United States.In other places, in parts of Europe and Asia, for instance, theater was developing in different directions.OK, so in the nineteenth century we had the emergence of realism and naturalism.Now, these terms are understood a little differently in U.S. theater compared to, say, French literature and theater.But in terms of set design they were enormously influential.Both realism and naturalism called for very realistic, true-to-life plays.As a result, new styles of acting came into favor.Different types of dramas were being written, but above all, the stage and scenery, well, that had to be realistic.Of course there are limits to how natural or realistic something can be on a stage, but during the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century producers and set designers pushed at those limits.So, for plays with a domestic setting, extremely realistic interiors were set up.Usually the living room, the common space of the house, was the location of the action in domestic plays.And to present realistic interiors the box set was developed.The box set has three walls and a roof and a substantial number of authentic details.If there were windows in the fake wall that was the back of the set, there would be fake trees set up behind the fake windows just to complete the illusion.In the early twentieth century, this sort of obsession with realism reached its peak.One producer actually imported furniture from a former French palace for a play whose action took place in a French palace.Now, not every production can have this fine attention to detail.Think about the costs. And some people even thought the elaborate sets actually took away from the production.But, well, I think there’s a place for all kinds of productions.It depends on the nature of the play.So it’s interesting that out of this fascination with realism the sets eventually became simpler.How did that happen?Well, it wasn’t only producers of the domestic plays that wanted realistic sets; when staging plays by Shakespeare, a sixteenth century English playwright, producers also tried to make the historical details accurate.So even if they were producing, say, King John, which was set in year 1200, they tried to make the sets look like 1200.But in researching those details, eventually some people came up with the idea, mostly around universities, “Why not stage the plays as they had been staged in Shakespeare’s day?”So, they researched that and as it turns out the sets back then were very minimal with the emphasis on the actors, the words in the play.So, even as this focus on realism was peaking, this other trend, this trend towards staging plays as they’d been staged historically, was emerging, not only for Shakespeare’s plays but also for ancient Greek plays.Now, as you’ll remember the style in which plays were staged in ancient Greece was also quite distinct.Sets were minimal. All that was usually on stage during ancient Greek plays were the actors, who wore masks, a large stone table and, well, that was about it.And these plays were popular with the modern audiences, so producers realized that sets maybe didn’t have to be elaborate in order to have an effective play.