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A STUDY ON THE USE AND PLANNING OF PRACTICE AND REHEARSAL ROOMS SET UP IN PUBLIC HALLS FOR THE CREATION OF PERFORMING ARTS
PhD thesis.
summary
During the processes of the creation of the performing arts, a huge amount of time is spent to complete the work. Ideally, all these processes should be accomplished in the same hall where the public performance is given. However, because of its role as a hall for appreciation, creators are not allowed to keep the hall all the time for their practices and rehearsals, so it is necessary to set up the practice and rehearsal rooms only for practices and rehearsals in the public halls. In fact, most of the rehearsal rooms set up in the public halls have not given careful consideration to the creation of public performances. Considering public halls as institutions that support the creation of the performing arts, I investigate the building and the use of a public hall with the practice and rehearsal room as a main point. In this study, "performing arts" means music, dramas, dances, or traditional arts whose final purpose is to give a public performance. Also, "rehearsal rooms" means practice and rehearsal rooms that set up in public halls.
The main discourse consists of six chapters.
In the first chapter, "Introduction", I discuss the background and the purpose of this study as well as its method and its structure, and I compare this study with similar studies made in the past. Although public halls have been built for appreciation throughout Japan, rehearsal rooms have just begun to get attention and its importance has finally began to be recognized. In this study, I investigated some points as follows through actual field research. 1) To make clear their functions and size corresponding to the type of practices and rehearsals they are used for with a careful consideration to the process of creation. 2) To make clear the detail of the process of creation by both professionals and the citizens because the public halls are built with the aim of activities by both professionals and the ordinary citizens. The purpose of this study is to obtain a new knowledge about the architectural planning of a public hall. No previous studies have taken rehearsal rooms set up in public halls as a main subject whereas the originality of this work is that I investigated the use of rehearsal rooms by professionals and the citizens through field research. By making clear those points, I finally suggest the ideal public hall of institutions for the performing arts with both the complete space for the creation and the complete space for appreciation in the future.
In the second chapter, " The Background of Rehearsal Rooms set up in Public Halls", the historical background of this type of rehearsal room is explained, and the situation of establishment of public halls throughout the country is examined. In 1990's, from the point of view of the revitalization of cultural activities that took root in each region, the support for the creation of the citizens has started to receive more attention. At the same time, the professionals started to get support from public halls for their creations, which were carried on in private organization or institution. From the third chapter, I investigate the public halls opened after the 1990's based on those backgrounds.
I investigate and analyze the type of facilities and the condition of rehearsal rooms set up in the public halls listed in " The List of The Association of Public Theaters and Halls in Japan". According to the research, rehearsal rooms are classified into three types depending on their size. I analyze each depending on this classification; the small-sized room has a floor space of less than 50 m2, the medium-sized room has a floor space of 50-100m2, and the large-sized room has a floor space of more than 100m2.
In the third chapter, "The Actual condition of the Use of Four Public Halls with Distinctive Characteristics", four institutions that have distinctive characteristics on their facilities or management, mainly self-enterprise are selected, and I examine and analyze in detail about the actual condition of use in the year 2003.
Rehearsal rooms that are mainly used for public performances by professionals are used for the creation by self-enterprise much more than rehearsal rooms that are mainly used public performances by the citizens. However, about 40 per cent of the use by the citizens is the practice for public performances that are given in the same halls, so those rehearsal rooms are very useful for the activities by the citizens.
The scale, the function, and the number of the rehearsal rooms classified into three types in the second chapter, are made clear as follows based on the research of those four institutions.
The small-sized rehearsal rooms are used mainly for practices of music groups with a small number of members are needed by the light music bands in particular. A floor space of about 30m2 is required for the practice of such small-sized music groups. Also, for the facilities, a high quality soundproof system is required for these light music bands.
The medium-sized rehearsal rooms are used by groups of various genres. The rooms whose floor space is smaller than 70m2 are less used because they do not meet the needs of group practices. For example, their size is inconvenient for some practices with some movements, such as plays and dances. Therefore, it is desirable to keep floor space of about 80m2.
The large-sized rehearsal rooms are used for not only daily practices of music groups consisting of a large number of members but also music recitals, public performances of dramas, and workshops. It is necessary to keep the same size as main stage of halls because of practices for public performances, which are given in halls, and those have to have a floor space of about 250m2 for public performances of the citizens.
The number of small-sized rooms is the highest among all types of rehearsal rooms according to the research, but those are not used by other groups except music groups, so the rate of use is relatively low. On the contrary, the research shows that the rate of the use for a large-sized room is high and this result implies a big demand for these rooms. Therefore, it is desirable to have more than two medium-sized rooms and large-sized rooms per institution, and if not considering about the practices of music groups, it is not necessary to have more than three small-sized rooms.
In the fourth chapter and the fifth chapter, I examine and analyze the case that the public hall is used continuously for the actual creation, from the first practice to final performance.
In the forth chapter, "The Actual Condition of Use by Professionals of Drama", I investigate the creation by professionals of drama at "Setagaya Public Theater", which is one of those four institutions and used mainly by professionals. I selected the public performance, "Someone will come", as a target of research, and I investigated the process of creation, from the first practice to the public performance. They also made a tour throughout the public halls in Japan, so I also went along with this group and examined all public performances.
The professionals of drama tend to keep the rehearsal room to complete their works regardless of the number of public performances they give, so they keep the rehearsal room much longer than actual number of days of their public performances. Therefore, the hall has to fill vacancy by some means, such as the rental system.
The large-sized rooms should have to have certain functions and size to provide the right environment for a higher level of creation: The size must be larger than the stage. The width has to provide working area for the actors and the staff. The depth has to allow a certain distance from the director's seat. Also, the space where the actors and the staff are seated has to be kept separately from the performance area. Moreover a place to keep for various things, such as tools, has to be kept inside rehearsal rooms. The height needs to be a size higher than a proscenium opening. Furthermore, the facilities, such as batten that mimics the stage setting and the stage light as well as the stage, are required. The system of the stage light has to be able to adjust the condition of spotlight, and the sound system has to be able to play back the original sounds from staff's seat. Moreover, rehearsal rooms are, in general, used by many actors and staff for many hours,so a comfortable resting room need to be available to providing fresh air.
In the fifth chapter, " The Use of Rehearsal Rooms by Some Citizens", I investigate the creation by a group consisting of mainly the citizens at "Nagaoka Lyric Hall", the public hall that is used mainly by the citizens. I investigated the process, from the first practice to the public performance, of two music groups (two public performances) and two drama groups (three public performances).
For the groups that use the public halls from the first practice to final performance, music groups practice for a short time at the same time on the same day constantly throughout the year. On the other hand, drama groups show concentration before their public performances, and the length of each practice is about five to nine hours per rehearsal. There are many music groups consisting of a large number of members per institution. Each member has a profession, so the schedule of practice is concentrated at night and on weekend. There is only one large-sized room, whereas the schedule of music groups, that use the rehearsal room constantly and the schedule of other groups overlap. Therefore, it is necessary to set up more than two large-sized rehearsal rooms, and to allow them to use only one of those rooms for their constant practices.
Drama groups tend to give their public performances in the large-sized rehearsal room, so they use the medium-sized rehearsal room, which provides the same space as the stage of the large-sized rehearsal room. This situation is not only because of the problem of schedule but also the financial difficulty (Drama groups tend have less members than music groups). However, there are some positive aspects of public performance in the large-sized rehearsal room. For example, it allows groups to heighten their level and to be able to provide closeness during public performances. Therefore, the points to plan the building of public halls are to make the large-sized rehearsal room complete for public performances and to consider the medium-sized rehearsal room as a rehearsal room.
In the sixth chapter, "Conclusion", I summarize the conclusions from the second chapter to the fifth chapter and give suggestions. Up to now, the rehearsal rooms has been consider as a facility behind the hall. However, it is important to set up the rehearsal room as a main facility as well as the hall, because in case of public halls that are used mainly by the citizens, both its users and the audience of its hall are the citizens. The creation and the appreciation stimulate each other, and the public halls will be planned as institutions that reflect its liveliness. Furthermore, these halls will be able to be used for not only practices but also public performances or workshops. With this knowledge of the architectural planning, it will be possible to establish public halls with a complete hall and complete rehearsal rooms. Finally, the citizens will be able to enjoy the performing arts from both aspects of creation and appreciation.
| Posted by satohshinya at September 1, 2003 0:00