It's so lifelike!

November 6, 2006 5:53 PM

Back in my days of technical theater, I recall a story about the beginning of hyper-realism in set construction. The gist is that the set designer got ahold of the actual plans for the restaurant in which the play was set, and simply built it on stage.

I think the restaurant was a Howard Johnson's, but I can't be sure. Anyone know the play and restaurant?

posted by mzurer to Media & Arts (3 answers total)

Stanislavski cut the actual walls out of an apartment and had them reassembled on stage for the set of a play.

Robert Sherwood's 1935 play The Petrified Forest was set in a diner that's original design was based on a real roadside diner. In the movie version the following year, the Hollywood producers decided to hire the Broadway cast members rather than use big star Edward G. Robinson. It would be the big break for the career of lesser known actor Humphrey Bogart.

I don't know if these are the designs you had in mind. I think such things were pretty common in the realist movements in the late 19th and early 20th century.
posted by Pollomacho at 10:24 PM on November 6, 2006

Best answer: David Belasco, for his production in 1912 of The Governor's Lady, reconstructed a Child's Restaurant (it was a chain) where actors actually cooked and prepared food
posted by Mngo at 10:34 AM on November 7, 2006

Response by poster: I am pretty sure Mngo has the story I remember!
posted by mzurer at 12:35 PM on November 7, 2006