The fourth dimension of theater: Time, space and video in the modern stage

Josefina Alcázar

CITRU / INBA
México, 1988.
135 p.

The correlations between technological development and culture are explored in this new edition —corrected and heightened— of The Fourth Dimension of Theater. The focus is on the theater setting. The analysis considers, as a starting point, technological innovations that happened by the end of the 19th century, such as the substitution of the gas lamp by the electric light. This event turned lighting into a fundamental element of the stage language, the impact of cinema, television and video, and, in the current times, the influence of new digital technologies in the theater of the 21st century. In this new age, virtual representation is already a reality. Finally, all of the above determines the appearance of a theater which “crosses borders, does not respect the old limits between the diverse arts of visual representation, but it risks its entrance into them and makes them into a part of the new dramatic elements.”