The history — and the future — of the stage

Studio 360
The Shed and Lawrence Weiner's IN FRONT OF ITSELF (rendering).

Joshua Dachs is one of America’s premier designers of theatrical spaces, and his firm, Fisher Dachs Associates, has worked on performance halls — renovating them, designing them from scratch — all over America and the world, from Lincoln Center to the Xiqu Centre for Chinese Opera in Hong Kong. Last year he wrote an article for American Theatre, “Improvise, Imitate, Formalize, Reject, Repeat: How the Wheel of Innovation Turns,” about the history of the stage, how it evolved and how it's still evolving.

He takes us on a historical tour from Ancient Greece, to Shakespearean England, to Renaissance Italy, to Broadway and beyond.

One of Dach’s latest projects is The Shed, a new multi-arts center designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with Rockwell Group on Manhattan’s West Side, opening in 2019.

oembed://https%3A//vimeo.com/173956112

Will you support The World? 

The story you just read is accessible and free to all because thousands of listeners and readers contribute to our nonprofit newsroom. We go deep to bring you the human-centered international reporting that you know you can trust. To do this work and to do it well, we rely on the support of our listeners. If you appreciated our coverage this year, if there was a story that made you pause or a song that moved you, would you consider making a gift to sustain our work through 2024 and beyond?