Word: backdrop
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...thinking being. Therefore, nature has given to him a striving for knowledge, that is, for critically evaluating reality, drawing one's own conclusions and freely stating one's convictions and opinions. For this, he was terribly hated by those who believe that people exist to create a backdrop for leaders, to applaud and shout 'hurrah' for them, to believe in them blindly, to pray for them, to endure without murmur all scorn of them selves and to quack with pleasure when into his trough they pour more and richer fodder than into the other troughs...
...their first performance Miss Hahn's company appeared on an empty stage, against a dreary beige backdrop minus all lighting effects. The dancers began without music, illustrating the materials of dance while Miss Hahn provided the verbal explanations. They started with the most basic component: movement. Movement for dance, Miss Hahn said, must be defined in its broadest sense. "To limit oneself to certain movements which are supposed to be correct or beautiful [as classical ballet does] is to bar oneself from an infinitely varied world. The richness of dance lies in its ability to draw from the real world...
...bursts on the playgoer with somber eclat. In an elegant private chapel, dim as a catacomb, a finger of light rests on Pleasence as he kneels rapt in prayer. The Verdi Requiem saturates the air like incense. Suddenly, the stage is ablaze with light, louvers are turning, and the backdrop becomes a penthouse view of Manhattan's skyscrapers...
...feature has jutted up in a matter of months. It is the Santa Fe Opera Company's new theater, a bold cross between an open-air arena and a Pueblo fortress. It has no side walls, and its see-through stage provides the action with a striking natural backdrop of dancing hills. Above the orchestra seats, a red wood-beamed adobe canopy sweeps up ward, then breaks off abruptly to re veal a broad area of New Mexico...
only this time it is played to chill the listener with the dread of a man waiting for saviors who will never come, to the backdrop of the crashing surf against the shore...