DRAMA: ENSEMBLE with David Rockwell
Channel: Spirit of Space
Date: 16/06/2023

Drama, a new book by David Rockwell with Bruce Mau, edited by Sam Lubell (Phaidon Press, May 2021), is an exploration of Rockwell Group’s empathy-driven system of ideas and methods in action. This site expands on the creative principles in Drama, with new films, conversations, essays, and more.

ENSEMBLE: Designing for the audience is about recognizing that everyone in an audience has their own personal story, and making a place for each story within the designed experience. Unlike film, which edits exactly what viewers see, theater relies on centering the viewer’s attention on different parts of the stage and performance to craft and edit its stories. Those onstage designs for focus and framing have the ability to visually seduce audience members into their worlds. 

Yet focus is not just where someone looks, but also what they give back and what they do with that attention. For audiences to have an emotional experience in a place is the most basic form of designing for responsiveness—allowing people to experience what they want to experience rather than telling them how they should feel. This entails giving enough information, but not too much so that one can respond authentically.