Walt Disney Modular Theater
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The Walt Disney Modular Theatre is an indoor performance space located at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California. The modular theatre is based on a concept suggested by Antonin Artaud, who asserted that the ideal theatre could be reconfigured for each and every new performance or play. When Walt Disney founded his Institute of the Arts in 1967, he requested suggestions from leaders in various artistic fields as to what would be the ideal tools for advancing the study and practice of their medium. One of the overwhelmingly popular suggestions from the theatre community was a modular theatre as suggested by Artaud. Disney had the Modular Theatre incorporated as the central performance space of his Institute. It was the first of its kind constructed, and remains one of only five in the world.
The chief feature of the theatre is a segmented floor, divided into 348 4'x4' square platforms, each mounted on its own independent pnuematic pistons, allowing the floor to be easily reconfigured into whatever shape is desired. The theatre is also comprised of segmented pieces, so that walls can also be easily reconfigured, creating a virtually limitless number of possibilities in design. The theatre is four stories tall from floor to ceiling (the pneumatic pistons reach another story down). There are doors on all sides of the theatre so that the audience can be made to enter from whatever direction the artists choose. The theatre can be divided into several playing spaces, the audience can be separated into several sections, and any combination of levels and directions can be used. The theatre can also be configured into an environmental space, with the audience moving through multiple locations in the course of a show, or being presented with a virtual environment rather than one in which they are separate from the performance.
The theatre does not immediately allow for reconfiguration during a show: the platforms and walls must be moved and locked into place in advance of performances, and typically a theatrical floor is built over the platforms.
The Walt Disney Modular Theatre is employed year-round by students and faculty at the California Institute Of The Arts, primarily those in the schools of Theatre, Dance, and Music. Though the idea of modular theatre has fallen out of fashion, in favor of environmental theatre and the resurgence of proscenium spectacle theatre, this theater and the few others like it represent one of the most striking ideas in the effort to advance and expand the possibilities of live performance.
