An ideal theater : the Takarazuka Revue Company in Los Angeles

Abstract

This thesis explores the relationship between the spectacle and the spectator. The vehicle for this investigation is a theater, in Los Angeles, for an all-women Japanese revue company. The building articulates the roles of the performers and of the audience. In addition to solving the functional program, as a social performer the theater seeks to propose new ways to activate the event of theater going. On an urban scale, the theater mediates the points of intersection between diverse communities. The theater thus becomes a gestural proscenium to the city. The spatial experience which results constitutes the making of an architectural icon.