Madness, Monsters, Mayhem

As days grow shorter, the McNay Art Museum explores what happens when the house goes dark. From its origins in sacred ritual, theatre has always expressed the supernatural. Gods have withdrawn from the stage, but magic and madness, ghosts and ghouls remain. We continue to look to performance to explore the demons and dreams that torment and inspire us, as individuals and societies.

Stage Frights features scene and costume designs for plays, operas, and ballets by writers and composers – from Shakespeare to Lorca to Anne Rice’s adaptations; from Wagner to Stravinsky to Scott Joplin. Drawing on diverse folklore traditions and popular-culture forms, scene and costume designs entice both adults and children to explore the dark side of their imaginations and the world.

This exhibition is drawn from the McNay’s Tobin Collection of Theatre Arts.

Stage Frights: Madness, Monsters, Mayhem
Until 31 December 2017
McNay Art Museum (San Antonio, US)