In Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, the city’s“alabaster gates… have villas where the shadows of dancing girls with silvery scales swim beneath the medusa shaped chandeliers” Calvino’s Moriana has another side, a hidden face ‘with an expanse of rusting planks of rusting sheet metal pipes black with soot” For Calvino, both sides belong to each other, coexisting, “ like a sheet of paper, with a figure on either side…”

"FROM ONE PART TO THE OTHER, THE CITY SEEMS TO CONTINUE, IN PERSPECTIVE, MULTIPLYING ITS REPERTORY OF IMAGES... "

"De Chirico's city has been one of the capitals of the modernist imagination. It is a fantasy town, a state of mind, signifying alienation, dreaming and loss. Its elements are so well known by now that they fall into place as soon as they are named, like jigsaw pieces worn by being assembled over and over again: the arcades, the tower, the piazza, the shadows, the statue, the train, the mannequin."

FILM/FELLINI, 8 1/2

"I have chosen to live in a place where the past is all around me. In Rome, we say, “I’ll meet you at the Pantheon for ice cream” or “We’ll take the shortcut at the Coliseum.” I live in a place where the past is all around us, the ancient past. When you walk around Rome, you cannot help but be affected by the monuments, the ancient walls and ruins of the past." -I, Fellini Pg. 297

Teatro Tipa consists of platformed and stepped stages that are embedded into the crumbling stone walls. The ruin becomes an integral part of the set design and experience. The design blends a multitude of historical references, from the Roman frons scaenae, in which the each scene was simultaneously shown in different sections of the stage, to the Vauxhall Theatre Gardens that housed a multitude of theatrical spaces in the landscape design. The rebirth of Tipa as an opera house allows it to continue to live in the minds of the spectators, performers, designers, directors, curious, and dreamers.

1. STAGES

Tipa is divided into 5 different platformed areas that cut into the space at 30 and 60 degrees.  The stepped stages are abstract and ambiguous that can either be used for seating or performance, or both simultaneously.  The space is meant to open the creative opportunities for the designer and promote greater interaction and active participation of the audience during the performance. 

2.  THE GARDEN

Like the Italian Renaissance and Baroque gardens, Tipa fuses theatre with landscape design using ruins, fountains, and natural elements as a part of the imbedded set design. The trees frame the multitude of stages and by using fragments of a city, both past (ruins) and present (stages), and mixing nature with the man-made elements, a delirious, fantastical world is created, imbued with theatrical illusions.  Trees native to the area were used for their durability in the dry seaside climate and for their theatrical grand nature. 

3. THE CANOPIES

The canopies are references to the nets used by the fishermen.  Used in this context, they create a canopy over the spectators.  The canopies are made of steel cables and poles and are meant to hold speakers, spotlights, and fabrics where needed.  The location for the canopies are fixed with deep holes into the ground to which the pole are inserted into and then controlled by  motors  that rotate the bars.  The bars are angled in a way that when they spin they can cover all ground in the theatre. They are inter-changable, like the seating or stages and can be removed or added where needed.