HISTORY OF BLACK LIGHT THEATER

Once upon a time there lived an emperor named Wang-Pang from the House of Ming in China. One fateful day Liang, the emperor’s only and much - beloved son, died. The emperor loved his son dearly and was devastated by his loss. In the emperor’s court there lived a magician anemed Mang-ti who promised to bring the emperor’s son back to life for him. To do this Mang - ti used magic that we would today call ‘blacklight’ magic or manipulation. Each time that the emperor wanted to see his son, then in low-level dim light men dressed all in black so as to be effectively invisible to the naked eye would move Liang’s body to bring it seemingly to life. Mang-ti trained his helpers everyday in the manipulation of the figure, so as to be truly imitative of the emperor’s son. So, just as before, Liang was once again the light of his father’s life, and the emperor was again able to converse with him and lived happily ever after.

Or so the story goes.

On the other hand, like so many other important findings, blacklight theatre probably really was born in China, but perhaps in another way. In those olden days Chinese artists used candlelight to perform silhouette shows over white cloth screens. By the end of the 16^th century the silhouette technique had migrated to Japan and was used by the Japanese puppeteer Uemura Bunrakuke. Hence the ‘Bunraku Theatre‘ name (文楽). This is a simple fact. In this type of theatre three men dressed in black clothing would manipulate a puppet about 1.5m tall. And as in the story of the emperor and his dead son Liang, they would move the puppet legs and arms.

In 1885, Munich actor and stage manager Max Auzinger discovered the black cabinet trick. He used this in his show “Indian and Egyptian Miracles” like a magician. In the early days if cinema, when cinematic techniques were in their infancy, many artists (among them George Malige) used ‘blacklight technique’ to express the images they had in their minds. The modern blacklight theatre was born in the 1950s, mainly through the French avant-garde artist George Lafaille, who is often called ‘the father of blacklight theatre’. Many Czech puppeteers from the ‘Salamandr’ and ‘Spejbl and Hurvinek’ groups saw his performances in 1955 and took this invention back to their native country. The first family group of blacklight theatre in Prague was founded in 1959 by Mr. Josef Lamka and Mrs. Hana Lamkova. One year later in 1960 Mr. Jiri Smec left this group and founded his own theatre. And finally, we should not forget the even giants of the stage, such as Stanislavskij in his famous ‘Blue Bird’ performance also used this trick. Following the invention of the ultra-violet lamp, during the ‘hippy’ era of the 60s and 70s, it turned into a fashion among young people who were looking for new colours to represent the term “freedom”. In these times of the ‘new’ type of theatre, total darkness was needed, together with a massive amount of black material and black paint to provide a black background, as well as ultra-violet illumination for all the other fluorescent (visible) colours. The ultra-violet illumination, also called ‘blck illumination’ because it provides an ‘invisible’ light source in full blacklout conditions, together with the darkened theatre halls covered with black materials, provided this special type of theatre with its name – ‘Blacklight Theatre’.

This 21^st century is a time of rapidly developing technologies and the blacklight theatre medium is more than ready to reveal all of its wonders to the world. Today it is ready for use on a multimedia platform. There are many facets and applications to this type of theatre. As anything from a straight-forward puppet show to a full multimedia presentation. You can only have what you can dream. Imagine yourself immersed in a world of lights, magic and fantasy and experience it for yourself.

Let it begin.

On the start of age of "Black Light Theatre" two different styles existed. Black theatre and Luminescent theatre. Original Black theatre not used UV bulbs and luminescent paints. This older theatre system used front light line only, for dupery of onlooker eyes. After age of Second World War Mr. Frantisek Tvrdek (more about himself in "Stars") saw promotional Phillips UV bulbs spot, and he like painter was absolutely fascinated about this new technology. He do trip to Holland for UV bulbs, not for tube yet. After return he has new problem, because there have no UV paints. He start experiments with different materials like quinine, atc. First used of UV technology should be in Spejbl and Hurvinek theatre in that times, but they came short of thein expectations, because of insufficiency of UV bulbs. In present time this both styles like Black theatre and Luminescent theatre are united, mostly gathered together. UV tubes, and luminescent paints do giving original face of this type of theatre, and light lines, and technique try encourage effect of destination.

http://blacklight-theatre.com/a_history.html