Boris Aronson (1898-1980)
Boris Aronson was born in Kiev on October 15, 1898, the was the son of a Rabbi. In his youth he was enrolled by his parents in art school. Soon after his enrollment in art school he became an apprentice to Aleksandra Ekster, a constructivist painter and costume designer, who showed him the ways of scenic design. He was trained by Ekster in the constructivist theory, a Russian model based in constructing art. Constructivists believe that art is meant to be constructed as opposed to the creation of other art movements of the time. This movement went on to influence the beginnings of the Bauhaus art movement as well. Aronson worked for many years in Moscow and Berlin, Germany where he wrote a book, Boris Aronson: Stage Design as Visual Metaphor, before being granted his visa and moving to New York City in 1923. He arrived in the lower east side of Manhattan and began to design for the experimental Yiddish theatres of the area. He designed shows such as Tenth Commandment (1926) for an experimental Yiddish theatre (Rosenthal 99). Shortly after he left these smaller theatres and began to work on Broadway for a production of Walk a Little Faster by Vernon Duke (Rosenthal 100). In the 1930s, he primarily worked with the Group Theatre, a theatre group based out of New York. In the 1960s Aronson began to focus on musicals and gained worldwide acclaim with his designs for Fiddler on the Roof (1964) and Do Re Mi (1960). Aronson designed the original production of Cabaret on Broadway. This design earned him his second Tony Award, the first being in 1951 for The Rose Tattoo, The Country Girl and Season In The Sun. With six Tony Awards to his name, he passed away in 1980, one year after being inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.
When entering the American theatre scene in 1923, Aronson was thought of by critiques, as plagued by his Russian design techniques. Many of his peers said that he would have to shed these “Russian dogmas” in order to become a great scenic designer (Essin 191). The ideas of design that Aronson brought forward were foreign to the New York theatre that most people were accustomed to during this time. The large elegant sets of . Although it took a considerable amount of time before Aronson’s designs made it to Broadway he was designing and working at all times. Aronson was not only a scenic designer. He also worked in lights, painting, and sculpture. Having trained in fine art as a child, utilizing fine art as concept drawings was his method of doing what he loved.
The design that Aronson is most known was for Fiddler on the Roof. This design was so powerful due to his Jewish past he could really use influences from Jewish theatre all around the globe to design the best art possible for this show (Essin 192). Although this design did not win a Tony Award, it beautifully showed the Jewish peoples struggle to feel as though they belong in an ever changing political climate (Essin). Aronson sought after this show as he wanted to join the predominantly Jewish design team working on the project (Essin). Once added to the design team, he became a “valuable link” to the design team during its process. Because of Aronson's history of working in Yiddish theatre he was able to work with an understanding of the message the show was trying to send (Essin 192). Fiddler on the Roof was accepted by the general public as a show that would define its generation even though it was heavily Jewish. This show grabbed at the hearts and minds of those who went to see it as it allowed for the American audience to view what the setting of fiddler actually looked like and were able to understand better what they were seeing (Essin 193).
Boris Aronson was a very skilled designer, proved by his six Tony awards, that used every piece of his past to create the beautiful concepts that we then saw on stage. His Russian training of the constructivist style and the rigid rules that came along with it drove his design style. During his time in America those who worked with him worked to adjust his design style to soften the hard corners of constructivists. This interesting dichotomy of ideals made for some of the most captivating works of his time. His designs were iconic because of his foreign upbringing and the context that that had given him (Essin 196). Working with other Jewish designers and directors on Fiddler on the Roof gave Aronson to return to his roots and truly design something that was a part of his heritage. This design utilized images of his life, from his hometown, and these aspects was what made it so captivating to the audiences who came to see it. Throughout his design career, Aronson had one major inspiration for much of his work especially Fiddler on the Roof: Marc Chegall. Chegall was a Jewish painter who was quite close with Aronson during his time in Russia. Aronson’s relationship with him was very effective as Fiddler on the Roof received its name from one of his pieces. Chegall showed life in the painting as enjoying the simple pleasures, this is what drove Aronson’s design for Fiddler on the Roof and other shows such as Cabaret (Essin 192).
Aronson’s design for Cabaret embodies the idea of simple joy and pleasure as it follows his more minimalistic design ideas (Essin 196). The scenery with very few moving parts and the main focus of the set was a massive light-up sign saying “Cabaret.” This design although simplistic was an effective design for the show that was performed there. While Cabaret takes place in a poorer underground nightclub, the way that Aronson's design depicts the club is simple yet elegant which contrasts the economic status of the club itself. All of the other settings for the show were made of set pieces that rolled in from the sides, this includes the fruit shop and the train car from the beginning of the show (Rosenthal 111) Aronson had a reasonably successful career as shown by the numerous Tony wins and nominations but his designs for shows such as Cabaret and Fiddler on the Roof will be looked at as if they changed Broadway set design for the future (Rosenthal 101).