Hayley Eaves
- Region: Europe
- Time: 16th Century; 17th Century; 18th Century
- Theme: Architectural History; Early Modern Drama; History of Art and Architecture; History of Theater
Hayley Eaves is a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design where she studies the history and theory of European architecture and urban space during the Baroque and Enlightenment eras.
Hayley’s current research examines developments in early modern theatre architecture and stage design, considering such topics and themes as the ways in which architecture and architectural thinking were transformed by the dramatic arts and became increasingly tied to other modes of rhetorical address practiced on stage; cultures of secrecy and rivalry characteristic of the profession of ‘scenic designer’ and among practitioners of esoteric theatre-technological knowledge; yet undecided relations between the role and reputation of stage managers called “il corago” or impresari and military commanders responsible for overseeing dynamic theatres of war; scenographic theory and its precarious relationship to practice; aesthetic and spatial programs for auditoria; and the pan-European legacy of architectural dynasties active in theatre and set design, including the families Galliari, Quaglio, and Galli da Bibiena.
Hayley’s interest in theatre architecture began following her visit to the Teatro Goldoni in Florence, Italy, in 2015. Equally inspired by the writings and life of the theatre’s namesake, that of the Venetian playwright Carlo Goldoni, Hayley was inspired to complete her master’s thesis at McGill University on the role and representation of a topic much debated in Goldoni’s creative work: Commedia dell’arte, being a form of Renaissance comic theatre with crude plots and characters like the gnocchi-loving scoundrel Punch (Pulcinella). While completing her degree, Hayley spent time as a Research Library Reader at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, California, where she consulted copious visual materials from both the Italian Theatre Prints Collection and the Stage and Theatre Design Collection. Prior to matriculating to Harvard in 2020, Hayley completed a three-month research residency at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini’s Institute of Theatre and Opera in Venice, Italy.
For the 2023-24 academic year, Hayley will fulfill the role of MDes Research Tutor in the Narratives Program at the design school and will partake in a digital exhibition project with the Harvard Art Museums. The exhibition, which aims to shed light on the material culture of the Crusades, will feature over one-hundred individual objects from the Museums’ collections.