Theatre Design & Technology - Dec 1971 - 33

Scene Design for Stage and Screen

Readings on the Aesthetics and
Methodology of Scene Design for
Drama, Opera, Musical Comedy,
Ballet, Motion Pictures, Television
and Arena Theatre.
Edited and introduced by Orville K. Larson. Michigan State University Press.
East Lansing, Michigan. Reprinted 1965.
334 pp.
The first edition of Mr. Larson's book
was publ ished in 1961, the same year that
I began designing professionally, and I can
remember, along with my fellow graduate
design students, avidly talking with our
professors, and any working designer we
could corner, about the world we were
about to enter. We could all rapidly produce
groundplans, mix our watercolors, and detail the work drawings for a Renaissance
chair. What we wanted to know was what
other designers had experienced, their
thoughts on how they approached their
work, their methodology while working. We
all carried Robert Edmond Jones in our
jacket pocket, but, except for The Dramatic
Imagination, there was a dearth of writing
by designers on designing, particularly current designers. It was Mr. Larson's book
which finally brought the scattered written
works of many designers into a single volume. His introduction is concise and accurate, and his listing of designers and critics
could be a useful outline for a seminar on
American scene designers.
Scene Design for Stage and Screen is
divided into five sections. The first section
of the book is historical, containing Jones'
statement of 1917 on the future decorative art of the theatre, Kenneth Macgowan's
view of the coming American theatre and
the influence of Joseph Urban's work. The
second section contains excerpts from
Jones' The Dramatic I magination, Lee
Simonson's The Stage is Set and essays
by Donald Oenslager, Mordecai Gorelik,
and Leo Kerz, all representing trends in
scenic design over the past fifty years. The
third section Larson describes as accounts
of aesthetic principles affecting the meth-

Banners and Hangings
Norman Laliberte and Sterling Mcllhany.
Reinhold. New York, 1966, 92 pp.

Block Printing on Textiles
Janet Erickson. Watson-Guptill,
York, 1967, 168 pp.

New

These books are both designed to serve
as introductions to their respective creative
areas. Neither book relates directly to theatre

....."S1TT--J

THEATER DESIGN AND TECHNOlOGY

odology of scene design, which are, in effect, three very practical case histories of
the evolution of a stage design. The fourth
section is particularly illuminating! Nine designers, including Jo Mielziner, Howard
Bay, Cecil Beaton, and Oliver Smith, present a series of articles explaining the problems of musical comedy, opera, ballet,
arena theatre, motion picture and television
design. The fifth and final section briefly
explores other aspects of design such as
presentational and representational staging
(this important area in particular needs to
be updated), Epic scene designs, and
Eugene Berman's biting adieu to the theatre
and methods of American scene design.
Do not be misled into thinking that this
is a how-to book. The reader will not be
able to solve a design problem step by step
by reading the Mielziner article. The book
is devoted to a description of the reasons
for their work and the frustrations, agony,
and joy that these designers have experienced. The most detailed analysis of how a
design evolves can be found in articles by
Howard Bay and Jo Mielziner and, in particular, Harry Horner's account of his design for the enormous production of Lady
in the Dark.
Mr. Larson, in his introduction, names
four generations of designers working in
America since the First World War, ending
with Oliver Smith, Rolf Gerard, Frederick
Fox, and others. One could only wish that
the book could be revised to include perhaps a fifth generation with such designers
as Ming Cho Lee, Tony Walton, the late
Will Steven Armstrong, Peter Wexler, etc.
Particularly designers working on the new
open stages of America
The Guthrie,
The Alley, The Arena, The Mark Taper
Forum, The Vivian Beaumont. A compilation
of drawings or photographs of the designers
included in the volume would also be a
valuable addition to the book. Aside from
these two points, Scene Design for Stage
and Screen is an important collection for
any student or practitioner of the theatre
and the only current one depicting development of twentieth century scene designers in America.
Eric E. Sinkkonen
San Francisco State College

technology, but both deal with items which
concern the stage designer from time to time
in the dressing of a set.
Laliberte and Mcllhany's Banners and
Hangings is the least useful of the two.
The book's objective is to provide a guide
to making banners and decorative hangings.
Illustrations are used extensively in the
first third of the book to cover the topics of
history of banners, subject matter and design, and materials and procedures of banner
making. The bulk of the book contains ex-

DECEMBER,1971

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Dec 1971