Theatre Design & Technology - May 1972 - 29

Body and Clothes
R. Broby-Johansen. Reinhold Book Corp.,
New York: 1968.236 pp.
Body and Clothes presents the ... history
of clothing with ... its religious. political.
psychological. and sexual overtones. It
traces the beginning. development, and
decline of styles from body decoration
and loincloth to the present·day miniskirt.
It discusses the social and geographical
conditions that spawned various styles.

As this statement from the jacket indicates, this book is intended to deal with
the why not the how of historical costume.
This it does very well. It is a well written,
well illustrated history of fashion and style.
The author frequently draws upon his wide
knowledge of the history of art and culture
to capture the "feel" of a period in a few
words. Through an imaginative juxtaposition
of similar and contrasting styles from different periods he succeeds in illuminating
the various attitudes and mores which stimulated changes in fashion. These insights
are supplemented and supported by an
abundance of beautiful illustrations, although one frequently wishes the author
had made more specific references to them
in the text.
This book will be of most value to the
costume designer in preliminary research
into the social milieu of a period. It will
also be of value to the director and the actor in helping them to understand the so-

Stage Lighting
Richard Pilbrow. Van Nostrand Reinhold
Co., New York: 1970. 151 pp. $10.00
It is difficult for an ex-student of Stanley
McCandless to admit that anybody else
could convey the enthusiasm and excitement of designing lighting for a theatrical
production that "Mac" imparted with such
lucidity to many generations of aspiring
lighting designers; but were this reviewer
to be back at the start of that learning
process, he would be immediately attracted
to the teachings of Richard Pilbrow, who
has produced an extremely handsome book
to introduce the "professional amateur" to
the intricacies of stage lighting design.

THEATER DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

cial, moral, and religious attitudes that dictated the use of garments which today seem
bizarre, or perhaps just uncomfortable.
The book does contain much useful and
frequently detailed information on the cutting, fitting, and draping of the garments
from many of the periods. However, it is
disorganized and inconsistent in the treatm ent of such material. The narrative style
of the book, which contributes so much to
its readability, in this instance stands in the
way of its usefulness as a reference tool.
It contains no index and the "expanded
table of contents" in the back of the book
is of little value in finding specific technical
information. However, we should not condemn the book for what it does not do, and
what it does not try to do; but compliment
it for doing what it sets out to do in an
eminently readable and visually enjoyable
fashion.
In summary: The information in this book
should be available for anyone interested
in producing period plays, and it should be
a part of any good costume library. However, the book's primary value is not in providing a research tool for the costumer in
designing and making period costumes, but
in providing insights into mores and a sense
of period. Its greatest value is for the actor
who must wear those costumes and for the
director who motivates the actor's attitudes
and movements while he is wearing them.
Junius Hamblin
State University College at Oneonta

This tome is atypical in that it does not
begin by stating that lighting design cannot
be taught only to spend endless chapters
in detailing the electrical/ mechanical means
of light production; rather it jumps right in
with an amalgamation of ideas drawn from
Stanley McCandless, Frederick Bentham,
Geoffrey Ost, Rollo Williams, and others to
explain with great clarity and rational logic
the properties of light, the objectives of
stage lighting, the "Method," Pilbrow's
personal creative approach, the role of the
lighting designer vis-a-vis his collaborators,
and the procedures of creating a design in
light from the point in time of the first reading of the playwright's script right through
all of the various steps that lead up to
opening night. In addition to fairly stock

MAY, 1972

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - May 1972