Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 1977 - 37

for Victorian streetscapes, ballrooms, conservatories, drawing
rooms and even "antique" beaches.
An endlessly entertaining book, Victorian Fashions and Costumes from Harper's Bazar: 1867-1898 would be equally indispensable to historians, sociologists, costume designers, students
of fashion as it would to collectors of Victoriana.
Syvalya Eichen

Toronto

GUIDE TO PLAY SELECTION, 3rd Edition
Compiled by National Council of Teachers of English: Liaison
Comm ittee with SCA and ATA, Joseph Mersand, Ed. Chmn.
New York: R.R. Bowker Co., 1975
ISBN 0-8141-1946-8 (paper)
ISBN 0-8352-0862-1 (cloth)
ix + 292 pp. $13.95 (cloth or paper)
Publication of the third edition of the NCTE's Guide to Play
Selection has ended the wait for a current and more inclusive
version of the second edition (1958). Unfortunately, there is good
news and bad news.
Each entry contains all the information which was found in
the second edition and more. This edition, considerably enlarged
in some categories, contains summaries for nearly 1100 plays
compared with over 700 in the second edition. New summaries
are longer and summaries for older entries have been revised or
expanded. The "Guide to Entries" and a new format which organizes the plays by author and which utilizes full page-width
entries are distinct improvements. However, some system is
needed to make more visible the play titles which tend to disap·
pear into the text. This is also true of the sub-headings in two
new sections, the "Topical Index" and the "Players Index" which
lists plays according to the number and sex of the characters.
Aside from the increased number of plays listed, the greatest
improvement is the addition of two categories, "Musical Plays"
and "Plays by Afro-Americans" containing eighty-nine and sixtyeight entries respectively.
Gone are the lacklustre illustrations of the earlier edition a wise decision for the space is better devoted to the expanded
list of television plays and the selected bibliographies accompanying each section.
The purpose of a gUide is to provide the reader with certain
basic information and advice which will save time and energy by
narrowing the field and giving the search direction. Thus, completeness is essential. Omissions, through negligence or design
are more than frustrating; they negate whatever value the book
might have.
An incredible omission is the collection of period works from
the historical categories predating 1870 which were eliminated
because of the "bulk of the proposed work" and a decision to
concentrate on modern drama. Though those chapters were the
weakest parts of the earlier edition (totalling only sixty entries).
they were potentially the most helpful and should have been
enlarged, not deleted (Shank's Digest of 500 Plays lists almost
200). Information on additional plays and on various translations
would have been invaluable.
Space which should have been devoted to period plays is
wasted on the "Guide to Play Production." The absurdity of
attempting to condense what would take volumes into seventeen
pages should be obvious. It is impossible to discuss any of the
topics with enough specificity to be of any use. Instead of worth·
less generalizations, some specific production comments about
the plays listed would have been much more helpful. Though the
editors usually indicate plays requiring special performing skills,
notations regarding technical demands are thin and un informative
or nonexistent. This section is further weakened by omission and
misinformation such as:
1. Failure to mention color under "Scenery Design," makeup
under "Budgeting" or "Producing," and costume cleaning and
maintenance under "Budgeting" or "Costuming."
2. The suggested use of only six lighting areas and of plans and
drawings only "generally drawn to scale."
It would be best to ignore this section and use the bibliography

I USITT

for guidance.
The production bibliography is fairly representative though it
only lists thirty volumes versus one hundred and three in the second edition. The weakest segment is "Designing a Production."
Of the eight works listed, four and one-half deal with scenery
design or construction, only two with costume design or construction, only one on makeup and one-half on lighting. None
cover sound, special effects, props and furnishings, or arms and
armor. Also surprising is the omission of standard volumes on costumes and on period furnishings.
Guidance and mental health plays have been eliminated and
there is no section of plays for children and youth. Also missing
are special categories such as religious, mime, and puppet plays.
Reduced considerably from the second edition are "Anthologies
and Collections of Plays" (from 536 to 423 entries) and "Play
Publishers and Agents" (from 142 to 48 entries). The attempt to
concentrate on collections in print and in paperback is laudable,
but those earlier collections remain on library shelves and are
too valuable to be omitted. Furthermore, many who will use this
book will be seeking plays for study, not production, and will
want the durability of hard bound editions only available from
the original publisher.
No book can be all things to all people, but Guide to Play
Selection, third edition falls far short of expectations. Not because
of what it has done, but because of what it has not. Still, it remains the best overall work of its kind and an important reference
volume.
Elbin L. Cleveland

University of South Carolina

COLLARS, STOCKS AND CRAVATS: A HISTORY AND COSTUME DATING GUIDE TO CIVILIAN MEN'S NECKPIECES,
1655-1900
by Doriece Colle
Emmaus, PA: Rodale Press, 1972
ISBN 0-87857-015-2
255 pp., illus., $14.95
Here is a book the title and subtitle of which tells the reader
exactly what to expect; its contents fulfills that expectation most
satisfactorily. The author lets it be assumed that this is a working
manual for the practicing stage costumer and offers that reader
assurance that its statements can be relied on. When the author
uses the information gleaned from published histories, she acknowledges her source, and when she deals directly with primary
sources, she documents them completely.
The book belongs on the shelves of all designers who intend
to costume "period" plays set in any date between 1655 and
1900. There seems to be no other book exclusively devoted to
man's neckwear, though one may find listed in this bibliography
a number of essays on the subject published in art or craft magazines or in trade journals. Such pieces are not easily available to
the average costumer, who thus again, profits by this book.
The arrangement is this: 1) The two-and-a-half-page foreword
should be read with attention, since it summarizes the progress
of neckwear through the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries. 2) The section of acknowledgements is not only the
customary courteous gesture, but also a helpful one, since it
points out the many sources available in the United States. 3)
Two pages devoted to "Fashionables and Followers" would help
one in designing "character" costume for any Tom, Dick or
Harry, from lords down to laborers.
Next follows the narrative, in words and pictures. For each
article of neckwear (collars, stocks, cravats) the presentation is
the same, an essay on the article from its early shape in 1655 to
its evolved form in 1900. The pen-and~nk drawings of collars
are followed by some information about stocks, and then several pages of drawings of stocks. After that comes a group of
portraits, showing both collars and stocks.
The third section, on cravats, follows the preceding plan, and
has its own group of portraits of men wearing them. Throughout,
each picture is identified with names of artist and subject, its
date and present location of the picture. In addition the author
points out the characteristics of the neckwear.
There are no colored pictures in this book and this is no draw-

THEATRE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

SPRING,1977

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