Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 1988 - 55

well as on Broadway; and 4) preferably, has experience
in other gemes such as dance, opera, film and television. These criteria still left some 30 to 40 possibilities .... IO [11 designers were actually included
in the bookl.
Aronson later goes on to explain: "The selection process
also revealed an underlying inequity in American theatre:
Practically no women, blacks or other minorities met this
criteria." I I Out of those 30 or 40 possibilities Aronson
mentioned, there were only three women. Only one
woman, Marjorie Bradley Kellogg, was actually included
in the book.
The use of these criteria to recognize important artists
is peculiar when compared to the way other art forms are
viewed. How many women painters would be recognized
if the prestige of the gallery and quantity of paintings sold
were the criteria? How many films by women would be
acknowledged if wide distribution and box office success
were the criteria? Not nearly as many as are recognized
now. But in the case of Aronson's book, designers who do
not design large quantities of plays in "important" theatres
are excluded and are implicitly deemed artistically insignificant. Esthetic quality and high exposure become one
and the same in the reader's eye.
To be fair to Mr. Aronson, this problem of criteria is
partly due to the nature of theatre art itself. It is a public art
that does not exist at all without an audience. A painter,
sculptor, writer, composer, or film maker can create alone,
in privacy, at home. A designer that is not hired is rendered
artistically impotent. To practice the art there must be a
theatre, a production to work on, and relatively large re-

---- design

sources of materials and labor. Without these one cannot
practice the art of scene design in any traditional sense.
Therefore, producers and artistic directors have the singular power to identify and nurture the artist's talent or
ignore and destroy its development- in a more immediate
and complete sense than with other artists. To my knowledge, no one has ever discovered the great works of an
unproduced scenic designer.
But the problem is more deeply rooted. There is evidence that even women who have met this rather narrow
criteria that Aronson defines, have, historically, been ignored. An example of this phenomenon can be observed in
the case of Aline Bernstein.
Aline Bernstein was a prolific scene and costume designer whose career spanned the early '20s to the mid '50s.
She was one of the earliest artistic members of the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York. She worked steadily on
and Off-Broadway for more than thirty years in both of
these design areas. She was the first woman to be inducted
into the design union, United Scenic Artists. There has
been virtually nothing written about her career inside or
out of the theatre discipline.
There is one published biography by Carole Klein entitled Aline. However, this biography focuses on her relationship with her father, an actor, and her love affair with
Thomas Wolfe, the writer. Here, as is often the case with
female figures in history, she remains defined by her connections rather than her accomplishments.
The biography still provides some glances at her career.
In one instance, Klein mentions Aline's excitement about
working on the plans for the new building to house the
eighborhood Playhouse:

SOUNaf.

TUM

technology

LIGHTING

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SPRING 19S5

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 1988