Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2010 - 69

Sometimes a writer adds an aside that is
interesting. Allow me to build on the aside in Gail
Brassard's chapter on Irene Sharaff. Brassard
implies that when Sharaff was starting as an assistant to Aline Bernstein, she must have taken on
more responsibility because Bernstein was carrying on an affair with the writer Thomas Wolfe.
Bernstein should be better known if only because
she helped break down the barrier that women
faced in the design world. (Another woman of
that time, costume designer and historian Millia
Davenport said that the union would not take in
women because they met at a place with only one
bathroom, and all the old men had prostate problems.) Bernstein was eighteen years older than
Wolfe, and their affair lasted five years. After that,
Wolfe wrote a fictional autobiography, Of Time and
the River, that included a portrait of Bernstein.
I may have been asked to review this book
because I knew many of the designers, worked
with or for some, and in one case was a class-

mate of another. In many ways, they lived in a
golden age, when the number of designers was
small and New York was the only place to be.
Again, as a matter of influence, they saw each
other's work. Professional theatre is now spread
out across the country, but when we do see another's work, we may copy a good idea or avoid
a bad one. They too must have done the same.
We all learn from others.
The profile of Peggy Clark by Ben Coolik
is a good example for students who don't know
that in the past, gaining union membership,
unlike today's single category membership,
required exams in all areas of theatre. Clark's
costume and set sketches are happily included
as well a light plot from 1946. That light plot
should also be noted for the number of lighting
instruments on it. Today, lots of college productions have as many lights, and Broadway shows
have multiples of that number. Of course, Clark's
lights were controlled by men moving levers on

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piano box resistance dimmers. Also, compare
Arden Fingerhut's 1987 light plot to Abe Feder's
plot of 1937 or Richard Nelson's of 1984. Fifty
years has made a big difference.
The illustrations in this book are wonderful
examples of the designers' work. Students should
be aware that the set designs represented are all
renderings. Models had not yet become the method of designing scenery. I have long thought that
the competition of television and film have forced
designers to do what live theatre does best: present people and scenery in real time and three
dimensions. Painted drops and trompe l'oeil
moldings have given way to both three-dimensional scenery and three-dimensional designing.

Profiles and memories
Just a few comments about the profiles and my
memories of some of these designers. I worked
for Abe Feder on a ballet conceived by Salvador
Dali. Dali was a character, but Feder was also

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2010