Theatre Design & Technology - Dec 1972 - 38

the growth of important acting schools and techniques.
Indeed, the introduction, which comprises almost a fourth
of the entire book, is one of its most valid sections.
The volume consists of notes and marginal entries
made by Tairov during his first six years as a Director at
the Kamerny Theatre, 1914-1920. He was concerned with
problems which still face directors and producers:
methods of working with actors, varieties of interpretation, techniques of handling scripts and adopting specific
points of departure, and functional uses of technical staging.
His ideas of "theatre of synthesis" are presented in a
day-to-day journal; his ideas of theatre "experimentation"
are revealed with considerable personal involvement. The
man suffered in h is work and needed outlets for personal
expression. Although he offers an apology for not being a
professional writer, he communicates his intentions (and,
often, his doubts) with simplicity.
Highlights of his journal entries include: his driving desire to establish an individual approach to his work; the
procedures he evolved for visualizing theatrical effects; his
concern with theatre literature; and, in particular, his respect for the training of actors.
While many of his remarks are quite personal - indicating certain faults of pride and over-compensation when
things do not work out as smoothly as visualized - many
of his statements remind one of Jean-Louis Barrault's Reflections on the Theatre. Tairov was a working theatre
man, actively engaged in trying to achieve different results. His efforts toward "stylization" and the training of
actors are still worthwhile, fifty years later.
Davis Sikes
Jacksonville University

to Use Creative Perspective.
"How to violate perspective (profitably) is fully as
important for a practicing artist as are the rules of
perspective. Effective perspective more often than
not is to be had in violation of photographic reality
and the so called 'rules' of mechanical procedure."
Mr. Watson has produced an outstanding volume not
only for working designers but for beginning students as
well. In a step by step procedure he outlines the materials,
processes, and theories of true perspective. From that
stepping stone he advances into the problems of multi-perspective, shadows, and foreshortening and convergence to
name a few.
Throughout this volume extensive illustrations by
noted illustrators provide easy reference. Great insight was
used in selecting illustrations by such artists as Albert
Dorne, Frank Reilley, John Atherton, and Robert
Fawcett. These are broken down into simple diagrams
illustrating their perspective techniques.
The accompanying text is descriptive and informative,
embodying not only solutions to the represented problems but anticipating problems to be encountered by the
reader in actual application.
The problem of perspective distortion so often a trial
and error procedure is discussed at length with solutions
to individual anticipated problems outlined. Watson's
analysis of universal perspective as seen in the work of
Cezanne and Gaydos are valuable for the artist as well as
the draftsman.

How to Use Creative Perspective should belong to
every designer, scene painter, or draftsman. It will provide
a ready source for perspective problems and be a valuable
tool to any student of art or scenic design.

HOW TO USE CREATIVE PERSPECTIVE
By Ernest W. Watson.
Reinhold Book Corporation, New York. 1968. 160 pp.
Creative perspective? This seems to be antithetical to
all one learns of perspective principles yet Mr. Watson's

case for violating scientific perspective is proven in How

Bruce Greenwood
Marshall University

THEATRE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

DECEMBER. 1972

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