Theatre Design & Technology - Oct 1973 - 36

BOOK REVIEWS

THERMOPLASTIC SCENERY FOR THEATRE:
VOL. I - VACUUM FORMING
by Nicholas L. Bryson
New York, Drama Book Specialists, 1972.

$7.95
There is an array of books dealing with plastics
techniques and theory intended for the industrial engineer, the sculptor, or the amateur hobbyist. While they
sometimes provide information and instructions valuable
to the theatre technician, many of these volumes tend to
be concerned with mass production engineering, or in the
case of art books, they provide many beautifu I pictures of
completed projects and few details about the working of
the plastics materials. Thermoplastic Scenery for Theatre
by Nicholas Bryson avoids these pitfalls. Drawing from
his work at the University of Wisconsin he has put together a book describing small volume production with a
shop-constructed vacuum forming machine and instructions on how to use vacuum formed products in stage sets.
This first volume is concerned primarily with this one
process for working with polystyrene, low density polyethylene and cellulose acetate in sheet form.
The author's point of view is that with rapidly increasing costs of standard scenic forms, plastics should be
adopted by amateur and professional alike. He maintains
that the thermoforming process he uses is nearly as cheap
as lumber for construction of some articles and much
cheaper in other instances. It is as easy to work given
proper instruction and standard forms, and he establ ishes
clearly that lack of money and time is no reason for the
scenic technician not to try this method of fabricating
scenery and properties. His vacuuming forming machine
can be built for under $200.
This volume should be highly usable. It is spiral bound
making it easy to take into the shop and refer to during
fabrication; the photographs and drawings are clearly
printed and include the product at various stages of
construction as well as finished products and some production photos. Step by step instructions for construction of the forming table and for its use are clearer and
easier to follow than anything I've found in other volumes
on plastics. Only very rarely does the author use a
technical term not in common use without describing it,
e,g, transite board. Although the techniques found in this
book will not completely replace carpentry they are
certainly going to be increasingly necessary for the well
prepared scenographer. Neither a bibliography nor an
index are included in this volume and perhaps they are not
necessary here. But both will be desirable as further volumes are published.

plastics and makes a case for using plastics as an economical alternative to lumber. The second chapter lists and
describes the kinds of tools and equipment needed for
vacuum forming and working on vacuum formed plastics.
Almost a third of the book is devoted to fabrication
processes with standard shop tools and the vacuum
forming machine described by the author. He describes
how to form from sheets a variety of articles for scenery,
properties, masks and even advertising. I ncluded are
sections on gluing plastics to plastics and to non-plastic
substances, and painting the variety of plastics used in
vacuum forming, and designs of molds.
The final third of the book contains construction
drawings and wiring diagrams for construction of the
author-designed vacuum forming machine. This machine
forms 40" x 36" sheets and is easily adaptable to forming
20" x 18" sheets with a smaller table set on top. For
those who have had some work with plastics this is perhaps the most valuable section.
Thermoplastic Scenery for Theatre fills a "hole" in
technical theatre literature. Simple descriptions of plastic
and metal working adapted specifically to stage work will
be a great help to the countless technicians who haven't
the time or money to experiment and must rely on the
research of others for new products. Nicholas Bryson's
book should find its way into most technical director's
libraries.
Thomas Van Brunt
Indiana University

CONTRIBUTORS

Der Scutt, AlA, is a member of the firm of Kahn &
Jacobs, Architects. He was Project Designer for the
Mi nskoff Theatre.
David L. Klepper is an Acoustical Engineer and Consultant.
Tony Courtade is on the Theatre Faculty, State University College, Cortland, N. Y.
Margaret Ezekiel is an Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts,
Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio.

Volume One is in four parts. The first discusses basic
terminology and the physical and chemical properties of

THEATRE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

OCTOBER. 1973

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