Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1979 - 38

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these elements produced a very cloudy picture indeed. But fortunately, there has been a period of enlightenment regarding Craig
which has come about partly through an exceptionally fine biography
by one of his sons and partly because, sooner or later, the truth will
out.
Edward Gordon Craig is best known as a designer. And while it is
true that he was fully capable of expressing himself with vivid originality in graphic form, Craig certainly never considered himself a
scenic artist. In his book on his father, Edward A. Craig proves
beyond a shadow of a doubt that Craig used his "designs" for much
the same ends that he used the printed word: as a means of fulfilling
his mission of revitalizing the substance of the theatre while at the
same time, revising and improving the whole of its theoretical and
practical framework. The younger Craig also cleared the air on the
subject of his father's working knowledge of theatrical production.
There would be little doubt from now on that Edward Gordon Craig
had been an experienced and highly competent actor, scenographer
and director. He was also, as it turns out, something of a revolutionary in the field of dance.
Contrary to popular opinion, however, the beginning of Craig's
interest in stage movement was not his close association with Isadora
Duncan between 1904 and 1908. This period was more an affi rmation
and extension of what he had previously discovered experimentally.
To Craig, Isadora was the personification and finest example of the
power and beauty of stage movement. From 1901 until his death in
1966, Craig viewed movement as the primary of the three pillars
(Action, Scene, and Voice) of his new concept of the theatre. To
Craig, a theatre production which did not embrace and explore the
interpretive powers of movement in all its aspects was simply unthinkable.
It is not surprising that Craig should have committed his strongly
felt convictions on the subject of movement to paper. It is also
appropriate that Arnold Rood (who has himself been in the forefront
of the Craig renaissance in America) should have collected Craig's
essays on dance and movement under one cover. Following a ten
page introduction in which Rood sets these Craig Works into context,
there are sixty pieces, the best of which range from the near mystical
"Motion" to the prophetic "Artists of the Theatre of the Future" to the
vivid "Memories of Isadora Duncan." Most of the essays selected by
Professor Rood for this handsome volume are taken from Craig's
journal The Mask and Rood has taken care to insure that the clarity
and style of Craig's layout has been carried over to this book.
Gordon Craig on Movement and Dance is a book with which
contemporary students of the theatre would do well to acquaint
themselves. For one thing, it is unquestionably a sourcebook on total
theatre. For another, it provides yet a further opportunity for contact
with the seminal period of the modern stage. Here the reader will
discover not only the beginnings of a new attitude to the theatre but
he will also see one of its foremost proponents carrying the banner of
Isadora and other modernists into pitched battle with their archenemies of the classical Ballet Russe. Quite typically, Gordon Craig
on Movement and Dance is a work which combines visionary insight
with fighting spirit.
Brian Arnott
Toronto

Books Received
The Children at Theatre Street by Patricia Barnes. New York: Penguin Books, 1978. $7.95.
Eldon Elder: Designs tor the Theatre. New York: Drama Book Specialists (pu blishers), 1978. $3.95.
Functional Design Criteria tor Theatre Sound Effects Systems by
Kenneth R. Fause. Los Angeles: Fause and Associates, 1978.
Dance: The Rituals of Experience by Jamake Highwater. New York: A
& W Publishers, Inc., 1978. $15.95.
Free, Adult, Uncensored-The Living History of the Federal Theatre
Project edited by John O'Connor and Lorraine Brown. Washington,
D.C.: New Republic Books, 1978. $11.95 paper.
The Theatre of Donald Oenslager by Donald M. Oenslager. Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 1978. $30.00.
Theatre Lighting Before Electricity by Frederick Penze!. Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 1978. $16.00.
Theatre and Cinema Architecture by Richard Stoddard. Detroit: Gale
Research Company, 1978.

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