Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1986 - 19

Editor: T. Mikotowicz

offices. This is an area often ignored in
lighting and interior design books. In addition, in virtually all sections of the book,
examples and fine illustrations clearly amplify the wrillen text. Sample costs of electricity usage are incorporated for most of
the lighting solutions posed.
The book is, however, inadequate for
use as a complete lighting guide. In some
instances, there are ambiguities, such as the
section on low-voltage lighting, which contains some statements which will be confusing 10 readers who are not conversant
with the subject. On other occasions, the
scarcity of concrete information is the deficiency. In one chapter, for example,
Grosslight makes a valuable point aboUl the
availability of differing quality lighting fixtures. Unfortunately, she does nOl give any
suggestions for determining which fixtures
are beller than others, other than mentioning that most manufacturers build quality
and economy lines of products. Also, many
sections of the book are simplistic, an admirable quality in a volume intended for the
novice, but a shortcoming in a book 10 be
used by professionals.
A a basic architectural lighting text and
a source of ideas and approaches, however,
the book can be recommended. It contains
a vast amount of valuable information concerning lighting fixtures, placement, and
definitions of equipment. The book runs
the risk of turning out a large quantity of
lighting "designers" who know enough 10
be dangerous. As a general guide, however,
it is a welcome addition 10 lighting de ign
literature. It should not be considered
authoritative, nor should it be considered a
replacement for a trained qualified lighting
professional.
0
Brigit Beier
Lawrence Kellerman Associates
ew York City

Theatre and Playhouse: An Illustrated Survey of Theatre Building
from Ancient Greece to the Present
Day by Richard and Helen Leacroft. London and ew York: Methuen, 1984. ISB
0-000000-00-0,246 pp., ill., $13.95 paper,
539.95 cloth.
Richard and Helen Leacroft have written a book which atlempts both 10 gather
their combined and extensive knowledge of
theatre architecture, and to see pallerns in
that knowledge. Within the limits of a 246

page survey they have succeeded admirably.
They begin with the premise that, first and
foremost, the structure of a performance
space is dependent upon the relation between actor and audience. In the course of
2500 year, this nOl-so-simple relationship
manifest itself architecturally in many
ways, bOlh subtle and profound. The placing of the orchestra in front of the stage
during the 18th Century, for example, was
as much to control the unruly pit and provide ventilation for machinists under the
stage, as for any acoustical or dramatic consideration. The disappearance of the proscenium stage, and the movement of less expensive seating from the pit to the gods,
both influential in the development of
drama, were nevertheless in large part matters of economics. The separation of the
aClOr from the audience for so much of the
twentieth century can be altributed in part
10 contemporary fire laws, and the inability
of technology to deal with fire hazards except by this separation. As technology advanced, so once again did the performers.
The Leacrofts also find hislOrical parallels which serve 10 give order and focus to
the text. They find that, in general, performers adapt themselves to existing spaces
10 such an extent that, when they later have
the opportunity 10 design a new space, they
tend to retain many characteristics of the
old. Thus early Roman theatres, even
though built on level ground, resemble
Greek theatres that had been built on hillsides. Similarly, early French theatres look
like tennis courts, and early English theatres
like baiting rings. Most interesting of these
hislOrical parallels is the apparent tendency,
over time, for each society to move away
from an arena or thrust performance space,
where the audience surrounds the performer,
toward a more directional performance
space, where the spectators and the performers, as two distinct groups, face each
other. The Leacrofts point out that sight line
problems that existed in the thrust stage at
Stratford, Ontario in the 1950s, parallel
problems at Epidaurus in Greece and at the
Swan in Elizabethan England. In all three
cases, these problems were resolved in later
designs that truncated the open stage and
eliminated some side seating, moving toward a directional, separated performance
space.
There have been other surveys of theatre architect ure, covering the same ground.
What recommends this new book is that uplO-date information and theory have been
brought together from many sources. It

does, however, also suffer from the problems of most surveys. In the interests of
space, technical terminology is used in the
text that can leave the uninitiated confused,
and many of the photographs are very small,
less informative for being so. Such are the
pitfalls of this kind of book. What more
than compensates for these problems is the
informed opinion of a trained architect and
architectural historian, manifested in Mr.
Leacroft's cut-open isometric drawings,
used to such good effect previously in his

Development oj the English Playhouse.
These, and photographs of models built to
scale from such drawings, are the mainstay
of this book, its true organizing feature, and
an important contribution 10 the history of
the theatre. Wisely, the publishers have not
stinted in the number or size of these drawings. Cumulatively, they illustrate in detail
what the Leacrofts contend, that "theatres
are living organisms being altered and
adapted throughout their existence to conform with changing and developing ideas
and patterns."
0
Steven Burge Johnson
ew York City

Scene Painting: Tools and Techniques by Daniel Veaner. Englewood
Cliffs,
.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1984.
ISB
0-13-791658-2, hardback, ISB
0-13-791641-8, paper, viii+200 pp., ill.,
$22.95, cloth, $14.95, paper.
Published by Prentice - Hall as part of
a recent technical theatre series which includes books on scene design, scene technology, and stage props, Scene Painring:
Tools and Techniques by Daniel Veaner is
the only book devoted exclusively to the
craft of scene painting 10 emerge in several
decades. Veaner is a graduate of Brandeis
University where he studied under Bob
Moody, one of the better- known modern
scenic painters; and he brings that knowledge and experience to the creation of this
book.
Veaner has provided a comprehensive
examination of the craft, beginning with a
brief hislOrical survey of scene painting,
continuing through 100is and materials, into
the various painting techniques, and finishing with a look at the painting of properties
and furniture. He has also provided a useful glossary of scene painting terms.
Almost half of the book is devoted 10
continued on page 43 ...

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