Edward Gordon Craig: A Vision of Theatre (Contemporary Theatre Studies)

Edward Gordon Craig's ideas regarding set and lighting have had an enormous impact on the development of the theatre we know today. In this new and updated edition of his well-known study of Edward Gordon Craig, Professor Christopher Innes shows how Craig's stage work and theoretical writings were crucial to the development of modern theatre. This book contains extensive documentation and re-evaluates his significance as an artist, actor, director and writer. Craig is placed in historical context, and his productions are reconstituted from unpublished prompt-books, sketches, journals and correspondence. Most of the designs and photographs, and many of Craig's writings cited, are not available elsewhere in print. Readers will gain insight into a key period of theatrical history, the life of one of its most fascinating individuals, the nature of stage performance, and into revolutionary ideas that are still challenging today. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Introduction to the Series List of Illustrations Acknowledgments 1. Prologue: The argument 2. Scene changes: Victorian theater, an acting career, and points of departure 3. A rising action: Design and movement 4. Problem drama: Texts and performers 5. A play of ideas: Principles, theory, and an Übermarionette 6. Toward a new theater: Masques, screens, and a Hamlet 7. The theater of the future: Scene, puppets, and a religious festival 8. Final bow: A school and the printed word 9. Curtain call: Craig's vision and contemporary theater 10. Programme notes: Craig on theater Prologue – Craig and Nineteenth Century Melodrama Irving at the Lyceum (1930) from Henry Irving Scene Changes – Tradition and Craig's Vision Foreword II (1919) from Towards A New Theater "The Actor" (1930) from Henry Irving A Rising Action – Craig on Design "The Steps I" (1919) from Towards A New Theater "Venice Preserved" (1919) from Towards A New Theater "On Scene and Movement" (1907) from On the Art of the Theater Problem Drama – The Director and the Art of the Theater The First Dialogue (1905) from On the Art of the Theater A Play of Ideas – Calling for New Symbolism "A Note on Masks" (1909) from The Theater Advancing "From Representation to Revelation" (1907) from On the Art of the Theater Towards a New Theater – Craig on his Screens "A thousand Scenes in One Scene" (1923) from Scene The Theater of the Future – Craig and the Performer "The Actor and the Übermarionette" (1907) from On the Art of the Theater "Gentlemen, the Marionette!" (1908–1920) from The Theater Advancing Final Bow – In Retrospect A Play for Marionettes from The Scene (1914), unpublished script – HRC Curtain Call – Looking Forward to the Future Foreword I (1919) from Towards A New Theatre Edward Gordon Craig, 1872–1966: A theatrical chronology Notes Select Bibliography Index "In this new and updated edition of his well-known study of Edward Gordon Craig, Professor Christopher Innes shows how Craig's stage work and theoretical writings were crucial to the development of modern theatre. This book contains extensive documentation and re-evaluates his significance as an artist, actor, director and writer. Craig is placed in historical context and his productions are reconstituted from unpublished prompt-books, sketches, journals and correspondence. Most of the designs and photographs, and many of Craig's writings cited, are not available elsewhere in print. Readers will gain insight into a key period of theatrical history, the life of one of its most fascinating individuals, the nature of stage performance, and into revolutionary ideas that are still challenging today."--BOOK JACKET In this new and updated edition of his well-known study, readers will gain insight into a key period of theatrical history and the life of one of its most fascinating individuals.