Theatre Design & Technology - Feb 1973 - 36

boom" of the 50's and 60's. Hardly to be classified as light
reading, it nonetheless is essential reading for any theatre
administrator who wants to understand the nature of
the financial quagmire engulfing the American theatre,
whether it is professional or amateur. The book itself
deals only with the professional performing arts, but the
problems analyzed are inherent in all categories of the
performing arts. In relation to a theatre adm inistration
course, the book is essential for instructor preparation
and shou Id be recommended reading for all serious
students of the subject.
Jack Poggi's Theatre in America covers much of the
same territory as does Performing Arts: ... but with a
more concentrated view. The first third of the book
analyzes the development of the centralized commercial
theatre in New York. In the course of the discussion,
Poggi proves that the decl ine of the theatre antedates the
1929 crash by several years and that many specific causes
of the decline have their roots in one basic problem, the
rising unwillingness of the theatre going public to accept
anything but "the very best". The second section, approximately one-half of the whole book, covers the attempts to
decentralize the theatre, which occurred concurrently with
the trend toward centralization. It is for the most part a
dreary story replete with good intentions and abject
failures. The author does indicate that the current rise of
the resident theatres may offer some hope for the future.
The last portion of the book is devoted to analyzing the
present state of the commercial theatre, about which Poggi
is anything but optimistic. Theatre in America is essential
reading for anyone who wants to understand the present
day professional theatre, particularly its financial aspects.
One of the major trends of the modern theatre is
toward decentralization. The Federal Theatre Project in
the 1930's tried to graft such a system onto the existing
theatre but the plan died at the hands of an unsympathetic
Congress. ANT A and others pushed for a decentral ized
theatre in the immediate post-war period, but it wasn't
until the 1950's that an ad hoc decentralized professional
theatre began to develop around the nation. Julius
Novick's Beyond Broadway: The Quest for Permanent
Theatres is an attempt to investigate and explain how this
happened. Unfortunately, it is a very superficial attempt
that seldom rises above a simple catalog of the resident
theatres. Averaging two or three pages per group, it can
hardly hope to be much else. Still, it is useful as a rapid
survey of the development and spread of the resident
theatre movement. Much of the specific information on
various theatre groups is already out-of-date but that is not
the book's fault, but rather the fault of the rapidly shifting sands of the resident theatre movement.

Music Theatre In a Changing Society is the product of
discussions held at a Round Table organized in Salzburg
in August 1965 and sponsored by UN ESCO, the International Music Council and the International Music Centre.

In the context of this book, "music theatre" usually can
be translated as opera, both traditional forms and newer
forms for television. It also spills over into ballet and
televised concerts. As such, the book is very limited in
application to the tasks stipulated earlier in this review.
It is useful to know, however, how the Europeans view
the development of opera into a more popu lar form of
theatre_ If one accepts the basic tenet that a theatre
administrator must know not only what "sells" in his own
community but what is selling elsewhere so that he can
anticipate new trends, then this book has some value.
What is true for the administrator is also true for the
student of administration. However, at $3.00, the price
wou Id appear to be out of proportion to the value.

The Administrative Process by Robert H. Roy is a
completely different type of book; where the previous
books were written about the theatre for theatre people,
or about the perform ing arts for persons associated and
interested in them, this book is written by a professional
engineer for administrators and students of administration.
It is this fact, however, that makes this book so valuable
to the theatre administrator. If one accepts the premise
that one of the most important aspects of management,
no matter what industry or organization, is the management and direction of people, then this book is a valuable
tool in learning the process. As of 1965, Roy was Dean of
Engineering at The John Hopkins University, and in addition, had been Vice President for Engineering for the
Waverly Press, and a labor arbitrator. The author brings
to his subject a wide background in administration plus
a keen wit and a well-developed ability to write clearly
and concisely. A brief listing of some chapter titles will
indicate the scope of the book: On Organization, On the
Delegation of Authority, On Staff Organization, On the
Deification of Numbers, On Forecasting, On Planning, On
the Resolution of Conflict, On Morale, On Communication, On Criteria for Decisions. The book is not about
theatre administration, but everything that Roy writes
about pertains to it. The reader will have to make
the specific application, but in using this book as a partial
course text for the last three years, I have found that
this aspect is entirely a plus, rather than a minus. It is too
easy to get bogged down in Box Office operation, promotion and publicity, ticket format, and such other specific
theatrical problems; it is too easy to forget that the theatre
administrator deals with and through people, just like all
other administrators. This book serves as an admirable
antidote to that problem and as an excellent introduction to the art of administration. I recommend The
Administrative Process without reservation. It should be
required reading for every course in theatre management
and administration and should be in the personal library
of every theatre adm inistrator.
Charles Williams
Carnegie-Mellon University

THEATRE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

FEBRUARY. 1973

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