Theatre Design & Technology - Dec 1974 - 31

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DESIGN FOR THE STAGE: FIRST STEPS
Darwin Reid Payne
Carbondale Southen Illinois University
Press, 1974
xx + 265 pp., iIIus.
$15.00 Cloth ISBN 0-8093-0654-9
$7.95 Paper ISBN 0-8093-0669-7
There has long been a need for a book concentrating on the creative dimensions of scene design.
Numerous books on the craft of scene design have
been published, but few of these begin to explore the
creative, conceptual process of the designer. Publications on this subject have largely been confined to
short articles appearing in either periodicals or
anthologies. At last there is a book devoted entirely
to design theory. Darwin Reid Payne's Design for the
Stage: First Steps is an extremely articulate, thoraug h, and well-organ ized text on the art of scen ic
design. The book represents the sum total of Payne's
seventeen years experience as designer in both the
professional and educational theatre. This book
intends to provide the theatre student with a wellillustrated method of how one designer approaches
the art of scene desig n.
Payne emphasizes that the designer is an educated person, who possesses not only a thorough
knowledge of stagecraft, theatrical production techniques and materials, and drafting skills, but also a
basic knowledge of theatre history, art history,
periods and styles of architecture, painting and
sculpture and a familiarity with pictorial and threedimensional design. Payne defines the most significant function of the scene designer as the ability to
creatively combine this knowledge with the manipulation of the stage space and its relationship to the
human actor.
The book is divided into three parts and organized
in a logical and highly readable fashion. In part 1,
The Scene Designer, Payne examines the function of
the designer in relation to the production of the play,
describing the designer as a "community artist,"
whose success depends on his service to the other
members of the production unit. The specific problems of space on the stage are examined through an
evaluation of the use of space in the open stage,
proscenium theatre, and newer stage forms. The
specific areas of the designer's influence are carefully considered.
Part 2, Creative Research, explores the types of
research employed by the designer. This section is
very much influenced by the writings of Robert
Edmond Jones and stresses the search for a creative

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THEATRE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

answer to a scenic problem rather than an expedient
solution. Payne demonstrates how the designer
makes artistic and technical judgments through
external, internal and historical research.
Part 3, From Text to Design, provides examples of
Payne's solutions to the specific design problems
posed by A Streetcar Named Desire, Juno and the
Paycock, Madame Butterfly, Romeo and Juliet,
Faust, The Glass Menagerie, and The Caretaker.
Design for the Stage contains no formal bibliography
but does include selected lists of books at the end of
two of the sections. Suggested readings include
works by Appia, Craig, Jones, Mielziner, Pilbrow,
Simonson, Nicoll, Gorelik, and Southern which might
well form the core of a young designer's personal
library.
Design for the Stage is a valuable addition to the
existing body of literature on scene design. The book
is highly recommended for all serious theatre
students. In addition, Payne's efforts hopefully will
encourage other designers to record their methods of
approaching the design problem.

William E. Deahl, Jr.
Eastern Montana College

BASIC PATTERN DRAFTING FOR THE
THEATRICAL COSTUME DESIGNER
William Harlan Shaw
New York: Drama Book Specialists!
Publishers, 1974
40 pp., construction diagrams
$5.95, ISBN 0-910482-49-7
Basic Pattern Drafting for the Theatrical Costume
Designer by William Harlan Shaw, is a handbook for
drafting the very basic unit of the costume pattern,
the "sloper." Essentially, the book is a series of
instructions from which the actor's measurements
can be converted to a sloper, the template from
which the finished pattern will be made. The book
shows in detail what equipment is required, how to
take the measurements, how to draft the slopers and
how to convert the slopers to patterns. Although the
author reassures his readers that the basic patterns
which result from following his instructions will
prove to be suitable and adaptable to the many
variations of historical costumes, one cannot help
feeling that the book itself only skims the surface of
pattern making. It is, after all, these variations which
distinguish the imagination of the costume designer
as well as nuance in the historical period. In order to
fulfill the need for nuance and variety in the ultimate
drafting of the pattern, Shaw directs the reader to a

DECEMBER. 1974

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Dec 1974