Theatre Design & Technology - Feb 1974 - 33

BOOK REVIEWS-------shifting, with a final added section on properties for the
stage. As with most of these books this is a lot of subject
matter to cover in two or three hundred pages and many
if not all these areas could be extended into separate
volumes individually.

ESSENTIALS OF STAGE SCENERY
by Samuel Selden and Tom Rezzuto
Published by Appleton-Century-Crofts
Educational Division of
Meredith Corporation, New York, 1972
$10.95
Essentials of Stage Scenery fills a unique bill because it
really does not classify as a strict revision of Selden's
earlier book written in collaboration with Hunton D.
Sellman, Stage Scenery and Lighting. At the urging of the
publishers Selden and Sellman split the former scenery
and lighting section of their book and were asked to
develop two separate publications-one dealing with
scenery to be developed by Seldon and the other dealing
with lighting to be developed by Sellman. The previous
collaboration of these two men brought out their
successful Stage Scenery and Lighting, first published in
1930, with revised editions in 1939, 1946, and finally a
1959 revision which precedes this current separation of
subject material. In the comments in the preface to the
Essentials of Stage Scenery Seldon reflects on the
collaboration with Sellman and leads one to believe that a
book will soon be published as a lighting companion to
this one. (See Book Reviews, TD& T Dec. '73).
I n authorizing this new book on scenery Selden enlisted
the collaboration of Tom Rezzuto with whom Seldon
credits much of the revision, including new illustrations,
and a chapter on the preparation and construction of
stage properties.
There are at present no less than ten widely known and
used volumes currently on the market, not to mention at
least an equal number of less widely known volumes.
These range from works such as Burris-Meyer and Cole's
Scenery for the Theatre, which attempts to provide a
competent text and guide for the serious stage theatre
technologist, through Parker and Smith's Stage Design and
Stage Lighting which is aimed at the technical
fundamentals, to those books which include several
chapters on basic understanding of technology scattered
through a volume on "play production" A good example
of these latter books is Hennin Nelms' Play Production,
wh ich also introduces the reader to movement, speech,
character creation, casting, etc. as well as scenery,
properties, costumes, lighting, and make-up. The new
volume by Seldon and Rezzuto seems to fall in the middle
range of these books, aiming itself, as the title implies,
toward the essentials.

Essentials of Stage Scenery is divided into ten main area
headings taking the reader from the function of scenery in
the production through types of performance spaces, the
planning of a setting, its construction, painting, and

~

THEATRE bESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

Seldon and Rezzuto, working from a rather complete
out Iine, have provided a basic glance at the basic aspects
of scenery for the theatre primarily devoting their time to
traditional scenic practices built on the basis of design
being "flats and platforms". Herein lies the greatest fault
this reviewer can find with the book within its stated
purpose. There has been no real attempt to open the flood
gates of new materials and scenic approaches which have
become the foundation for many modern designs. Whole
areas such as steel and metal working and plastics in
foams, vacuformed sheets, and solid fabricating fails to be
introduced to the student of technology.
In addition to ignoring new materials the book in no
way attempts to make the student question why a certain
technique is used. This makes the job for the advanced
teacher of design more difficult, as whole qu~stions of not
only aesthetic but practical material selection is not
introduced. Such questions as when a surface may be a
hard finish for a wall because of acoustical needs
exempl ifies such considerations.
As a summary of the work, it remains a good solid text
for beginning students of theatre technology and many of
its faults can easily be corrected by the teacher using the
book as a text. However, to be truly usefu I both a reader
and an instructor should realize that it is "a method"-a
method of building a rock, a method of mixing paints and
that other methods, approaches, and concepts must be
presented by other means.
Van Phillips
University of South Florida

THE THEATRE AND DRAMA OF GREECE
AND ROME
by James H. Butler
Chandler Publications in History of Theatre
Dunbar H. Ogden and Alois M. Nagler, Editors
Chandler PublishinQ Company, 1972
LCC #74-164495, ISBN 0-8102-0439-B
To dismiss James Butler's work as a simp Ie outline
discussion of Greek and Roman theatre would be to do
the book a disservice. In compact and concise form, the
work covers the essential elements of the early physical
developments of theatres and production, folkloric
antecedants, and the relationsh ip of theatre to the social
and cultural life and literature of these peoples. Unlike
many books which encompass areas of study that have
been dealt with in much more detail elsewhere, Butler

FEBRUARY. 1974

33
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Feb 1974
