Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1977 - 37

groups working with socially conscious material, the recognition
of the Group Theatre as an artistic company, the organization of
the Theatre Union as the first professional revolutionary theatre,
and finally the creation of a government-sponsored Federal Theatre. He describes the frenzied activity of small troupes carrying
their costumes and sets by subway to working class audiences.
He recalls the excitement backstage, onstage, and in the auditorium on the opening night of Waiting for Lefty. Throughout his
narrative he conveys the sense of high purpose that imbued the
young dedicated workers in the theatre.
The author lays no claim to scholarship in his work. His contribution is that of a witness. He was there; he remembers how it
felt to be part of the movement that pushed the theatre beyond
entertainment; he is able to recreate the scene, the characters,
and the action.
To better understand the theatre of today, the reader would
do well to compare it to the theatre of the thirties as recorded by
Jay Williams in Stage Left,
Barbara M. Mendoza
St. John's University

A HANDBOOK OF COSTUME
by Janet Arnold
New York: S.G. Phillips, 1973
ISBN 333-12481-2
336 pp., iIIus., $20.00
Janet Arnold's latest book, A Handbook of Costume is an
excellent and authoritative guide to primary sources for the study
of costume. However, to say that this handbook is just a well
annotated and illustrated bibliography is to fall far short of
describing its ultimate value. Ms. Arnold has a fine sense of visual
presentation and her book is characterized by generous visuals well chosen, well placed, and well documented. In her previous
two-volume work, Patterns of Fashion, Ms. Arnold's meticulous
research and gifte'd sense of presentation elevated what were
essentially technical books to the realm of collector's items.
A Handbook of Costume, again due to Ms. Arnold's indefatigable research and spirited visual sense, commends itself to the
costumer and costume historian not just as a guide to primary
sources but as a "primary" source in itself.
The list of primary sources which categorize the main visual
and documentary source material in A Handbook of Costume
is impressively exhaustive: paintings, sculpture, embroidery, wall
paintings, frescoes, stained glass, monumental brasses, tapestries,
illuminated manuscripts, woodcuts, ceramic figures, fashion plates,
miniature dolls, photographs, not to mention archive material
(inventories, wills, household accounts, royal wardrobe accounts,
books, indentures, sumptuary laws) and literary sources (printed
'diaries,letters, memoirs, autobiographies, poems and plays).
Janet Arnold's scrupulous enthusiasm transforms what, in the
hands of other costume writers, might be nothing more than a
boring chronicle, into a fascinating narrative. For example, in the
chapter on the use of monumental brasses for costume reference,
she shows how technical deterioration in the engraving can cause
visual misreading. As more brasses were made, the pictorial standard began to decline; the introduction of shading to give a threedimensional effect in the sixteenth century can be misleading as
it sometimes looks like fur.
Moreover, Ms Arnold's conversant use of all the sources that
she lists inspires an authoritative trust in all her observations and
in her cautious advice about building an accurate biographical
picture of a costume. In fact, Ms. Arnold's methods are so punctilious, that one might mildly chide her for "undressing" the authenticity of a costume; it is as though every costume must be ex-'
amined far beyond the accuracy of its material fact and conceived
as existing in the plane of some historic platonic ideal.
The second part of this well-designed book deals with the more
technical aspects of costume such as dating costume from construction techniques, costume conservation, storage and display,
patterns on technical works and tailoring and a costume bibliography.
A Handbook of Costume is the kind of reference book which
could easily be considered a classic: it deals with its subject with

I USITT I

authoritative ease, provides a wealth of useful technical information, and it is both beautiful to look at and pleasurable to read.
Syvalya Eichen

Toronto

ON STAGE: A HISTORY OF THEATRE,2nd Edition
by Vera Mowry Roberts
New York: Harper & Row, 1974
ISBN 0-06-045499-7
xii + 545 pp., illus.,$14.95
Vera Roberts' On Stage, first published in 1962, has been
somewhat eclipsed in recent years by the appearance of newer
historical surveys, especially Oscar Brockett's formidable History
of the Theatre (2nd ed.; Boston, 1974). Roberts has responded
with a thoroughly-revised 1974 edition of her work, and the
result is a significantly improved book.
On Stage remains a straightforward survey of theatrical history
from primitive times to the present, primarily concerned with
Western stage traditions but with a separate chapter devoted to
the Oriental theatre. The text's organization and much of its
content are carried over from the first edition to the new one,
but the book has been entirely reset in a larger, double-i:olumn
format. Nearly every page displays substantial rewriting and more
illustrations complement the revised discussion. The textual
alterations usefully update and amplify the treatment of subjects
throughout the book, and certain incautious statements in the
1962 version have been corrected. As one example, Roberts
previously introduced Plautus and Terence as the "only two
writers of Roman comedy . . . worth noting" (p. 61); the same
playwrights are now presented as "the only writers of Roman
comedy from whom complete plays exist" (p. 58).
Despite these extensive improvements, On Stage retains some
weaknesses as a college textbook or reference work. Roberts often
fails to maintain a clear distinction among matters of fact, accepted scholarly theory and her own opinions. Her penchant
for sweeping statement remains, sometimes with unfortunate
results. The chapter on Renaissance theatre, for inst?nce, flatly
describes humanist drama as "completely secular and nondidactic" and then, in the following paragraph, quotes explicit statements by both Minturno and Scaliger that comedy should teach as
well as please (p. 101). Again, Roberts' discussion of the Greek
skene wanders so confusingly between the Theatre of Dionysus
and Greek playhouses in general that a description of the scene
building as "over one hundred feet long, with wings projecting
about fifteen feet to either side" (p. 42) seems to apply to all
theatres. While the author's generalizing seldom causes such
obvious problems, bold statements are made frequently without
supporting evidence, and the book provides neither footnotes
nor a comprehensive bibliography to repair the text's lack of
documentation.
The reference matter following the text also falls short of
expectations for college use. The index is skimpy and erratic in
its coverage. A brief "Glossary of Terms" contains too many
superficial definitions of the obvious: among the "B" entries
are "Backstage," "Balcony," "Ballet," "Box set" and other
such familiar terms. Finally, a list of "Suggested Study Problems," rather than encouraging research with primary and specialized materials as one might expect, instead proposes that the
student "protest to Goldoni over his attempt to regularize the
commed,a" (P. 512) or "as Wagner, write a defense of your
design for the Festspielhaus at Bayreuth" (p. 513) and other
fanciful projects in the same vein.
These faults do not negate the fact that On Stage is a generally sound, readable and neatly-organized survey of theatre history, especially in the improved second edition. Among its more
likeable features are emphases on historical context and contemporary developments in the other arts, as well as a fuller treatment of dramatic literature than most surveys offer. However, in
the light of such attractive alternatives as Brockett's History
and Bamber Gascoigne's beautifully~llustrated World Theatre
(Boston, 1968). On Stage seems likely to remain in eclipse as a
college text.
Frederick E. Warner
Utica College of Syracuse University

THEATRE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

SUMMER,1977

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