Theatre Appreciation (43-101)

Scenic design in ancient Greek and Roman theatres -- Medieval scenic design -- The Italian Renaissance -- Design in France and the Holy Roman Empire from 1640 to the early eighteenth century -- The influence of Scena per Angolo on eighteenth-century design -- Neoclassicism and romanticism: a rivalry of opposites -- Realism and naturalism -- Modernism -- American new stagecraft, Russian constructivism, epic theatre, and the Bauhaus -- Post-World War II and the late twentieth century -- Epilogue: looking toward the twenty-first century

Drawing together a wealth of primary sources, J.A. Sokalski examines the aims, inventions, and methods of the pictorial style that defined MacKaye's art. Sokalski shows how MacKaye's famous Madison Square Theatre, which featured a double stage reminiscent of an elevator, created whirling pictorial illusions for fashionable New York. He argues that MacKaye's infamous failure, the colossal Spectatorium theatre for the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, was the most complete realization of this illusionary aesthetic. Sokalski also explores MacKaye's influence on Buffalo Bill Cody and how civil war cycloramas expanded his concept of pictorial space.

The plot and the characters -- References to the 'place' on the plan -- Allusions to the 'place' in the dialogue -- The Latin stage directions and their references to the 'place' -- The ditch and the hill round the 'place' -- The dimensions of the Cornish rounds -- On the dynamics of the place-crowd and on the stytelerys -- The scaffolds of the Fouquet miniature -- References to the scaffolds in the dialogue -- The provisional anatomy of a scaffold -- Reconstructing the theatre -- The presentation analysed -- On the use of the 'place' and the platea in medieval theatre generally

Part I. Ferrara. Stagecraft in the service of statecraft: political aspects of Early Renaissance theatre in Ferrara / Gunẗer Berghaus -- G. B. Giraldi Cinthio's dramatic theory and stage practice: a creative interaction / Peggy Osborn -- Scenery, spectacle and action on the Serlian stage of G. B. Giraldi in Ferrara / Mary Morrison -- Giovan Battista Verato: un attore nella Ferrara del cinquecento / Alesandro Marcigliano -- Part II. Aretino and Venice. Staging La Veniexiana or How to ruin a perfectly good script / Richard Andrews -- Appunti sui personaggi della Cortigiana (1525) dell'Aretino / Angelo Romano -- La Retorica in commedia: aspetti linguistici del teatro comico di Pietro Aretino / Luciana Zampoli -- Pietro Aretino and the Commedia Dell'Arte / Christopher Cairns -- Part III. The Commedia Dell'Arte. Scenery, setting and stages in Late Renaissance Commedia Dell'arte performances: some pictorial evidence / M. A. Katritzky -- The old man's spectacles and other traces of the Commedia Dell'arte in early Shakespearean comedy / Andrew Grewar

Royalist dramatist -- Setting the scene -- The innovator in the interregnum -- Fitting out the scenic stage -- Changing conventions -- "Scenes, machines, and empty operas" -- "Poor Dorse Garden-House is gone" -

Ch. 1 First Romantics 3
Ch. 2 Madame Vestris, James Robinson Planche and William Beverley: Romanticism, Fantasy, and Spectacle 13
Ch. 3 Charles Kean and His Designers: A Romance with History 29
Ch. 4 Wilson Barrett and Edward William Godwin: Another Romantic View of History 61
Ch. 5 Henry Irving: A Romantic Actor and His Set Designers 81
Ch. 6 Romantic Swan Song 99
Ch. 7 Romantic Fairies and Medieval Knights 107
Appendix A: On the Painting of Fairy Scenes and Other Stage Illusions

Chapter on Scenography, Stagecraft, and Architecture in each volume.