The Scenographic Imagination

This is a revised, expanded version of Payne’s Design for the Stage: First Steps, the book Choice characterized as “An excellent text,” “a re­freshingly innovative approach to theatrical design with an artistic, theatrical, and histor­ical focus rather than the technical craft ori­entation found in most textbooks.” Payne seeks to instill in beginning scenographers a basic core of knowledge: theater history and the development of drama; art history and an understanding of periods and styles of architecture, painting, sculp­ture, furnishing, and costume; and the prin­ciples, techniques, and materials in pictorial and three-dimensional design. He has incorporated into his text many suggestions for outside readings, quoting passages and even entire chapters from important works. He stresses research, arguing that the scenogra­pher cannot grow without knowledge of the literature of his own and related arts. John Kavelin, in Theatre Crafts, recom­mended Design for the Stage to any student, teacher, or practitioner of design, calling it a “literate, well-organized book.” The Sce­nographic Imagination is a bigger, deeper book.