In eight pages Craig's influential theater design is discussed in terms of his pioneering stage techniques that profoundly affected 20th century dramatic presentations. Eight sources are cited in the bibliography.
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design which made his work particularly important. As Wild (2003) points out, the form of scenery with which we are familiar today originated with the Renaissance: the application of perspective
which was such an integral feature of Renaissance art had a major influence on the design and construction of scenery in later eras. Artists such as Brunelleschi and Alberti investigated
the geometrical applications of linear perspective, an artistic and architectural development which was later adopted by scenic designers such as Serlio, who published in the sixteenth century the first treatise
dealing with the construction and design of a court theatre. Serlio based
his design on perspective scenery which was designed to give the best view to the Royal seating area, the design being specifically for court theatres, and made use of a
raked stage, wings, and a backdrop. It was a static design, in that was intended to be a permanent architectural feature, unlike later versions which were designed to be mobile
and allow for rapid changes of scene. In the seventeenth century Inigo Jones introduced the Italian concepts of scenic design to Britain, using flat wings and a proscenium arch. However,
in the nineteenth century traditional ideas of scenic design were rejected by artists such as Craig, who felt that scenery should be more dynamic, less static, and more dependent on
suggestion than on the heaviness and stagnant appearance of flat floor and painted canvas.
Craig, the son of Ellen Terry, was born into the theatrical milieu and introduced revolutionary ideas of design and stagecraft, many of which created controversy amongst design traditionalists. As the