Over 300 illustrations and drawings; over 150 photographs Toshiro Ogawa's masterpiece, Theatre Engineering and Stage Machinery, is a unique reference work. It covers every aspect of theatrical machinery and stage technology in global terms. With no less than 301 illustrations and drawings and 168 photographs it is a 'must' title for every technical director or designer of performance buildings. Joel Rubin of Artec Consultants of New York says in his Foreword: "Toshiro Ogawa is a working technical director, lighting designer and theatre consultant fully experienced with theatre, ballet and opera production. Additionally, he has practised these skills in the staging technologies of Europe, North America and Asia." In his leading Foreword, Richard Brett, theatre consultant and Chairman of the Association of British Theatre Technicians, states: "With his varied international theatre background, Toshiro Ogawa is in a good position to compare the technical installations of European, American and Asian Theatres. He has now used this experience to research and compile this book, first published in Japanese, but now available to those of us who only have English in our vocabulary." Theatre Engineering and Stage Engineering was first published by Ohm-sha in Japan in April 2000. The English-language publication by Entertainment Technology Press, launched at the ABTT Theatre Show in London on 4th April 2001, is produced on a print-on-demand format, enabling purchasers of the title access to up-dates and additions to the content.

Scenic effects involving rotating turntables, tracking stage wagons, and the vertical movement of curtains and painted drops have become common in both Broadway and Regional theatre productions. The machines that drive these effects range from small pneumatic cylinders pushing loads of a few pounds an inch or two, to 40 horsepower winches running multi-ton scenery at speeds 6 feet per second or more. Usually this machinery is designed by theatre technicians specifically for a particular show's effect. Compared to general industry, this design process is short, often only a few days long, it is done by one person, design teams are rare, and it is done in the absence of reference material specifically addressing the issues involved. The main goal of this book is to remedy this last situation. Mechanical Design for the Stage will be a reference for you that will: * provide the basic engineering formulas needed to predict the forces, torques, speeds, and power required by a given move * give a technician a design process to follow which will direct their work from general concepts to specific detail as a design evolves, and * show many examples of traditional stage machinery designs. The book's emphasis will be on following standard engineering design and construction practices, and developing machines that are functional, efficient to build, easily maintained, and safe to use.

Scenic effects involving rotating turntables, tracking stage wagons, and the vertical movement of curtains and painted drops have become common in both Broadway and Regional theatre productions. The machines that drive these effects range from small pneumatic cylinders pushing loads of a few pounds an inch or two, to 40 horsepower winches running multi-ton scenery at speeds 6 feet per second or more. Usually this machinery is designed by theatre technicians specifically for a particular show's effect. Compared to general industry, this design process is short, often only a few days long, it is done by one person, design teams are rare, and it is done in the absence of reference material specifically addressing the issues involved. The main goal of this book is to remedy this last situation. Mechanical Design for the Stage will be a reference for you that will: * provide the basic engineering formulas needed to predict the forces, torques, speeds, and power required by a given move * give a technician a design process to follow which will direct their work from general concepts to specific detail as a design evolves, and * show many examples of traditional stage machinery designs. The book's emphasis will be on following standard engineering design and construction practices, and developing machines that are functional, efficient to build, easily maintained, and safe to use.

"The purpose of this book if to explain the stage automation techniques used in modern theatre to achieve some of the spectacular visual effects seen in recent years" - p. 5.

George C. Izenour ties detailed information on construction, lighting, acoustical structures, electro-mechanical-hydraulic systems, and stage controls to a rich-history of technological developments from the invention of the proscenium stage in late Renaissance Italy to the contributions of our own time. All the drawings are produced on the same scale for plan, transverse section, and perspective section.