Terence Rees researched this work over a period of five years in places ranging from the libraries of the British Patent Office and the Institution of Gas Engineers to the decaying stuctures of about-to-be demolished theatres. The book contains over 80 illustrations which provide a clear visualisation of a bygone era." --Etbooks.

A comprehensive survey of the theatre practice and dramatic literature of the Victorian period.

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.

Stage Lighting Design is a comprehensive introduction to technical theatre, tracing the evolution of lighting design from ancient drama to contemporary performance. Neil Fraser covers everything that today's designers will need to know, from the simple nuts and bolts of equipment, through to the complexity of a full lighting rig, including all aspects of the stage electrician and lighter designer's roles. This revised second edition includes new material on historical development, intelligent control systems and the latest advances in LED fixtures and luminaires. Each chapter includes key exercises, now totalling 100, that enable the reader to practise their skills on a wide variety of lighting challenges. The work of current designers is showcased and analysed, with examples from complete and detailed lighting designs.Includes: Choosing and using equipment; Applying colour; Techniques for focusing; Lighting in the round and other stage layouts; Creating mood and atmosphere; Lighting effects and LED source fixtures; Planning, testing and executing a lighting design.Superbly llustrated with over 150 colour, black & white photographs and line artworks.

The 19th century ushered in an unprecedented boom in technology, the unification of European nations, the building of global empires and stabilization of the middle classes. The theatre of the era reflected these significant developments as well as helped to catalyse them. Populist theatre and purposebuilt playhouses flourished in the ever-growing urban and cosmopolitan centres of Europe and in expanding global networks. This volume provides a comprehensive and interdisciplinary overview of the cultural history of theatre from 1800 to 1920. Highly illustrated with 51 images, the ten chapters each take a different theme as their focus: institutional frameworks; social functions; sexuality and gender; the environment of theatre; circulation; interpretations; communities of production; repertoire and genres; technologies of performance; and knowledge transmission.

Includes summaries of proceedings and addresses of annual meetings of various gas associations. L.C. set includes an index to these proceedings, 1884-1902, issued as a supplement to Progressive age, Feb. 15, 1910.

This volume contains key articles and chapters which represent both seminal and innovative scholarship on European theatre performance practice from 1750 to 1900. The selected topics focus on acting and performance, staging (including set design and lighting), and audiences, and are approached with a broad perspective as well as with in-depth, focussed analysis. The volume captures the rich, dynamic and variegated nature of European theatre throughout the late-eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and provides a carefully selected body of significant texts on this important period of theatre history.