Edward Gordon Craig Research Papers (original) (raw)

Among the XX century’s theatrical searches several new previously unreleased versions widely found an extension. First of all, these versions, which came as a result of the culturological approach, treated the human being as a... more

Among the XX century’s theatrical searches several new previously unreleased versions widely found an extension. First of all, these versions, which came as a result of the culturological approach, treated the human being as a game-inclining creature. In the book "Homo Ludens" by the famous culturologist and historian Johan Huizinga (1938), the essence of the games concept is examined from the point of view of its impact on human civilization. In the work, the idea has put forward that culture as a whole is a playful one.

Dans Hamlet, la réaction de Claudius face à la pantomime et à la représentation théâtrale auxquelles il assiste est ambiguë. Dans cet article, il s’agit de réfléchir à une manière dont elle pourrait être exploitée par des lecteurs — qui... more

Dans Hamlet, la réaction de Claudius face à la pantomime et à la représentation théâtrale auxquelles il assiste est ambiguë. Dans cet article, il s’agit de réfléchir à une manière dont elle pourrait être exploitée par des lecteurs — qui sont par ailleurs spectateurs et dont certains ont été, ou pourraient être metteurs en scène (Edward Gordon Craig, Constantin Stanislavski, Nicolas Evreinov, vous, moi) — afin d’en faire œuvre, en l’occurrence dans la direction du fantastique tel que le définit Tzvetan Todorov. Cet article, qui a pour cadre la lecture du texte dramatique et la « manière de lire » impliquée par le fantastique, confronte le fantastique et le théâtre à travers le prisme de la notion d’indécidable. Après une rapide mise au point théorique, il présente ce qui se révélerait être le lieu du fantastique au théâtre : l’hésitation du spectateur, qui porte en l’occurrence sur le point de vue, compris ici comme relevant de la représentation dramatique (rapport du drame et de l’action) et scénique (rapport de la mise en scène et de la fable). En prenant appui sur Hamlet, sur la mise en scène qu’en propose Craig à Moscou et sur l’Introduction au monodrame d’Evreinov, il propose alors de réfléchir sur les modalités d’existence d’effets de focalisation interne et de fantastique au théâtre.

Unlike many other publications on Nazi culture, this book is not primarily about what has been called "the Nazification of the arts," based upon state-supported use of the arts for propaganda, a curtailment of freedom in art criticism,... more

Unlike many other publications on Nazi culture, this book is not primarily about what has been called "the Nazification of the arts," based upon state-supported use of the arts for propaganda, a curtailment of freedom in art criticism, and the political and legal Gleichschaltung, "the forcing into conformity" under a hierarchical, dictatorial leadership (Führerprinzip) of all aspects of the various branches of national and local government, the civil service, education, public finance, business, the professions, and the arts. To complement earlier studies of Gleichschaltung, the essays in this anthology explore the underlying beliefs of the Nazi racist state as they were developed and propagated in various fields of artistic activity.

Bu çalışma, Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı Devlet Konservatuvarı Yayımlarının 1946 yılında Nureddin Sevin tarafından çevrilmiş orijinal metnin özetini içermektedir. Dönem itibariyle kullanılan eski Türkçe kelimeler yeniden düzenlenmiş ve cümleler... more

Bu çalışma, Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı Devlet Konservatuvarı Yayımlarının 1946 yılında Nureddin Sevin tarafından çevrilmiş orijinal metnin özetini içermektedir. Dönem itibariyle kullanılan eski Türkçe kelimeler yeniden düzenlenmiş ve cümleler daha anlaşılır hale getirilmeye çalışılmıştır.

Dissertação apresentada ao Programa Pós-Graduação em Performances Culturais, da Faculdade de Ciências Sociais da Universidade Federal de Goiás como requisito para a obtenção do título de Mestre em Performances Culturais. Área de... more

Dissertação apresentada ao Programa Pós-Graduação em Performances Culturais, da Faculdade de Ciências Sociais da Universidade Federal de Goiás como requisito para a obtenção do título de Mestre em Performances Culturais. Área de Concentração: Performances Culturais. Linha de Pesquisa: Espaços, Materialidades e Teatralidades. Orientador: Prof. Dr. Robson Corrêa de Camargo.

This article examines two aspects of Philippe Gaulier’s pedagogy in relation to the development of Neutral Mask pedagogies in twentieth-century French mime training, specifically those responding to nineteenth and early twentieth-century... more

This article examines two aspects of Philippe Gaulier’s pedagogy in relation to the development of Neutral Mask pedagogies in twentieth-century French mime training, specifically those responding to nineteenth and early twentieth-century marionette theories of movement. The first is his strategic use of disorientation through lack of instruction (via negativa) in order to make visible inculturated embodied habits; the second is his emphasis on the performer embodying genuine ‘pleasure’ as she pretends to have a different emotion. The paper examines these techniques in the context of Neutral Mask training, and its development during the twentieth century in France, in order to consider the ways in which they both reflect and revise nineteenth- and early twentieth-century marionette theories of performer movement as espoused in particular by Heinrich von Kleist and Edward Gordon Craig. It considers the ways in which constructions of the ‘natural’ body as pursued by Jacques Copeau and later Étienne Decroux and Jacques Lecoq respond to these marionette theories which seek to do away entirely with interior states such as consciousness and emotion, and in placing these responses alongside Gaulier’s deployments of disorientation and ‘pleasure’. It suggests that Gaulier’s techniques of disorientation serve a similar function to donning the neutral mask in stripping away learned habits of movement, and that his emphasis on experiencing and demonstrating ‘pleasure’ in the pretence of performance both reflects marionette theories by replicating the puppeteer/puppet dynamic, and revises them by foregrounding emotionality.

o what extent is theatre a part of our culture? For centuries, theatre professionals inhabited a society apart. The twentieth century changed this but perhaps not in the way we have always thought it did. This book is about the... more

o what extent is theatre a part of our culture? For centuries,
theatre professionals inhabited a society apart. The twentieth
century changed this but perhaps not in the way we have
always thought it did. This book is about the theatre-makers
who were chosen as models in the early twentieth century,
as well as about their spectators. Although they never
coalesced into a movement, the theatre masters created
a web that was instrumental to a unique transformation.
This radical change was more than an aesthetic revolution
or a completely new way of creating performances, and we
are still grappling with its meaning. An Indra’s Web looks
at this transformation from a new perspective, subverting
the accepted hierarchy of arguments, and describes it in
a way that both theatre experts and general readers can
benefit from. It does this by drawing upon examples from
novels, performances, journals, biographies, events, wars
and revolutions. An Indra’s Web presents a history that
cuts across many subjects, with one foot in theatre and
the other in the outside world.

Slide about Gordon Craig-Theory and practise

La mia tesi nasce dalla volontà di studiare i soggiorni fiorentini di Ellen Thesleff (Helsinki, 1869-1954), artista protagonista dell'età dell'oro dell'arte finlandese, che a Firenze trascorse periodi più o meno lunghi tra il 1894 e il... more

La mia tesi nasce dalla volontà di studiare i soggiorni fiorentini di Ellen Thesleff (Helsinki, 1869-1954), artista protagonista dell'età dell'oro dell'arte finlandese, che a Firenze trascorse periodi più o meno lunghi tra il 1894 e il 1939. Questo studio concentra la sua attenzione soprattutto sui primi soggiorni dell'artista finnica relativi agli anni 1894-1910, con lo scopo di arricchire lo scarso panorama di notizie sull'argomento.

German/English Igor’ Stravinskijs Sacre du printemps gilt als Meilenstein der Musik- und Tanzgeschichte. Gleichwohl hat die Wissenschaft einen Schlüsselaspekt zum Verständnis des Werkes bislang übersehen: die ‚Theaterreform um 1900‘.... more

Robert Lepage, La face cachée de la lune In the South-central District of Montréal, in the premises of the C factory (former industrial ovens transformed today into a multi-functional stage by the founding company Carbon 14), at the... more

Robert Lepage, La face cachée de la lune In the South-central District of Montréal, in the premises of the C factory (former industrial ovens transformed today into a multi-functional stage by the founding company Carbon 14), at the Festival of Theatres des Amerique (2001) Robert Lepage presented The Far Side of the Moon with an original score by Laurie Anderson, in the same year as Kubrick's Space Odyssey. The exploration of the moon by Americans and Russians (up to Galileo Galilei " mirror of the Earth " , as it is said in the Prologue) is the metaphor used by Lepage to speak about another search, that of the internal, intimate and private space. It's the story of two brothers, a meteorologist and a doctoral student (but also a subscriptions sale man always fascinated by extraterrestrial investigations). Estranged by their very different life style and dispositions, they meet again for their mother's death. The moon and the mother, with their respective mythical and symbolic apparatus, are the spectacle's two central theme which ceaselessly interlace. The two brothers' life is spattered by " domestic investigations " : the circular shape of the astronauts' helmet and that more common, of a washing machine's window blend in a strange exchange which transforms themselves into the maternal uterus, into the image of Earth seen in Tv's whether report, into the Moon, or also into a goldfish tank. Daily life and History, personal recollections and collective memory, both shaped by " an index " of image archives, are mingled the one with the other, until they merge. We came to the world like little astronauts who breathe for the firs time after the umbilical cord-back of the new born child, given by the midwife, thanks to which he breathes in his first oxygen blow, setting in the breathing process. Will somebody really manage to build this enormous " Eiffel Tower " (reminiscent of Tatlin's Monument for the third international) which, set up beyond the stratosphere, as we are told at the beginning of the spectacle, should be able to pick up what remains a secret to us: the hidden side of the Moon? Which probe will ever manage to discover the most mysterious and repressed side of our Self? ACTOR and MIRROR Autobiography, journey and concrete objects are the inspiring motives of this spectacle: There are two departing points-Lepage explained to us: the first idea was to work on the concept of the Cosmos, and of the Moon, the second was to create something related to my mother, who died two years and a half ago. The two themes didn't seem to be linked at first, but met little by little: the moon is a rich and interesting subject, either for mythology and for the scientific aspect, but mostly it is the symbol of the Mother. It is then that I understood that the first subject could contain the other one.

Esta dissertação é resultante de uma pesquisa bibliográfica e tem como objeto de estudo o texto dramático A Tragédia de Hamlet, Príncipe da Dinamarca e suas representações. Uma obra que todo mundo parece conhecer, pois a... more

Esta dissertação é resultante de uma pesquisa bibliográfica e tem como objeto de estudo o texto dramático A Tragédia de Hamlet, Príncipe da Dinamarca e suas representações. Uma obra que todo mundo parece conhecer, pois a história, as imagens de um príncipe da Dinamarca perambulam pela cultura1, pela memória e pelo imaginário do povo (BARROS; REINATO e CAMARGO, 2015). É difícil encontrar alguém que nunca ouviu a frase: “Ser ou não ser, eis a questão!” (SHAKESPEARE, 2004, p. 134). Ela se tornou corriqueira. É raro conhecer alguém que, ao olhar uma imagem, que apresente um homem com postura talvez meditativa segurando um crânio, não se lembre imediatamente do príncipe Hamlet. Do fantasma da dúvida e da dúvida do fantasma.

Тurning to the analysis of Alexandre Benois’s and Igor Stravinsky’s ballet “Pеtrouchka” (1911) researchers have repeatedly referred to its closeness to Russian symbolism. This essay examines the question of whether this ballet... more

Тurning to the analysis of Alexandre Benois’s and Igor Stravinsky’s ballet “Pеtrouchka” (1911) researchers have repeatedly referred to its closeness to Russian symbolism. This essay examines the question of whether this ballet (Stravinsky’s second, the first being “The Firebird”, 1910) might have been influenced by the European theatre reform movement at the beginning of the XX-th century. This notion was first introduced in an article, anonymously published by Edward Gordon Craig (an important figure in this movement), in which he claims that the Ballets Russes (“Saisons Russes”) of Sergei Diaghilev had appropriated his reformative ideas. The author points out that in the case of “Pеtrouchka” (it is quite likely that) the members of the Ballets Russes were quite likely influenced by Craig’s ideas or ideas related to them. Therefore the aspect of magic in the ballet’s libretto, which has so far been mostly attributed to the influence of Vsevolod Meyerhold, has to be credited instead to the Russian reception of German theatre reform writings (including the German translations of Craig’s works). Craig’s ideas, to which the ballet’s librettist Alexandre Benois had access, were discussed in Russian theatre circles from 1906 onwards. Analysis of Stravinskij’s musical scene “Russkaja” verifies that the aspect of magic plays its part not only in the ballet’s libretto and choreography but also in Stravinsky’s score and shows that, like the dancing puppets of the magician, the audience is being animated by Stravinsky’s music. Stravinsky’s compositional approach in the “Russkaja” can be interpreted as an attempt to break “the wall“ between the real world and the “fourth dimension“ – a key demand of theatre reformers during that time.

The Finnish painter Ellen Thesleff (1869−1954) is one of the most famous female painters in Scandinavian art history. During her stay in Florence, Italy, at the beginning of the twentieth century, she became acquainted with the British... more

The Finnish painter Ellen Thesleff (1869−1954) is one of the most famous female
painters in Scandinavian art history. During her stay in Florence, Italy, at the beginning
of the twentieth century, she became acquainted with the British theater
personality and artist (Edward) Gordon Craig (1872−1966). Their correspondence
from the first half of the century is a part of European cultural history and art criticism;
they write, among other things, about painting and graphics, literature and
theater. Of linguistic importance is that the original letters preserved for posterity
contain traces of many European languages: not only German, which is a central
language in the correspondence, but also French, Italian, and English.
The focus of this paper is the coexistence of languages in the multilingual
correspondence—about 200 dated and 60 undated letters—kept at the National
Library of France in Paris. In this paper, microfilms are used instead of the original
material, and the selection of letters is limited to twenty-five. The particular interest
lies in Ellen Thesleff as a multiliterate, writing individual, and her choices of and
switches between different languages. My study shows that Thesleff used a variety
of languages when writing letters. This can, for example, be seen from the perspective
of the personal nature and the communicative function of the personal letters,
where the “self” of the writer is present. In a way, multilingualism has among other
things an emotional function for her: one could, for instance, argue that it was used
as a kind of “secret writing” or language play between Thesleff and Craig.

The Speed of a Horse and that of a Snail: Theories and Practices of Edward Gordon Craig’s Übermarionette Contrary to his well-known principle, « after the practice, the theory », Edward Gordon Craig dreamt of the Übermarionette and wrote... more

The Speed of a Horse and that of a Snail: Theories and Practices of Edward Gordon Craig’s Übermarionette
Contrary to his well-known principle, « after the practice, the theory », Edward Gordon Craig dreamt of the Übermarionette and wrote his famous essay about it (“The Actor and the Übermarionette”, dated March 1907) before he had any possibility to experiment with it. Therefore, it is impossible to determine what the real nature of this instrument was, as theatre historians usually attempt to do, because it had none. The word « Übermarionette » refered indeed not to a single invention, but to a plurality of scenical and technical hypotheses among which Craig was never to chose. All these hypotheses – either with actors or with puppets – aimed to resolve the same question: how can the theatrical performance become a piece of art that would be the work of one sole artist?
Following step by step, from 1904 to World War I, the tracks left in Craig’s notebooks, letters and manuscripts, or in testimonies from friends and relatives, this article brings into the light the development of his ideas for the Übermarionette and the various technical solutions he imagined to realize it: first a double masked actor, then lifesize figures encapsulating their “movers”, or keyboard-puppets. It also demonstrates how these projects were deeply rooted in the stage director’s fascination for puppets, and his progressive discovery that puppetry is by itself an art. Lastly, it underlines Craig’s desire for simultaneously combining different modes of presence on stage (Übermarionette, actor, puppet, shadow etc.) as an anticipation of today’s evolutions in puppet theatre.

DE TODOS OS LUGARES: IDEIAS EM MOVIMENTO NAS ARTES CÊNICAS Este número especial da Revista VIS reúne pesquisadores nacionais e interna- cionais que partem de insatisfação comum: a de que muitas das narrativas his- tóricas, definições,... more

DE TODOS OS LUGARES: IDEIAS EM MOVIMENTO NAS ARTES CÊNICAS
Este número especial da Revista VIS reúne pesquisadores nacionais e interna- cionais que partem de insatisfação comum: a de que muitas das narrativas his- tóricas, definições, conceitos e metodologias utilizados no intercampo das Artes Cênicas não parecem mais válidos depois de um certo tempo e precisam ser revisitados critica e periodicamente.

Αν έπρεπε να συνοψίσει κανείς σε ένα μόνο επιχείρημα το ρητορικό οπλοστάσιο του Έντουαρντ Γκόρντον Κρέιγκ, αυτό θα ήταν το αίτημά του να επιστρέψει το σύγχρονο θέατρο στο πεδίο των τεχνών. Η Τέχνη του Θεάτρου (με κεφαλαία) αντιπροσωπεύει,... more

Αν έπρεπε να συνοψίσει κανείς σε ένα μόνο επιχείρημα το ρητορικό οπλοστάσιο του Έντουαρντ Γκόρντον Κρέιγκ, αυτό θα ήταν το αίτημά του να επιστρέψει το σύγχρονο θέατρο στο πεδίο των τεχνών. Η Τέχνη του Θεάτρου (με κεφαλαία) αντιπροσωπεύει, για τον Κρέιγκ, τον ένα και μοναδικό στόχο προς τον οποίο το θέατρο (με μικρό) πρέπει να πορευτεί. Στο πλαίσιο του ριζοσπαστικού —όσο και πολύ συχνά αντιδραστικού— μοντερνισμού, το αίτημα της επιστροφής σε μια ιδεατή πρωταρχική κατάσταση γίνεται εργαλείο υπονόμευσης των βεβαιοτήτων της θριαμβεύουσας αστικής τέχνης της εποχής.

Essa dissertação é resultante de uma pesquisa bibliográfica diversa e tem por objetivo analisar em múltiplos aspectos a tragédia Hamlet, Príncipe da Dinamarca (1600-1601), do inglês William Shakespeare (1564-1616), como um texto... more

Essa dissertação é resultante de uma pesquisa bibliográfica diversa e tem por objetivo analisar em múltiplos aspectos a tragédia Hamlet, Príncipe da Dinamarca (1600-1601), do inglês William Shakespeare (1564-1616), como um texto performativo. Para tanto, estabelece relações entre essa tragédia e algumas questões discutidas pelos estudos da performance, especificamente a teatralidade, a liminaridade e a textualidade. A história de Hamlet é relacionada principalmente ao conceito de teatralidade do dramaturgo e diretor teatral russo Nicolas Evreinov (1879-1953), bem como dialoga com a noção de liminaridade discutida pelo folclorista e etnógrafo germânico Arnold van Gennep (1873-1957), e com as ideias do pensador russo Mikhail Bakhtin (1895-1975) acerca da performance da linguagem, dentre outras noções acerca das práticas performáticas e performativas humanas. Hamlet, o texto, é apresentado no limiar, entre a completude e o movimento, entre a textualidade e a teatralidade, entre leituras e culturas. É descrita e analisada ainda a montagem de Hamlet no Teatro de Arte de Moscou (TAM), uma das famosas leituras e reescritas da tragédia shakespeariana. Uma produção cênica que apresenta o diálogo e o embate entre texto e cena, entre estéticas, entre leituras da tragédia que se expressam através das performances do encenador, do ator e do espectador. Finalmente, trata de aspectos da recepção de Hamlet.

Το κείμενο το οποίο συνοδεύει το άρθρο μου αυτό ανήκει στα λιγότερο διαδεδομένα του Κρέιγκ, όπου, ωστόσο, αποτυπώνεται πολύ ξεκάθαρα η άποψή του για την ανάγκη εξοβελισμού του γραπτού θεατρικού έργου από το θέατρο. Στο επίμετρό μου... more

Το κείμενο το οποίο συνοδεύει το άρθρο μου αυτό ανήκει στα λιγότερο διαδεδομένα του Κρέιγκ, όπου, ωστόσο, αποτυπώνεται πολύ ξεκάθαρα η άποψή του για την ανάγκη εξοβελισμού του γραπτού θεατρικού έργου από το θέατρο. Στο επίμετρό μου αναπτύσσω εν συντομία την σχετική επιχειρηματολογία του Κρέιγκ και τις καταβολές της, ενώ αναφέρομαι στην πρωτοκαθεδρία της οπτικής, έναντι της λογοτεχνικής αφήγησης, που ο σκηνοθέτης ευαγγελίζεται.

Em 1916, o russo Lev Semenovitch Vigotski (1896-1934), reconhecido no Brasil principalmente pelas suas contribuições ao campo da Psicologia, faz uma profunda análise de Hamlet de Shakespeare na obra A Tragédia de Hamlet, Príncipe da... more

Em 1916, o russo Lev Semenovitch Vigotski (1896-1934), reconhecido no Brasil principalmente pelas suas contribuições ao campo da Psicologia, faz uma profunda análise de Hamlet de Shakespeare na obra A Tragédia de Hamlet, Príncipe da Dinamarca, trabalho de conclusão do seu curso de Direito e Literatura na Universidade de Moscou, publicado na Rússia em 1968 e em nosso país apenas em 1999. Vigotski, entrando no campo da teoria da recepção, propõe uma crítica “de leitor” que tentasse estabelecer um contato com a obra que estivesse na relação imediata do leitor com a obra. Esta não se interessaria por quem é o autor da obra, sua história pessoal, como veremos mais à frente e, ao contrário, afirmará que uma “vez criada, a obra de arte 2 separa-se de seu criador”. Mas, o mais importante em sua afirmação é que esta não pode existir “sem o leitor”, a obra é “uma possibilidade que o leitor realiza” (VIGOTSKI,
1999, p. XIX).

o what extent is theatre a part of our culture? For centuries, theatre professionals inhabited a society apart. The twentieth century changed this but perhaps not in the way we have always thought it did. This book is about the... more

o what extent is theatre a part of our culture? For centuries, theatre professionals inhabited a society apart. The twentieth century changed this but perhaps not in the way we have always thought it did. This book is about the theatre-makers who were chosen as models in the early twentieth century, as well as about their spectators. Although they never coalesced into a movement, the theatre masters created a web that was instrumental to a unique transformation. This radical change was more than an aesthetic revolution or a completely new way of creating performances, and we are still grappling with its meaning. An Indra’s Web looks at this transformation from a new perspective, subverting the accepted hierarchy of arguments, and describes it in a way that both theatre experts and general readers can benefit from. It does this by drawing upon examples from novels, performances, journals, biographies, events, wars and revolutions. An Indra’s Web presents a history that cuts across many subjects, with one foot in theatre and the other in the outside world.

Examining facets of modernist visions of our technological future and of theatricalized city and stage spaces in the 1993 animated film 'Batman: Mask of the Phantasm', this article explores the cultural meaning of technology in graphic... more

Examining facets of modernist visions of our technological future and of theatricalized city and stage spaces in the 1993 animated film 'Batman: Mask of the Phantasm', this article explores the cultural meaning of technology in graphic fiction. The confrontation scene between Batman and Joker in the grounds of Gotham’s World’s Fair, the author argues, echoes the 1939 New York World’s Fair with its modernist urban optimism and pop cultural fascination with new visionary technologies, as well as the modern history of moving pictures and multi-media spectacle. The article spotlights the power of the Batman story to participate in, and contribute towards, complex cultural inquiry and transmedial discourses around technology and popular entertainments. Through the exquisite medium of animation – which allows animated characters to be placed on an abstract architectural city stage – 'Mask of the Phantasm' also embodies modernist visions of the ‘ideal’ stage character in a medium that creates non-realist art and more complex possibilities for movement, thus transporting modernist thinking into the 20th century.

Artigo finalizado acerca da relação entre teatro de sombras, vanguardas do século XX, teatro ocidental e oriental, materialidade, plasticidade, a morte, o teatro visual, o teatro de Tadeusz Kantor, os conceitos de Heinrich Von Kleist e... more

Artigo finalizado acerca da relação entre teatro de sombras, vanguardas do século XX, teatro ocidental e oriental, materialidade, plasticidade, a morte, o teatro visual, o teatro de Tadeusz Kantor, os conceitos de Heinrich Von Kleist e Edward Gordon Craig e o teatro do inanimado.

Edward Gordon Craig’s Drama for Fools was planned as a long cycle of very short plays, to be daily performed in changing places. Based on the alternation between the episodes of a continuing story and its interludes, it systematically... more

Edward Gordon Craig’s Drama for Fools was planned as a long cycle of very short plays, to be daily performed in changing places. Based on the alternation between the episodes of a continuing story and its interludes, it systematically introduces disruptions: in order to bring a variety of atmospheres (with parodic rewritings as well as satirical miniatures), but also to comment what is happening on stage, from an audience-based point of view. Craig’s predilection for short plays, interrupted by different kinds of micro-actions, can be interpreted in many ways. As a general feature of The Drama for Fools , extreme shortness reveals how much the author is aware of the contradictions between his gigantic project and his former utterances against spoken drama. But Craig seems also to be influenced by the traditional puppeteers, because he wants to leave some space for improvisation. Furthermore, from a dramaturgical point of view, briefness can be considered as a result of Craig’s hosti...

Ngaio Marsh did so much important work as a theatre director that she was made Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1966. But she also killed more actors than the plague. Ten of this Crime Queen’s detective novels between 1934 and 1982... more

Ngaio Marsh did so much important work as a theatre director that she was made Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1966. But she also killed more actors than the plague. Ten of this Crime Queen’s detective novels between 1934 and 1982 are set amidst theatrical performance, making her the most prolific theatre-novelist ever. If what I call “backstage detective fiction” seems incongruous with previous chapters’ focus on writers as esteemed as James and Woolf, I propose to take the subgenre seriously. Acutely conscious of the perils of theatre’s reliance on collaboration and susceptibility to human “accident,” Marsh reveals a profound affiliation with modernist director Edward Gordon Craig, notorious for his own assaults on actors. But this investigation also suggests a second, more deadly culprit, appropriately concealed by the praise Marsh heaps on him: Russian director Constantin Stanislavski. I argue that her backstage detective fiction both registers and responds to intensified anxieties about real human emotion on modern stages.

The essay brings to the attention two anecdotes that emerged from the unpublished correspondence between Edward Gordon Craig and Danilo Lebrecht, from the Spring of 1918. The first episode took shape starting from an exchange of letters... more

The essay brings to the attention two anecdotes that emerged from the unpublished correspondence between Edward Gordon Craig and Danilo Lebrecht, from the Spring of 1918. The first episode took shape starting from an exchange of letters of that year which, referring to some articles of Craig published in the journal, 'The Marionnette', had as their object "The Plastic Dance" by Fortunato Depero and highlighted the opinion that English director had of the young Futurist. A second anecdote (also from 1918) is told by Lebrecht and leads to the meeting between Craig and Luigi Chiarelli, the playwright and theatre critic, confirming, once again, the importance of the correspondence between the English director and the intellectual from Verona as a source of information on Edward Gordon Craig's life in Italy.