The Mask A Periodical Performance By Edward Gordon Craig

No study of modern theater is complete without a thorough understanding of the enormous influence of visionary genius Edward Gordon Craig. Born in England in 1872, Craig went on to become famous world-wide as an actor, manager, director, playwright, designer, and most importantly an author and theorist, whose books were translated into German, Russian, Japanese, Dutch, Hungarian, and Danish. Although an essential parallel to the European avant-garde, Craig was often read as "exceptional" and highly innovative in his native Britain, thus, The Mask not only appears as Craig's main cosmopolitan project but also at times functions as a surrogate stage for his experiments in theater practice. The book has a comprehensive chronology, extensive notes and a bibliography making it an essential text for undergraduates, postgraduates, actors, theatre professionals, designers, directors, researchers and writers in the fields of theatre studies (especially theater set and lighting) and theater history.

No study of modern theater is complete without a thorough understanding of the enormous influence of visionary genius Edward Gordon Craig. Born in England in 1872, Craig went on to become famous world-wide as an actor, manager, director, playwright, designer, and most importantly an author and theorist, whose books were translated into German, Russian, Japanese, Dutch, Hungarian, and Danish. Although an essential parallel to the European avant-garde, Craig was often read as "exceptional" and highly innovative in his native Britain, thus, The Mask not only appears as Craig's main cosmopolitan project but also at times functions as a surrogate stage for his experiments in theater practice. The book has a comprehensive chronology, extensive notes and a bibliography making it an essential text for undergraduates, postgraduates, actors, theatre professionals, designers, directors, researchers and writers in the fields of theatre studies (especially theater set and lighting) and theater history.

This book places the work of Edward Gordon Craig within the context of the European avant-garde and the broader framework of performance and Modernity. Through a detailed study of the journal The Mask Craig is contextualised and theorised in terms of his contemporaries, his historical precedents and in terms of the legacy he has left for succeeding generations of theatre experimenters. Since Craig was often preoccupied with creating a 'theory' of performance rather than working on specific productions, The Mask provided him with a metaphorical and physical stage for the manifesto-like character of his writings. It also helps shed light on some of the contradictory aspects of Craigian thought.