Essentials of Stage Planning. By Stanley Bell, Norman Marshall and
Richard Southern. (Muller. 2Is.)
Jr is commonly supposed that the difference in their values sets a gulf between the theatrical practice of professionals and amateurs. This compendium makes it clear that the same basic aims and equip- ment are common to both factions, and that inadequate planning is no redemption of what amateurs conceive to be the joylessness of the professional. The three authors bring the weight of their pro- fessional experience as stage director, producer and research- technician to bear on the innumerable problems attendant on the upsurge of dramatk enterprise in England. Since professionals for several years to come will only be concerned with making the best of existing facilities, this book's comprehensive analysis of pitfalls must have most of its appeal for amateurs ; but the authors' in- sistence on efficient machinery never makes them forget that from its foundation an amateur company is often compelled to adapt what it finds and not to build what it likes. They are tolerant, though wary, of the multi-purpose hall. There is nothing new here to professionals, but there are very few professionals who could so surely discriminate between the helpful and the indispensable. It is the sort of book that—by its dispassionate handling of difficulties and its avoidance of the stray reflections that come so easily to the champions of the amateur movement—makes you want to go out with a tape-measure and turn the garage into a theatre ; and if the damping remembrance of the minimum measurements here laid down makes you look for a more suitable building, you can have no better companion than the wisdom of these three enthusiasts. The book is well produced and copiously illustrated.
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