EDWARD GORDON CRAIG
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'Edward Henry Gordon Craig' (16 January 1872 – 29 July 1966), usually known as 'Gordon Craig', was a British actor, producer, director and scenic designer, and theatre theorist.
The illegitimate son of the architect Edward Godwin and actress Ellen Terry, Craig was born Edward Godwin 16 January 1872, in Railway Street, Stevenage in Hertfordshire, England, and baptized, at age 16, as Edward Henry Gordon. He took the surname Craig by deed poll at age 21.
In 1893, Craig married May Gibson and had four children: Rosemary, Robin, Peter, and Philip. With his lover Elena Meo he had two children, Nelly and Edward Carrick (1894-), art director of British motion pictures. With his lover the dancer Isadora Duncan, Craig had a daughter, Deirdre (1906-1913). Tragically, Deidre died by drowning at the age of seven. Edward Gordon Craig died in Paris in 1966 at the age of 94.
Craig asserted that the director was ‘the true artist of the theatre’ and, controversially, suggested doing away with actors in favor of marionettes. He designed and built elaborately symbolic sets; for instance, a set composed of screens for a Moscow production of ''Hamlet'' which proved impractical at the first performance and needed to be rebuilt. He also was the editor and chief writer for the first international theatre magazine, ''Mask''.
He worked as an actor in the company of Sir Henry Irving, but became more interested in art, learning to carve wood under the tutelage of James Pryde and William Nicholson. His acting career ended in 1897, when he went into theatrical design.
Craig's first productions, George F. Handel's opera ''Acis and Galatea'' and Henrik Ibsen's ''The Vikings'' were produced in London. Neither was a success, but Craig had already begun to develop his style. He concentrated on keeping the designs simple so as to set off the movements of the actors and of light, and introduced the idea of a "unified stage picture" that covered all the elements of design.
After finding little financial success in Britain, Craig set out for Germany in 1904. While there, he wrote one of his most famous works, the essay ''The Art of the Theatre'' which was later reprinted with the title ''On the Art of the Theatre''. Craig also met with Constantin Stanislavsky and worked on his famous production of ''Hamlet'' with the Moscow Arts Theatre in 1912. After settling in Italy, Craig created a school of theatrical design with support from Lord Howard de Walden.
Craig was considered extremely difficult to work with, and ultimately refused to direct or design any project over which he did not have complete control. This led to his complete withdrawal from the practical theatre world (Leiter 1994:84). He received the OBE and in 1958 was made a Companion of Honour.
Craig's idea of using neutral, non-representational screens as a staging device is probably his most famous scenographic concept, used in his design for ''Hamlet''. In 1910 Craig filed a patent which described in considerable technical detail a system of hinged and fixed flats that could be quickly arranged to cater for both internal and external scenes.
Craig’s second innovation was in stage lighting. Doing away with traditional footlights, Craig lit the stage from above, placing lights in the ceiling of the theatre. Colour and light also became central to Craig’s stage conceptualizations.
“ …Under the play of this light, the background becomes a deep shimmering blue, apparently almost translucent, upon which the green and purple make a harmony of great richness.†(Craig in Bablet 1981)
The third remarkable aspect of Craig’s experiments in theatrical form were his attempts to integrate design elements with his work with actors. His mise en scene sought to articulate the relationships in space between movement and sound, and line and colour. Craig believed in the theatre of the craft of the director – a theatre where action, words, colour and rhythm combine in dynamic dramatic form (Brockett 1994).
All of his life, Craig sought to capture “pure emotion†or “arrested development†in the plays he worked on. Even during the years when he was not producing plays, Craig continued to make models, conceive stage designs and work on directorial plans which never saw the light of performance. He believed that a director should approach a play with no preconceptions and he embraced this in his fading up from the minimum or blank canvas approach (Walton 1983).
As an engraver and a classical artist, Craig found inspiration in puppets and masks. In his 1910 article "A Note on Masks", Craig expounds upon the virtue of using masks as a mechanism for capturing the audience’s attention, imagination and ‘soul’. He also proclaimed “…There is only one actor – nay one man (sic) who has the soul of the dramatic poet, and who has ever served as the true and loyal interpreter of the poet. This is the marionette…†(Walton 1983), asking for actors to lose their prominence.
'On the Art of the Theatre' (Craig 1911), is an imaginary dialogue between a Playgoer and a Stage Director examining the problems of the nature of stage directing. Craig suggests that the first dramatists were not playwrights, but performers who made the first pieces of drama using action, words, line, colour and rhythm. Craig goes on to contend that only the director who seeks to truly interpret drama and commit to training in all aspects of dramatic art, can restore the ‘Art of the Theatre’ (Wills 1976). Maintaining that the director should seek faithful interpretation of the text, Craig pointed out that audiences go to the theatre to ‘see’ not hear ‘plays’. A director must find the rhythm, movement, tone and colour of the text and these elements are more fundamental than the play’s scene and staging details. The design elements can trascend reality and function as symbols, communicating a deeper meaning, rather than simply reflecting the real world.
★ Bablet, D. ''The Theatre of Edward Gordon Craig'', Eyre Methuen, London, 1981.
★ Brockett, O. ''History of the Theatre'', Allyn and Bacon, Boston, 1994.
★ Craig, E.G. ''On the Art of the Theatre'', Methuen, London, 1911.
★ Johnston, M. ''Directing Methods'', Singleton Press, San Paolo, 1972.
★ Leiter, S.L. ''The Great Stage Directors'', Facts on File, New York, 1994.
★ Steegmuller, F. ''Your Isadora: The Love Story of Isadora Duncan & Gordon Craig'', New York: Random House, 1974.
★ Walton, J.M. ''Craig on Theatre'', Methuen, London, 1983.
★ Wills, R. ''The Director in a Changing Theatre'', Mayfield, Palo Alto, 1976.
★ Gordon Craig Biography
★ ''Edward Gordon Craig and the Modern Theatre of Devising''
★ The Gordon Craig Theatre, Stevenage
| Contents |
| Life |
| Career |
| Legacy |
| Further reading |
| External links |
Life
The illegitimate son of the architect Edward Godwin and actress Ellen Terry, Craig was born Edward Godwin 16 January 1872, in Railway Street, Stevenage in Hertfordshire, England, and baptized, at age 16, as Edward Henry Gordon. He took the surname Craig by deed poll at age 21.
In 1893, Craig married May Gibson and had four children: Rosemary, Robin, Peter, and Philip. With his lover Elena Meo he had two children, Nelly and Edward Carrick (1894-), art director of British motion pictures. With his lover the dancer Isadora Duncan, Craig had a daughter, Deirdre (1906-1913). Tragically, Deidre died by drowning at the age of seven. Edward Gordon Craig died in Paris in 1966 at the age of 94.
Career
Craig asserted that the director was ‘the true artist of the theatre’ and, controversially, suggested doing away with actors in favor of marionettes. He designed and built elaborately symbolic sets; for instance, a set composed of screens for a Moscow production of ''Hamlet'' which proved impractical at the first performance and needed to be rebuilt. He also was the editor and chief writer for the first international theatre magazine, ''Mask''.
He worked as an actor in the company of Sir Henry Irving, but became more interested in art, learning to carve wood under the tutelage of James Pryde and William Nicholson. His acting career ended in 1897, when he went into theatrical design.
Craig's first productions, George F. Handel's opera ''Acis and Galatea'' and Henrik Ibsen's ''The Vikings'' were produced in London. Neither was a success, but Craig had already begun to develop his style. He concentrated on keeping the designs simple so as to set off the movements of the actors and of light, and introduced the idea of a "unified stage picture" that covered all the elements of design.
After finding little financial success in Britain, Craig set out for Germany in 1904. While there, he wrote one of his most famous works, the essay ''The Art of the Theatre'' which was later reprinted with the title ''On the Art of the Theatre''. Craig also met with Constantin Stanislavsky and worked on his famous production of ''Hamlet'' with the Moscow Arts Theatre in 1912. After settling in Italy, Craig created a school of theatrical design with support from Lord Howard de Walden.
Craig was considered extremely difficult to work with, and ultimately refused to direct or design any project over which he did not have complete control. This led to his complete withdrawal from the practical theatre world (Leiter 1994:84). He received the OBE and in 1958 was made a Companion of Honour.
Legacy
Craig's idea of using neutral, non-representational screens as a staging device is probably his most famous scenographic concept, used in his design for ''Hamlet''. In 1910 Craig filed a patent which described in considerable technical detail a system of hinged and fixed flats that could be quickly arranged to cater for both internal and external scenes.
Craig’s second innovation was in stage lighting. Doing away with traditional footlights, Craig lit the stage from above, placing lights in the ceiling of the theatre. Colour and light also became central to Craig’s stage conceptualizations.
“ …Under the play of this light, the background becomes a deep shimmering blue, apparently almost translucent, upon which the green and purple make a harmony of great richness.†(Craig in Bablet 1981)
The third remarkable aspect of Craig’s experiments in theatrical form were his attempts to integrate design elements with his work with actors. His mise en scene sought to articulate the relationships in space between movement and sound, and line and colour. Craig believed in the theatre of the craft of the director – a theatre where action, words, colour and rhythm combine in dynamic dramatic form (Brockett 1994).
All of his life, Craig sought to capture “pure emotion†or “arrested development†in the plays he worked on. Even during the years when he was not producing plays, Craig continued to make models, conceive stage designs and work on directorial plans which never saw the light of performance. He believed that a director should approach a play with no preconceptions and he embraced this in his fading up from the minimum or blank canvas approach (Walton 1983).
As an engraver and a classical artist, Craig found inspiration in puppets and masks. In his 1910 article "A Note on Masks", Craig expounds upon the virtue of using masks as a mechanism for capturing the audience’s attention, imagination and ‘soul’. He also proclaimed “…There is only one actor – nay one man (sic) who has the soul of the dramatic poet, and who has ever served as the true and loyal interpreter of the poet. This is the marionette…†(Walton 1983), asking for actors to lose their prominence.
'On the Art of the Theatre' (Craig 1911), is an imaginary dialogue between a Playgoer and a Stage Director examining the problems of the nature of stage directing. Craig suggests that the first dramatists were not playwrights, but performers who made the first pieces of drama using action, words, line, colour and rhythm. Craig goes on to contend that only the director who seeks to truly interpret drama and commit to training in all aspects of dramatic art, can restore the ‘Art of the Theatre’ (Wills 1976). Maintaining that the director should seek faithful interpretation of the text, Craig pointed out that audiences go to the theatre to ‘see’ not hear ‘plays’. A director must find the rhythm, movement, tone and colour of the text and these elements are more fundamental than the play’s scene and staging details. The design elements can trascend reality and function as symbols, communicating a deeper meaning, rather than simply reflecting the real world.
Further reading
★ Bablet, D. ''The Theatre of Edward Gordon Craig'', Eyre Methuen, London, 1981.
★ Brockett, O. ''History of the Theatre'', Allyn and Bacon, Boston, 1994.
★ Craig, E.G. ''On the Art of the Theatre'', Methuen, London, 1911.
★ Johnston, M. ''Directing Methods'', Singleton Press, San Paolo, 1972.
★ Leiter, S.L. ''The Great Stage Directors'', Facts on File, New York, 1994.
★ Steegmuller, F. ''Your Isadora: The Love Story of Isadora Duncan & Gordon Craig'', New York: Random House, 1974.
★ Walton, J.M. ''Craig on Theatre'', Methuen, London, 1983.
★ Wills, R. ''The Director in a Changing Theatre'', Mayfield, Palo Alto, 1976.
External links
★ Gordon Craig Biography
★ ''Edward Gordon Craig and the Modern Theatre of Devising''
★ The Gordon Craig Theatre, Stevenage
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