Early 20th century

During the 1920’s there was a German theatre director, Bertolt Brecht, he believed in a very bare stage so that the truth of the acting was clear and could not be cluttered by elaborate scenery.

Edward Gordon Craig-

Edward Gordon Craig was a pioneer of modern stagecraft; he broke away from the traditional realistic set design throughout the 20^th century. His experimental ideas can be seen to influence all theatre design.

The New Stagecraft-

Towards the end of the 19^th century, two designers revolted against the flat scenery with realistic pictures painted on it. They thought it seemed wrong to surround 3d actors with 2d sets. These two designers were Adolph Appia (1862-1928) and Edward Gordon Craig (1872-1966)

Their controversial ideas would become the main basis of the New Stagecraft; this was mainly involved scenery that suggested a mood or setting without showing it in a realistic way. 

19th Century-

In the 29^th century scenery still looked very architectural and realistic, there were three major scene trends during the 19^th century. Especially in Europe, they were

Historical Accurate Scenery and The Development of the realistic box set,

A revolt against the two-dimensional world of painted canvas.

The English renaissance-

The English renaissance was a cultural and artistic movement in England. This was from the 16^th century to the early 17^th century. It was associated with the pan-European Renaissance that many cultural historians believed originated in the 14^th Century, in Tuscany.

Indigo Jones was an architect and England’s first major scene designer in the 127^th century. He had visited Italy and was inspired by the set design there, so he introduced the Italian concept to the English court theatre of king James, this was called perspective scenery.

He designed this using side wings and many backdrops, in which he framed with a proscenium arch. All of the features are still associated with tradition al theatres today.

Scenery-

Scenery is a product of The Italian Renaissance; it is based on the discovery of rules of perspective and designers, as they used these rules to paint 2D scenery to give the illusion of 3D architecture. The early development of theatrical scenery was the work of a number of artists over a period of approximately two hundred and twenty five year, from 1508 to 1638.

The Shakespearian Theatre-

The Shakespearian Theatre was an open air theatre associated with Shakespeare, built in 1599, and was originally called the Globe Theatre. It was the typical public theatre space of the 15/16^th century. There were mainly no seats and the audience normally stood up.

The theatre was mainly owned by the actors, who were shareholders in Lord Chamberlains Men too. The theatre had been built using timber from an old theatre, called ‘The Theatre’.