Top 9 recommendation drafting for the theater for 2022

Go to amazon.com

In this newly revised second edition, veteran stage designers and technical directors Dennis Dorn and Mark Shanda introduce industry-standard drafting and designing practices with step-by-step discussions, illustrations, worksheets, and problems to help students develop and refine drafting and other related skills needed for entertainment set production work. By incorporating the foundational principles of both hand- and computer-drafting approaches throughout the entire book, the authors illustrate how to create clear and detailed drawings that advance the production process.

Early chapters focus on the basics of geometric constructions, orthographic techniques, soft-line sketching applications, lettering, and dimensioning. Later chapters discuss real-life applications of production drawing and ancillary skills such as time and material estimation and shop-drawing nomenclature. Two chapters detail a series of design and shop drawings required to mount a specific design project, providing a guided path through both phases of the design/construction process. Most chapters conclude with one or more worksheets or problems that provide readers with an opportunity to test their understanding of the material presented.

The authors' discussion of universal CAD principles throughout the manuscript provides a valuable foundation that can be used in any computer-based design, regardless of the software. Dorn and Shanda treat the computer as another drawing tool, like the pencil or T-square, but one that can help a knowledgeable drafter potentially increase personal productivity and accuracy when compared to traditional hand-drafting techniques.

Drafting for the Theatre, second edition assembles in one book all the principal types of drawings, techniques, and conventional wisdom necessary for the production of scenic drafting, design, and shop drawings. It is richly illustrated with numerous production examples and is fully indexed to assist students and technicians in finding important information. It is structured to support a college-level course in drafting, but will also serve as a handy reference for the working theatre professional.

Go to amazon.com

Go to amazon.com

Go to amazon.com

Go to amazon.com

Go to amazon.com

Go to amazon.com

The most recent innovation brought to theater technology by the eminent theater designer George C. Izenour is a "trans-sondant" curtain, mimicking a wall, which allows halls visually to metamorphose into small or large performance spaces while retaining optimum acoustic quality in both guises. A full set of drawings and photographs of the first trans-sondant structure, in the Vern Riffe Center for the Arts (1995), is one of the new features in the second edition of this incomparable reference guide to theater engineering and technology.

Izenour ties detailed information on construction, lighting, acoustical structures, electro-mechanical-hydraulic systems, and stage controls to a rich history of technological developments from the invention of the proscenium stage in late Renaissance Italy to the contributions of our own time. All the drawings are produced on the same scale for plan, transverse section, and perspective section. Theater Technology is a reference and source of ideas and inspiration for students, teachers, and practitioners in fields including acoustics, structural engineering, design, lighting, and architecture for the theater. For theater and architecture buffs it offers a detailed and illustrated history of the field and speculation on its future directions.

Go to amazon.com

Winner of the 2014 George Freedley Memorial award.

"A gorgeous volume [that] celebrates the legacy of Lee." Time Out New York

"Whether working in theater, opera or dance, Ming Cho Lee has made an incalculable contribution to the performing arts in America. This elegant coffee table book, written by Arnold Aronson, pays tribute in prose and photographs to his singular career." Los Angeles Times

"A comprehensive, compassionate and intelligent book... A book of major importance, a must-read for all theatre folk, indeed for anyone drawn to the mysteries of making art." Theatre Design & Technology

Ming Cho Lee is not only one of the most important American designers of the twentieth century, but one of the most significant influences on American theatre. As a designer, he drew upon his training in Chinese watercolor, the aesthetics of his mentors, Jo Mielziner and Boris Aronson, and the post-war developments in German design to develop a new approach to stage design that radically altered American scenography. He broke new ground, combined existing motifs in startling new ways and continued to explore new ideas throughout his entire career. Lee introduced a sculptural style with soaring verticality that had been largely unknown to American stages. The painterly image was replaced with a decidedly modern and industrial scenic vocabulary that emphasized stage-as-stage.

Lee has designed more than 300 productions of theatre, opera and dance, beginning with his first student work, The Silver Whistle at Occidental College in 1952, through his last productions in 2005. Unlike his predecessors, Lee did not make his mark on Broadway. Rather, it was achieved through some forty productions with the New York Shakespeare Festival, including eleven seasons at the Delacorte Theater from its opening in 1962; thirteen productions for New York City Opera, beginning with its inaugural production at Lincoln Center; five mainstage productions for the Metropolitan Opera, including Boris Godunov, which stayed in the repertoire for more than thirty years; twenty-one productions for Arena Stage in Washington D.C., and numerous other productions at regional theatres including the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C., Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, and Actors Theatre of Louisville; and ten pieces for the Joffrey Ballet, as well as productions for Martha Graham, Alvin Ailey, Elliot Feld, the Pacific Northwest Ballet and Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan.

Called the dean of American set designers by the New York Times, Lee had an impact that goes well beyond his own work. As a teacher, including more than forty years at the Yale School of Drama, Lee shaped generations of theatre artistsnot only set designers, but costume and lighting designers, as well as directors, writers and dramaturgs. It is through these students that he helped transform not only American scenography but the larger aesthetics of American theatre.

For this richly detailed exploration of Lees work, theatre historian Arnold Aronson spent hundreds of hours interviewing Lee at his legendary New York apartment. The book is both a study of and a conversation with Ming Cho Lee. Each image selected for this book was chosen personally by Lee from thousands of photos, drawings, sketches, renderings and models, all carefully cataloged by Lees wife and lifelong archivist, Betsy. Lees work has been showcased at the New York Public Library and the Yale School of Architecture, and his honors include a Tony Award for best scenic design of a play, an Outer Critics Circle Award, three Drama Desk Awards, a special Tony Award for lifetime achievement and the National Medal of the Arts, the highest national award given in the arts.

Go to amazon.com