The Mask: A Periodical Performance by Edward Gordon Craig

by Olga Taxidou (editor)

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.

216 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 1998

About the author

Olga Taxidou was a lecturer in the Department of English Literature at the University of Edinburgh, where she taught drama. Her main research interest was in performance and cultural theory and she published on classical Greek drama, modernist performance, and contemporary epic and political theatres. She co-edited the journal Studies in Theatre Production and Modernism: An Anthology of Documents and Sources. She was a member of the executive committee of the International Federation of Theatre Research and worked on translations and adaptations for various theatre productions.