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“I want to leave behind me the seeds of the art for it does not yet exist. And such seeds are not to be discovered in a moment. So let your machines be simple and let your craftsmen be skilled and let an artist supervise everything. And in the staging of play-as in the writing of it… heart and head and hands must be as one.”
--- Edward Gordon Craig
Edward Gordon Craig was one of the most influential stage designers in the early twentieth century. He was a British theatre practitioner who created heavily symbolic set designs. His goal was to bring out "pure emotion" through his sets.
One of his big accomplishments was creating a moveable screen/scenery (a hinged flat that could be used inside and out).
He designed many sets, some being Shakespeares Much Ado About Nothing, Purcell's Opera Dido, Aeneas in London, Purcell's Masque from his Opera Dioclesian, Handel's Acis and Galatea, Bethlehem by Laurence Housman at the Imperial Institute in London, and Ibsen's Vikings at Helgeland in the Imperial Theatre.
He also had an impact on the lighting world. He had the idea of moving the floodlights from their traditional position to above the stage where they still are positioned to this day.
In 1911, Craig wrote a book on theatre theory called The Art Of The Theatre. This book outlines innovations in stage design based on the use of portable screens and changing patterns of light. His theories influenced the antinaturalist trends of the modern theatre.
Once Craig passed away, in his honor, the Gordon Craig Theatre was built back in his hometown (Stevenage).
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