Abstract

Two Great Men of the Theatre

This article presents a brief information on two books, "The Dramatic Imagination," by Robert Edmond Jones and "On the Art of the Theatre," by Gordon Craig. Theatre Arts Books is to be congratulated for making available again these two essential documents of the modern theatre. Craig's book, was first published in 1912, Jones's in 1941. But they' almost overlap in time, for Jones is talking about--that "ideal theatre" which he pursued from the very beginning of his career, about the time of World War I. Craig wanted the theatre artist to be free from literal-minded documentation, so that he might use the stage as a poet uses words, or a musician sound, to embody his inner vision directly. This theme appears again and again in the book On the Art of the Theatre."