Mini Reviews

MINI REVIEWS Lenny Borger, Gautam Dasgupta, Margaret Knapp, Bonnie Marranca The Complete Guide to Modern Dance. Don McDonagh. Doubleday and Co., 534 pp., $12.95 (cloth). Put this one on your book shelf along with McDonagh's equally valuable The Rise and Fall and Rise of Modern Dance. The Complete Guide. . . literally covers modern dance from A to Z-Maud Allen to Batya Zamir. It offers a good overview of the work of choreographers and the periods in which they worked in descriptions (with production information) of over two hundred dances, dating from the 1890s. Brief biographical sketches precede the descriptions; "choreochronicles" follow them. A Complete Guide . . . is structured chronologically, running in five sections, from "Forerunners" to "Freedom and New Formalism (Second Generation)." McDonagh's concise style zeroes in on the fine points of dance. No mere reportage , the book is written with a critic's eye for what is important. A splendid addition to performing arts bibliography. BGM Stage Design Throughoutthe World 1970-75. Edited by Rene Hainaux. Theatre Arts Books, 158 pp., $42.95 (cloth). The "Stage Design Throughout the World" series, a luxurious odyssey into the multifarious sea of scenic charm, has carried us through the years since 1935 in three previous volumes and, in its latest "1970-75" volume, deposits us near home. Each leg of the journey, replete with scenographic marvels that reflect the concerns of contemporary life and drama, is informed by an intelligence, selectivity and, more importantly, a broad-mindedness of approach that is difficult to come by in an era of radical artistic transformation. The current volume, complete with a useful introduction to new trends in the theatre, travels with ease in and out of the theatrical theories of people such as Giorgio Strehler, Luca Ronconi, Antoine Vitez, Peter Stein, Benno Besson, etc. while pausing to reflect occasionally on the thematic insights of Bond, Handke, De Boer and Stoppard, et al. Its single drawback is the short shrift given American productions. Armed with 421 unusual and exciting photographs (mounting costs have taken toll of color reproductions), Stage Design 1970-75 is a unique historical document, a good companion to scholar and theatre lover alike, and a useful tool for scenic designers everywhere. GD 102 The New York Stage: FamousProductionsin Photographs. Edited by Stanley Appelbaum. Dover Publications, 154 pp., $4.50 (paperback). The New York Stage, a compilation of 148 photographs from the Theatre and Music Collection ofthe Museum of the City of New York, covers memorable New York productions from 1883-1939. Appelbaum's criteria for selection are many, primary among them the choice ofphotos of high visual interest. This is particularly true of turn of the century reproductions. The accompanying captions are comprehensive and provide valuable information on opening dates, length of run, awards, brief synopses of scenes portrayed and, occasionally, a short history of the play. The author's brief introductory notes on theatrical photographers is interesting , and the book itselfprovides a nostalgic look at a bygone era. GD Producers on Producing. Edited by Stephen Langley. Drama Book Specialists, 341 pp., $12.50 (hardcover). Producerson Producingshould dispel the myth that the theatre is a "glamorous business." This collection of commentaries and interviews of twenty-four producers gets down to the nitty-gritty, nuts and bolts aspects of theatre. Fortunately for us, institutions rather than personalities are the focus. The book covers a broad range of topics-raising money, commercialism vs. experimentalism, survival tactics , foundation support, audiences and artists, etc.-in a very informal, straightforward fashion. There's plenty of valuable and helpful information hereit sometimes comes in humorous doses-from prominent producers and founders of regional, educational, off-off Broadway and Broadway theatre, as well as foundations and government agencies. Read along with Stuart Little's recently published After the FACT: A Report on the FirstAmerican Congressof Theatre,it should provide an excellent historical perspective on cultural politics. BGM The Falling Sickness. Russell Edson. New Directions, 90 pp., $3.75 (paperback). Though Russell Edson calls his plays "entertainments" or "amusements" the laughs they elicit are the kind that stick in the throat. The four plays collected in The FallingSickness dramatize scenes from family life, and one has only to compare...