page_title: Nineteenth-century theatrical scenery
section_title: Noted designers, artists, and technologists
hierarchical_section_title: Nineteenth-century theatrical scenery / Noted designers, artists, and technologists
context_page_description: Theatre in the nineteenth century was noted for its changing philosophy from the Romanticism and Neoclassicism that dominated Europe since the late 18th century to Realism and Naturalism in the latter half of the 19th century before it eventually gave way to the rise of Modernism in the 20th century. Scenery in theater at the time closely mirrored these changes, and with the onset of the Industrial Revolution and technological advancement throughout the century, dramatically changed the aesthetics of the theater.
context_section_description: It was during this time that scenic artists began to be recognized for their work. Many of the scenic artists operated their own scenic studios in New York and towards the latter half of the century, the first theatrical unions were formed as a response to the Theatre Syndicate. Producers who originally hired staff carpenters and company painters began to place their productions out to bid. It was also during this time period that designers began working with models to convey their design.
  Steele MacKaye (1842-1894) was an innovative theater technologist who invented the elevator stage. In 1880, at the Madison Square Theater in New York, MacKaye used two stages: one above the other, which could be raised and lowered; while one stage was in view of the audience, the scenery on the other, which was either in the basement or in the fly area, could be changed.
  David Belasco (1853-1931) was an American producer, director and playwright. Mr. Belasco is primarily remembered today for his emphasis on naturalistic detail. David Belasco is best known for his ultra-realistic melodramas of the turn of the century. He and his chief scenic artist, George Gros, created meticulously detailed interiors, realistic exteriors, and stunning atmospheric effects. Belasco and Gros produced some of the most memorable scenic inventions of the American theatre and certainly some of the finest realistic scenery of theatre history. His laborious scenic and lighting techniques were seen by the avant-garde as the embodiment of every ill of the stage and were severely ridiculed by history. In 1909, for a production of The Easiest Way, his scenic artist placed the contents of a boarding house room, including the wallpaper, on the stage of the Stuyvesant Theatre and three years later (1912) he built on stage a fully functioning restaurant for the Governor's Lady.
  Alfred Roller (1864-1935) was trained as a painter in Vienna, but his designs hinted at a new concept of scenic design. Focused entirely on the interplay of light and color to create evocative stage spaces. Roller’s designs relied on a selected or simplified realism in which only few items were introduced to the stage, but each of them evocative, detailed and powerful. He utilized mobile scenic towers that could be rearranged and altered with light to form new shapes and movement patterns on the stage (Sumner 338). He was probably the earliest designer to embody and practice the ideas of Adolph Appia and Edward Gordon Craig.
  Charles Witham (1842-1926) was born in Portland, Maine and educated as an artist. He spent some time as an itinerant landscapist before becoming involved with the theater. Thanks to the friendship of Gaspard Maeder, Witham obtained his first theatre job as Maeder's assistant when the latter was chief designer for Niblo’s Garden in New York in the early 1860s. By 1863, Witham had become head designer for the Boston Theater where he painted scenery for Edwin Forrest. His stay in Boston was short because he was hired by Edwin Booth to join his staff as scenic artist. He would go on to be Booth's primary designer for years to come. His work remains the largest surviving collection of theater scenic art from the time period.
caption: Alfred Roller, Before a Palace, for Goethe's Faust, Part II, Act V, Scene 17, 1911, pen and black ink, watercolor and gouache, on paper
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