The Routledge Companion to Scenography

The Routledge Companion to Scenography is the largest and most comprehensive collection of original essays to survey the historical, conceptual, critical and theoretical aspects of this increasingly important aspect of theatre and performance studies.

Editor and leading scholar Arnold Aronson brings together a uniquely valuable anthology of texts especially commissioned from across the discipline of theatre and performance studies.

Establishing a stable terminology for a deeply contested term for the first time, this volume looks at scenography as the totality of all the visual, spatial and sensory aspects of performance. Tracing a line from Aristotle’s Poetics down to Brecht and Artaud and into contemporary immersive theatre and digital media, The Routledge Companion to Scenography is a vital addition to every theatre library.

Arnold Aronson, a theatre historian and professor of theatre at Columbia University in New York City, writes on scenography as well as modern and contemporary theatre. Books include Ming Cho Lee: A Life in Design; The Disappearing Stage: Reflections on the 2011 Prague Quadrennial; Looking into the Abyss: Essays on Scenography; American Avant-Garde Theatre: A History; American Set Design and The History and Theory of Environmental Scenography. He is a former editor of Theatre Design & Technology and is currently co-editor of the journal Theatre and Performance Design. He has a long history with the Prague Quadrennial, the international exhibition of theatre and performance design and architecture, serving as President of the Jury in 1991 and 1999, curator of the US exhibit in 1995 and General Commissioner in 2007.