THEATRES AND AUDITORIUMS

(Second Edition).By Harold Burris-Meyerand Edward C. Cole '26. New York:Reinhold Publishing Corp., 1964. 376 pp$20.00.

Sixteen years ago, a book entitled Theatresand Auditoriums quietly appeared and proceeded to revolutionize the building and planning of theatres throughout the country. Before its publication any information about theatre planning, or indeed any kind of public hall, was to be found only in widely scattered pamphlets. Architectural handbooks, put out by State or Federal Departments, to assist anyone who contemplated building a Hall or theatre, were hopelessly out of date. For example; the stage lighting installations advocated by these handbooks were of a type in use around 1900, and this was printed and reprinted without alteration until the 1960's.

Theatres and Auditoriums changed all that. It gathered together all the best current planning and design in the field of theatre architecture and made it readily available in clear prose and direct illustrations to accompany the text. It is not too much to say that this book is responsible for a great deal of the excellence of many of the theatres that have been erected since 1947. During the early 1960's the Hopkins Center planning staff consulted this volume repeatedly and engaged one of the authors, Edward C. Cole '26, as theatre consultant.

Perhaps the finest accolade for this book is the sure fact that it stimulated and provided the germ for newer and even more experimental designs for theatres ever since. By 1965 the first edition began to seem dated. In 1947 the arena style of stage presentation was fairly rare. The so-called "thrust stage" form of the Stratford, Canada, Shakspere Theatre was merely a conception in the mind of its founder. The Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis was undreamed of. The flexibility represented in the combination proscenium-arena stage of Hopkins Center's Studio Theatre was unneeded because few theatres used two types of staging. By 1965 most of these were becoming commonplace and normal adjuncts for many theatres throughout the United States. Obviously, a new edition of the book was needed that would include all of these. This has now appeared and it is a brilliant job.

The Second edition of Theatres and Auditoriums, like the First, is a must for every architect's office if his firm is concerned with the building of public auditoriums of any sort, however large or small. Yet it would do the book infinite injustice to give the impression that only architects can profit from it. The writing, illustrations and examples are models of clarity and lucidity. Any layman can easily grasp the information and need no longer feel that he is at the mercy of the specialist.

It should be required reading for all members of school boards who are contemplating building a theatre or assembly hall. In this book the board member has before him in clear detail every conceivable variation of modern theatre planning practice and from this he can choose with the assurance of excellent guidance. One word of warning, however, must be inserted. As the book points out, all elements of the theatre are dependent on each other for a thoroughly integrated plan to emerge and a suecessful and usable theatre be the result. Piecemeal or patchwork use of certain elements to the neglect of others can produce a poor and unworkable stage and auditorium.

Some years ago a high-school teacher asked Mr. Burris-Meyer why her theatre in Baltimore didn't have good acoustics. She had read his book and used some of his suggestions but the acoustics turned out to be too lively. Burris-Meyer said: "Did you follow the book?" "Not entirely." "Ah!" said Burris-Meyer, "If you had followed the book you'd have had good acoustics!" Whether even the author can be as dogmatic as this about anything as tenuous as the science of acoustics or not, it is probably safer to say that if she had followed the book she would have had better acoustics and, over the years those who have followed the book have rather tended to prove him right.

Coming nearer home, for the Dartmouth man, this book has a rather special interest not only in the fact that Edward C. Cole is an alumnus but also in the fact that there are 9 excellent photographs of Hopkins Center as well as plans of the building included. The text discussing the Center quite rightly emphasizes the building as a fine example of theatre planning.

If anyone is thinking of planning a theatre, assembly hall, large or small, here is the book for him. In fact he avoids it at his peril.

Professor of English