Review by Choice Review
Ebrahimian (lecturer, Stanford and Columbia universities) follows a trail blazed by, among others, Arnold Aaronson (American Set Design, 1985). He also alters the path by offering theatrical designers' words instead of one author's comments about the visual images they create. Ebrahimian's main title is precisely correct, for sculpting space is what designers do. Unlike most sculptors, however, they typically work within specific constraints: a playwright's script and a director's production concept. His subtitle, however, is misleading, as the majority of the text offers not "conversations with ... designers," but monologues by designers. Accompanied by numerous color images of the works explicated, these monologues provide invaluable insights into the processes of work and thought that created the images. Unfortunately, a book like this cannot show the reader the crucial aspect of theatrical designs: whether the designs create on stage "an environment in which the events of the plot must occur," as one of this reviewer's own design teachers once described it. But though the limitations of books make that impossible, this volume will nevertheless be invaluable to theatrical designers, both working and learning, and to all who would understand better what makes a theater production tick. ^BSumming Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers. T. A. Pallen emeritus, Austin Peay State University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
