Theater Backstage from A to Z
by Norman C. Boulanger
The original notes on this page concerned the third edition, by the late Warren C. Lounsbury and Boulanger; a couple of comments relate to the fourth.
This is quite simply the most accessible book on technical theater. It has nothing about acting or directing, little about costuming, nothing very systematic about backstage procedures, but as a reference for carpenters, painters, scenic designers and stagehands, this is a great piece of work.
As the title suggests, the entries are in alphabetical order. If you want a quick but pretty detailed treatment of flat construction, selection of scenic fabrics, lenses, squeaky door effects or techie slang, you just look it up. The book runs around 220 pages (wire-comb binding, so it lies flat) and most of the articles are just a few lines long, so the number of points covered is huge. Theater Backstage isn't a textbook, nor does it attempt to treat every subject at an advanced level; it won't replace references on scenic design, lights, costumes or carpentry.
Like all technical theater books, this one has out-of-date bits. The great bulk of the entries here won't date any time soon, though; the grandchildren of today's stage carpenters will still speak of new lumber having a "curse," and as long as theaters use curtains we'll have to know how to rig an olio curtain. Boulanger makes an effort to work in the latest technology: digital audio tape (taking pride of place before compact disks!), intelligent lighting and so forth.
There is some new material on stage crew organization, sound and lighting equipment, and so forth. Frankly, I have better things to do than a line-by-line comparison of the third and fourth editions.
Every day some real-world carpenter gets suckered into building a set and finds that the bare essentials of framing and finishing not only aren't big concerns in the theater, they aren't even on the chart. People say stage carpenters can do carpentry but carpenters can't do stage carpentry; it would just about be true if handbooks like this one did not exist.
Anyone who has to pick their way through the process of buying lumber and fabric, designing load-bearing structures on the fly, making phony walls look like real ones, or creating lighting, paint and sound effects will find this a most useful book.
Paul Carter's Backstage Handbook covers some of the same topics and a lot besides. Both works are vital for anyone in technical theater.
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Theater Backstage