Craig, Edward Gordon, 1872-1966

Craig was an English artist, stage designer, and author.

English painter.

Edward Gordon Craig (1872–1966) was an English actor, theatre director, designer, wood engraver, critic, publisher and self taught artist. He wrote many books on the theatre, produced over 500 wood engravings, and designed for theatre throughout Europe and in Moscow.

Edward Gordon Craig was the son of actress Ellen Terry and architect Edward William Godwin. Given the surname Craig by his parents, he began as an actor in Henry Irving's company, but soon turned to production design. His revolutionary theories utilized set design, decor, and costumes, to reinforce the theme of the play rather than realistically depict an object. Although his early productions were artistic successes, they were commercial failures. He toured Europe, writing and producing, and founded The Mask, in which many of his theories were published. He later wrote theatre history. His theories were influential in moving theatre productions away from natural settings toward the symbolic.

Edward Gordon Craig (1872-1966) was an English actor, theatre director, designer, wood engraver, critic, publisher and self taught artist. He wrote many books on the theatre, produced over 500 wood engravings, and designed for theatre throughout Europe and in Moscow.

Edward Henry Gordon Craig [was an] English actor, theatre director-designer, producer, and theorist who influenced the development of the theatre in the 20th century.--"Craig, Edward Gordon." Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Academic ed. http://search.eb.com/eb/article-9026732 (Retrieved December 15, 2008)

Edward Gordon Craig was an English stage designer and artist. He is often referred to as Gordon Craig. He also wrote books about the theatre and its personalities. He was the son of the actress Ellen Terry and was involved with, though never married to, Isadora Duncan. Their only child died at the age of seven.

Mother of Claud Lovat Fraser.

Edward Gordon Craig (1872-1966) était acteur, metteur en scène, scénographe, graveur et théoricien du théâtre. Il était le fils de l'architecte Edward William Godwin (1833-1886) et de l'actrice Ellen Alice Terry (1848-1928). À sa naissance il s'appelait Edward Godwin Terry ; son nom fut officiellement changé en Edward Wardell en 1878. Il adopta le nom de scène Gordon Craig en 1891, qui fut officialisé par la suite. Edward Gordon Craig (1872-1966) was an actor, a stage director, a scenographer, an engraver, and a theatre theorist. He was the son of architect Edward William Godwin (1833-1886) and actress Ellen Alice Terry (1848-1928). Originally named Edward Godwin Terry, his name was changed to Edward Wardell in 1878. In 1891, he adopted the stage name Gordon Craig, which was then confirmed by deed poll.

Edward Henry Gordon Craig was born in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, England, Jan. 16, 1872; son of Ellen Terry, a Shakespearean actress, and Edward William Godwin, and brother of Edith Craig, a theatrical producer and director; attended Southfield Park School in Tunbridge Wells, Bradfield College, and Heidelberg College in Germany; married and later divorced from actress May Gibson; member of the Lyceum, London, where he received training as an actor and began his career in stage design and production, 1889-95; involved in productions such as Acis and Galatea (1902), The vikings at Helgeland (1903), and Much ado about nothing (1903); publications include: The art of the theatre (1905), On the art of theatre (1911), Scene (1923), Woodcuts and some words (1924) and a partial biography titled, Index to the story of my days (1957); magazine publications include: The page (1898-1901) and The mask (1908-29); appointed Royal Designer for Industry of the Royal College of Art, 1938; made a Companion of Honour, 1958; president of the Mermaid Theatre, London (1964); died July 29, 1966 in Vence, France.

Craig was an English scene designer, producer and actor. Moult was an English poet, novelist and critic.

Edward Gordon Craig, British actor, artist, theater designer, director and producer.

Theatrical producer, actor, and set designer of Great Britain.

Influential English artist of the theater, Edward Gordon Craig was a designer, director, actor and author.

Craig was an English scene designer, producer and actor.

Stage designer, actor, director, and theorist. Edward Craig was born in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, England. He worked for nine years as an actor in Irving's company, but left the Lyceum in 1897 to be both a director and a designer. He settled in Italy in 1906, where he published the theatre journal, The Mask, 1908-1929, which together with his scene designs and his books, On the Art of the Theatre, 1911, and The Theatre Advancing, 1921, had a profound influence on modern theatre practice.

English Play-wright.

A well-known English play-wright, puppeteer, and editor of "The Mask". The son of Ellen Terry. (from cf. W.W. ; Paul McPharlin papers) (Blue index cards)

Biography

Edward Henry Gordon Craig was born in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, England, January 16, 1872; son of Ellen Terry, a Shakespearean actress, and Edward William Godwin, and brother of Edith Craig, a theatrical producer and director; attended Southfield Park School in Tunbridge Wells, Bradfield College, and Heidelberg College in Germany; married and later divorced from actress May Gibson; member of the Lyceum, London, where he received training as an actor and began his career in stage design and production, 1889-95; involved in productions such as Acis and Galatea (1902), The Vikings at Helgeland (1903), and Much Ado About Nothing (1903); publications include: The Art of the Theatre (1905), On the Art of Theatre (1911), Scene (1923), Woodcuts and Some Words (1924) and a partial biography titled, Index to the Story of My Days (1957); magazine publications include: The Page (1898-1901) and The Mask (1908-29); appointed Royal Designer for Industry of the Royal College of Art, 1938; made a Companion of Honour, 1958; president of the Mermaid Theatre, London (1964); died July 29, 1966 in Vence, France.

Chronology

Biography/History

Edward Gordon Craig (1872-1966) was the second of two illegitimate children born to the actress Ellen Terry and the architect Edward William Godwin. Like his older sister Edith, Gordon Craig followed his mother into drama. He attended Southfield Park School in Tunbridge Wells, Bradfield College, and Heidelberg College in Germany. Craig became a member of the Lyceum, London, the theatre associated with Henry Irving, where he received training as an actor and began his career in stage design and production. Although Craig's radical ideas would prove highly influential, his English productions were commercial failures. In 1904, he left England for the continent, where he wrote several influential pieces on stage design including "The Art of the Theatre" (1905; republished as "On the Art of the Theatre" in 1911) and "The Actor and the Übermarionette" (1907). Craig's belief in the potential of abstract scenic and lighting design, his studies of movement, and the moveable screens that he created played a prominent role in dramatic experimentation in the early twentieth century. He died in 1966 in Vence, France.

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was born in Dublin, Ireland. He moved to London in 1870, where he tried his hand at writing novels and became involved in progressive politics. Among his many projects, he helped to found the Fabian Society, an organization dedicated to transforming Britain into a socialist state. Although Shaw had been writing plays since 1891, he first became a recognized figure in English drama when he was named drama critic of the Saturday Review in 1895; he soon emerged as perhaps the most important British playwright of the early twentieth century. Among his most famous works are "Arms and the Man" (1898), "Mrs. Warren's Profession" (1898), "Man and Superman" (1902), and "Major Barbara" (1905). Shaw's interest in Ellen Terry dated from her performance in "New Men and Old Acres" in 1878; after he penned "The Man of Destiny" with Ellen Terry in mind in 1895, their correspondence became more intense. Shaw received numerous awards and accolades, including the 1925 Nobel Prize (which he declined).

A summary of events reflected in the Craig-Duncan manuscripts follows. References are to folders in the collection.

Edward Gordon Craig was a theatrical producer, stage designer and author of many publications on the theater. He was the son of the actress, Ellen Terry, and an architect who turned to theater design, Edward William Godwin.

Craig met the American dancer Isadora Duncan (1878-1927) in Berlin in 1904. Their love affair resulted in a daughter, Deidre, who was Duncan's first child and who was drowned accidently in Paris in 1913. The affair was over by 1907 but they continued to correspond. Craig kept “notes” on Duncan (whom he occasionally called “Topsy”) to which he continued to add all of his life.

Martin Fallas Shaw (1875-1958) was an English composer and director of music. He founded, with Craig, and conducted the Purcell Operatic Society in 1899. He toured as music director for Duncan in Germany, Holland, Denmark and Sweden in 1906-1908.

Donald Mitchell Oenslager, an American stage designer and professor, was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on 7 March 1902. Oenslager began his career in the theater as an actor, working at the Greenwich Village Theatre and the Provincetown Playhouse during the early 1920s. He became interested in theater design after studying in Europe and his first project as a designer was in 1925 for a ballet, Sooner or Later . Oenslager was active as a designer through the 1960s, working on many notable Broadway productions, including Of Mice and Men (1937) and A Majority of One (1959), for which he received a Tony Award. He also served as a faculty member of the Yale School of Drama, teaching design from 1925 until his death in 1975 and publishing many works, including, Scenery Then and Now (1936) and Notes on Scene Painting (1952). Profoundly influenced by the European stage designers, Edward Gordon Craig and Adolphe Appia, Oenslager brought a new emphasis on symbolism over realism to American theater design. Throughout his life, Oenslager built up an extensive collection of materials on both Craig and Appia. Following his death on 11 June 1975, Oenslager’s widow, Mary, gave portions of the Craig material to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Billy Rose Theatre Division, while other parts of the collection went to Yale University.

Edward Gordon Craig, the object of Oenslager's collecting efforts and study, was an actor, artist, theater designer and director. Craig was born in Stevenage, England on 16 January 1872, the second of two children produced from the liaison between the actress Ellen Terry and the architect Edward William Godwin. He was baptized Edward Henry Gordon at the age of sixteen (taking the names of his godparents, Henry Irving and Lady Gordon) and added the surname Craig at the age of twenty-one. Exposed to the theater from an early age, Craig had made his stage debut by the age of six. After completing his studies in 1889, Craig became a member of Henry Irving's company at the Lyceum Theatre.

Although Craig received strong critical praise for his acting, he soon retreated from this promising career. In 1893, Craig married May Gibson, an actress, and moved from London to Uxbridge, where he met the artists James Ferrier Pryde and William Nicholson. From them he learned various techniques of printmaking and developed an enthusiasm for wood engraving in particular. His new interest in graphic design was soon coupled with the chance to direct a production of Alfred de Musset's On ne badine pas avec l'amour (1893), for which he also created the designs. In 1898, Craig started a magazine, The Page, which was filled almost entirely with his own work. By the end of 1899 he had engraved nearly 200 blocks and published a book, Gordon Craig's Book of Penny Toys .

During this period, Craig continued to develop as a stage designer and director. He worked with the musician, Martin Shaw, on a production of Dido and Aeneas in 1900 that was groundbreaking in its approach to stage design. The limitations of the space (the Hampstead Conservatoire) enabled Craig to depart from the elaborate, realist traditions of Victorian stagecraft. Craig’s innovations in lighting and design were admired by critics and radical artists, but often proved impractical to mount in the conservative climate of the English commercial theater. In 1904, Craig moved to Berlin for greater opportunities and designed a production of Venice Preserv’d for the Lessing Theatre in 1905. In that same year he produced a significant essay, The Art of the Theatre, which he later reworked as On the Art of the Theatre (1911). Perhaps most importantly, it was in Germany that he met the American dancer, Isadora Duncan. Although their affair was relatively brief in duration, Duncan was to be a major influence on Craig. The two shared a belief in a theater in which all of the arts were united. They collaborated on a book and had two children during the short time that they were together, but the affair was over by 1907 and Craig moved to Florence with his former lover, Elena Fortuna Meo, and established his own theatrical publication, The Mask (1908-1929). It was his association with Duncan, however, that earned Craig an invitation from Konstantin Stanislavsky to design a production of Hamlet for the Moscow Art Theatre in 1912. Following that success, Craig returned to Florence and opened his own School for the Art of the Theatre at the Arena Goldoni, which operated until the outbreak of the First World War.

Craig continued to live in Italy following the war, having moved to Rapallo with Elena Meo and their children in 1917, but he began to shift away from practice into theory, focusing more of his attention on his writings and wood engravings. By the late 1920s, Craig had executed what would be his final stage designs, a Danish production of Ibsen’s The Pretenders (1926) and a New York production of Macbeth (1928). He left Elena Meo again in the early 1930s and moved to France with his secretary, Daphne Woodward, and their child. Among his wood engravings, Craig’s work on the 1929 edition of Hamlet for the Cranach Press is often viewed as one of his greatest accomplishments. Following the end of World War II, Craig settled in the small town of Vence in the south of France, where he completed an autobiography, Index to the Story of My Days (1957) and was visited frequently by his admirers. Craig died in Vence on 29 August 1966.

Sources

Edward Gordon Craig was born in England on 16 January 1872, the son of the actress Ellen Terry and the architect E. W. (Edward William) Godwin. In 1878, at the age of six, he made his first stage appearance in a production of Olivia, by W. G. Wills. He studied at Southfield Park and Bradfield College, and was a member of Henry Irving's theater company at the Lyceum Theatre in London beginning in 1889.

In 1893, Craig married May Gibson, and moved from London to Uxbridge. Under the influence of the artists James Ferrier Pryde and William Nicholson, he learned the art of wood-engraving, and began his career as a graphic designer. In 1893 he directed and designed his first stage production: Alfred de Musset's On ne badine pas avec l'amour . Around this time he also published a magazine, The Page, consisting mostly of his own engravings, and in 1899 published a book of woodcuts with accompanying verses entitled Gordon Craig's Book of Penny Toys .

Craig's career as a stage designer continued to evolve as he collaborated with Martin Shaw in 1901 and 1902 productions of Dido and Aeneas, The Mask of Love and other plays. In 1904 Craig traveled to Berlin to work with the Lessing Theatre, and in 1905 he published his most famous essay, The Art of the Theatre, which was later expanded and republished as On the Art of the Theatre . In Germany he met the dancer Isadora Duncan, with whom he had a brief but intense affair, ending in 1906. Duncan persuaded the theater producer Konstantin Stanislavsky to invite Craig to Moscow, and there he designed an important 1912 production of Hamlet . In 1913, Craig fulfilled a longtime dream by founding his School for the Art of the Theatre in the Arena Goldoni in Florence; however, it closed shortly thereafter at the outbreak of World War I.

Over his long career Craig became known as an important innovator in theater design, popularizing a modern, minimalist style in contrast to the more extravagant style of his mother's age, and his writings, artwork and design had an enormous impact on twentieth-century theater. His publications include the theatrical periodical The Mask (1908-1929), and the books Books and Theatres (1925), Ellen Terry and Her Secret Self (1931), Nothing, or, the Bookplate (1924), The Theatre - Advancing (1919) and his autobiography, Index to the Story of My Days (1957). He spent the last years of his life in the south of France, and died there in 1966.

Epithet: son of Ellen Terry, stage designer