Customer Reviews

Theater Design: Second Edition

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A beautiful and loving treatment of theater design through the ages, George Izenour's classic, long out-of-print, has been recently edited and re-released. A must-have for all theater fans, architects, stage designers, acouticians and classical musicians. The plan, perspective and cut-away drawings of hundreds of theaters, large and small, are a marvel of precision, detail and artistry. Professor Emeritus of Yale Drama School Izenour brings a life-time of experience to this handsome - and heavy - volume. Well worth the high price.

I am an acoustical and systems design consultant who specializes in the design and functional rehabilitation of worship and performing arts facilities. My role in the planning of such facilities, including ongoing refinements throughout their lifetimes, has pulled me in the direction of taking a broader responsibility for ensuring competent design of the functional elements for sight and sound - that is, of being a "theatre consultant."

In preparation for a book I am writing on the competent functional design of worship facilities, I have undertaken a review of available literature on the subject of public assembly facility design, and in so doing, have found this book to stand out as being in a class of its own in terms of thoroughness, timelessness (freedom from fads), depth of historical perspective, technical authority, and a willingness to not mince words about real-world obstacles to competent design. Izenour, who sadly was taken from us this past March, was truly the "dean" of the theater consulting profession. While I wish I had had more opportunities to learn from this master of the craft of auditorium design, we would all be a lot poorer without this best-of-the-best book. Enjoy!