This is a revised, expanded version of Paynes Design for the Stage: First Steps, the book Choice characterized as An excellent text, a refreshingly innovative approach to theatrical design with an artistic, theatrical, and historical focus rather than the technical craft orientation found in most textbooks.
Payne seeks to instill in beginning scenographers a basic core of knowledge: theater history and the development of drama; art history and an understanding of periods and styles of architecture, painting, sculpture, furnishing, and costume; and the principles, techniques, and materials in pictorial and three-dimensional design. He has incorporated into his text many suggestions for
outside readings, quoting passages and even entire chapters from important works. He stresses research, arguing that the scenographer cannot grow without knowledge of the literature of his own and related arts.
John Kavelin, in Theatre Crafts, recommended Design for the Stage to any student, teacher, or practitioner of design, calling it a literate, well-organized book. The Scenographic Imagination is a bigger, deeper book.
