Theatre students and researchers can now truly see “behind the scenes” of the world’s greatest dramatic performances. Performance Design Archive Online is the first comprehensive, international collection that covers all aspects of theater production design, from the 17th century through to the present day, including, scenic and set design, lighting design, sound design, costume design, makeup, and more.
Performance Design Archive Online features primary and secondary resources, including sketches, photographs, technical drawings, monographs, articles, and dissertations. Primary resources include never-before-published designs and other crucial research material for diving deep into the history. Secondary material, with titles such as Making Stage Props and Starting Your Career as a Theatrical Designer, offer practical support for the business of creating designs in professional applications. The pairing of primary and secondary material allows for students at all levels to find content to suit their needs.
A special selection of videos commissioned by Alexander Street contains introductory and in-depth coverage of all topics related to contemporary design and scenography. Videos offer students instruction and demonstrations from design faculty at the University of California, Irvine: Jaymi Lee Smith, Lonnie Alcaraz, Vincent Olivieri, Dipak Gupta, and Marcy Froehlich.
Featured Content Partners and Archives:
A partnership with USITT (The United States Institute for Theatre Technology) brings: over a dozen essential biographies, such as
The Designs of Ming Cho Lee; practical teaching resources, such as Practical Projects for Teaching Lighting Design: A Compendium; and the complete run of TD&T (Theatre Design & Technology), a journal that covers “scenography, architecture, technology, and all aspects of the entertainment design and technology world.”
Publishing Partners
Advisory Board
This collection is curated with assistance from an advisory board of respected scholars in the field.
Léon Bakst (1866-1924) was a Russian painter and scene and costume designer. Bakst was one of the founders and pillars of Sergei Diaghilev's original Ballet Russe and is best remembered as a pioneer of color. His set and costume designs used rich, vibrant colors that were exotic and exciting for the time. The Performance Design Archive Online brings together original Bakst designs, combined with contemporary reviews of Bakst’s work and modern analyses of his contribution to the development of set and costume design.
Published quarterly for more than 50 years by The United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT) - an organization that aims to advance the skills and knowledge of theatre and performing arts professionals involved in the areas of design, production and technology - Theatre Design and Technology (TD&T) is an essential trade periodical that offers insight on scenography, architecture, technology, and all aspects of the entertainment design and technology world.
The Grieve Family Collection of Theatre Designs is comprised of hundreds of original scenic designs, including panoramas and perspective ‘cut-outs’ in watercolor and wash by members of the Grieve family. The designs cover performances of various revival productions of Shakespeare plays, along with works by Isaac Pocock, M.R. Lacy, Thomas Otway, Michael Costa, Rossini and others, staged at the Theatre Royal (Drury Lane), the Theatre Royal (Covent Garden), and Her Majesty’s Theatre from 1813 through 1857.
