Robert Edmond Jones’ scenic rendering as design artifact and professional tool

This article argues that Robert Edmond Jones adopted European scenic rendering techniques during the first five years of his career. While use of the perspective drawing (rendering) was uncommon among Jones’ predecessors, after Jones, New Stagecraft designers readily accepted the rendering as a key element of professional practice. By comparing Jones’ early style to that of Max Reinhardt's Deutsches Theater, especially the work of art director Ernst Stern, the article suggests that Jones adapted Reinhardt and Stern's representational techniques for use in the US-based New Stagecraft movement. Jones’ particular developments included the inclusion of lighting and shadow, the presentation of a posed, costumed figure alongside scenic architecture and the compositional use of figures to illustrate moments of high drama. Viewing renderings as artifacts within a design process, rather than as evidence of the production itself, clarifies the instrumental value of such perspective drawing. Renderings’ depiction of composed dramatic moments afforded designers greater control and autonomy over the completed stage picture at the beginning of the New Stagecraft movement.