Unique Vision for American Theatre
Jones was unsatisfied with American theatre when he began his career and spent the rest of his life actively trying to invigorate and enliven it. He found realism to be frustratingly constricting, and in his frank description, "something we practice when we're not feeling well." He didn't think realism was compelling, and he didn't find that it challenged the audience enough. He considered himself an artist first and foremost before all else, and he saw the theatre as a place for art. in his lecture The Art of Theatre he speaks of theatre as if it is a living creature. "The theatre isn't and engine. It's an organism. It's alive. It lives and breathes. And it's wild, wild, strange, uncontrollable! It won't allow itself to be reduced to mechanical terms." He was disappointed with how static the theatre had become, and he sought to change that by imbuing all of his work with the same emotion that he felt was missing from the current time. He wanted everyone to be as excited and exhilarated by the theatre as he was.
Before Jones began to work in America, most theatrical design was done by unnamed workers under the direction of a producer or director. Jones not only revolutionized this by becoming a well-known designer and training other designers, but he also worked with as much creative control as he could. For shows he would usually design everything-the set, the lights, the props, and the costumes. This approach knit every aspect of his design together and created a coherent stage picture.
Psychoanalysis was an influence in Jones' work. His work had always been about simplifying the setting down to its basic elements, which would create symbolic objects and areas that reflected the psychoanalytical theory of the value of symbols in life and dreams, but it became more pronounced after he underwent sessions with Carl Jung. It is also the influence of Jung that Jones published The Dramatic Imagination and began to go on his lecture tour. A new idea became apparent in these, and that is the play of the subconscious and conscious on stage as a way to connect more effectively with the audience. Jones saw that actors and the costumes as the conscious part of the show and the one that the audience would connect with and focus more directly on, while the setting and light treatments would be the unconscious part of the show; reflecting the internal struggles and emotions of the characters while not overshadowing them. This is the opposite of realism, where everything is plainly laid out for the audience and there is no deeper layer, and was now symbolic art. Jones put a lot of research and thought into his designs, and through psychoanalysis he was able to find a vocabulary to help adequelty express this to his peers and the public.
Before Jones began to work in America, most theatrical design was done by unnamed workers under the direction of a producer or director. Jones not only revolutionized this by becoming a well-known designer and training other designers, but he also worked with as much creative control as he could. For shows he would usually design everything-the set, the lights, the props, and the costumes. This approach knit every aspect of his design together and created a coherent stage picture.
Psychoanalysis was an influence in Jones' work. His work had always been about simplifying the setting down to its basic elements, which would create symbolic objects and areas that reflected the psychoanalytical theory of the value of symbols in life and dreams, but it became more pronounced after he underwent sessions with Carl Jung. It is also the influence of Jung that Jones published The Dramatic Imagination and began to go on his lecture tour. A new idea became apparent in these, and that is the play of the subconscious and conscious on stage as a way to connect more effectively with the audience. Jones saw that actors and the costumes as the conscious part of the show and the one that the audience would connect with and focus more directly on, while the setting and light treatments would be the unconscious part of the show; reflecting the internal struggles and emotions of the characters while not overshadowing them. This is the opposite of realism, where everything is plainly laid out for the audience and there is no deeper layer, and was now symbolic art. Jones put a lot of research and thought into his designs, and through psychoanalysis he was able to find a vocabulary to help adequelty express this to his peers and the public.
The Dramatic Imagination and Collected Lectures
Jones wrote about his ideas and vision for New Stagecraft and for the American Theatre as a whole in his book from 1941 The Dramatic Imagination. He also spread his work through lecture tours he would take around the country to various universities and institutions in an attempt to inspire the theatre community into creating better work.
A Lasting Influence Still Apparent Today
Robert Edmond Jones' influence is still seen today even though more than 60 years have passed since his death.This is partly due to the lasting quality of his ideas, and also through his teachings. Some of the most famous and influential scene designers to follow Jones were trained by him, including Mordecai Gorelik and Jo Mielziner, who then went on to train Ming Cho Lee and others. Jones also went on extensive lecture tours throughout America and worked at various universities, further spreading his New Stagecraft gospel. He was almost unive