Craig, (Edward Henry) Gordon

Craig, (Edward Henry) Gordon (1872–1966), English scene designer and theorist. The son of Ellen Terry and E. W. Godwin, he was for a time an actor. In 1903 he prepared some interesting sets for Fred Terry's production of Calvert's For Sword or Song and for his mother's productions of Much Ado about Nothing and Ibsen's The Vikings. He was also responsible for the designs for Otway's Venice Preserv'd (Das gerettete Venedig) in Berlin (1905) and Ibsen's Rosmersholm for Duse (1906). In 1908 he settled in Florence, where he founded and edited the Mask, a journal devoted to the art of the theatre, and also ran a school of acting. In 1911 he designed the costumes for Yeats's The Hour Glass at the Abbey Theatre, where his invention of screens as a background for lights to play on, which he used in his production of Hamlet for the Moscow Art Theatre in 1912, was seen in public for the first time. He designed and produced Ibsen's The Pretenders in Copenhagen (1926), and his last designs for the theatre were for a New York production of Macbeth (1928). His theories on acting and stage settings are described under scenery and amplified in his numerous publications, especially On the Art of the Theatre (1911). They had an immense influence on the theatre in Europe and the USA. Shortly before his death his vast theatrical library was bought by the French government.

His sister, Edith Craig (1869–1947), was an actress and director. From 1911 to 1921 she directed the Pioneer Players in some 150 plays, including Claudel's L'Ôtage as The Hostage (1919). She also inaugurated and ran until her death the annual Shakespeare matinée held on the anniversary of her mother's death in the barn at Small Hythe, where Ellen Terry spent her last years (now a museum).