Stage Designs

After another summer of supremely illusionistic film, of young wizards and fallen stars, labyrinths and pirates, magical fantasies created by artists and animators, and of the daily fantasy we inhabit in Second Life, I thought back to my own age.
The Baroque was the supreme age of illusion. Sumptuous spectacles marked every turning point in a sovereign's life. The stage offered princes and kings vast dream palaces free from the "vulgar solidity of stone". The Bibienas, a remarkable family of eight theatrical designers, were the undisputed masters of the Baroque stage set, and Giuseppi Bibiena (1696-1756) was the happy inheritor and brilliant exploiter of the family's skills and inventions. (adapted from A. Hyatt Mayor, Curator of Prints, Mertropolitan Museum of Art)
I have used Giuseppi's proscenium arch and other bits, plus a little of my own invention, in these three designs, preparatory to the construction of my Doric Theatre in Orion.