Tom Stoppard's stagecraft

Since the widely acclaimed premiere of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead in 1967, Tom Stoppard has continued to provide an intellectual depth to his works that is uncommon in Broadway or West End theatrical productions. As a capable playwright, Stoppard effectively manages the full range of the elements of theatre to work as integral points in his rhetorical statements. This study presumes that one cannot understand a dramatic composition in isolation from a context of playgoer activity and analyzes the meanings that arise in Stoppard's plays from sets, furnishings, properties, lighting, music, sound effects, vocal delivery, mise en scène, actions, movements, gestures, costumes, and dramatic structure.