Stagecraft encompasses the comprehensive technical practice behind theatrical, film, and video productions, covering everything from constructing scenery and managing lighting to designing costumes and audio engineering. This technical field translates a scenic designer's artistic vision into reality, evolving from single-person efforts in small productions to a highly specialized discipline requiring numerous experts for major shows like those on Broadway.

Ancient Greek theatre made extensive use of stagecraft, featuring the skene backdrop, rotating periaktos for scene changes, the ekkyklema for revealing dead bodies, and the mechane crane, which literally inspired the phrase "deus ex machina." Later, between 1576 and 1642 in England, the Globe Theatre pioneered rigging systems and trap-doors, while France developed the proscenium or "picture-box" stage, which remains the most popular design today, originally illuminated by candles.