The Abbey, Ireland’s National Theatre, 1904-1978
by Hugh Hunt
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Aboriginal Voices: Amerindian, Inuit, and Sami Theater (Paj Books)
by Per K. Brask (Editor), William Morgan (Editor)
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American Playwrights, 1880-1945: A Research and Production Sourcebook
by William W. Demastes (Editor)
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Art, Glitter, and Glitz: Mainstream Playwrights and Popular Theatre in
1920s America
by Arthur Gewirtz, James J. Kolb
The theatre and drama of the 1920s was a decade of experimentation and incubation for American playwrights coexisting with a flourishing and vibrant commercial theatre. The volume provides, in 22 essays, provocative, new readings of O’Neill, considerations of other mainstream playwrights, and an extraordinary gamut of articles on the popular theatre of the era.
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The Artistic Home: Discussions With Artistic Directors of America’s
Institutional Theatres
by Todd London
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Asking Around
by David Hare
The candid interviews that formed the basis for David Hare’s famed trilogy of plays about the state of Britain in the early 1990s. Asking Around is a record of the firsthand documentary research that provided the inspiration and source material for David Hare’s trilogy of plays, Racing Demon, Murmuring Judges, and The Absence of War. The trilogy examined the crises that faced three great British institutions — the Church, the Law, and the Labour Party — in the lead-up to the 1992 election that saw the Labour Party once again fail to defeat the Conservatives. Conducted over five years, Hare’s interviews are composed of informal conversations with a wide range of people — from unhappy vicars and police officers forced to put down strikes staged by their childhood friends, to judges and MPs — most of whom reveal a surprising awareness of and cynicism about the principles of their organizations.
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August Wilson and the African-American Odyssey
by Kim Pereira
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Banned Plays: Censorship Histories of 125 Stage Dramas
by Dawn B. Sova
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Between the Lines
by Judith Rudakoff (Editor), Lynn M. Thomson (Editor)
Provides an insider’s perspective on aspects of the art of dramaturgy. Included are conversations with Bill Glassco, Urjo Kareda, Maureen Labonte, Peter Hinton, Bob White, Jenny Munday, D.D. Kugler, Mark Bly, Michael Bigelow Dixon, Anne Cattaneo, Morgan Jenness, Shelby Jiggets and Norman Frisch.
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British Playwrights, 1956-1995: A Research and Production Sourcebook
by William W. Demastes (Editor)
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Broadway Babies Say Goodnight: Musicals Then and Now
by Mark Steyn
The New Yorker: “A witty, anecdote-stuffed history of the past seventy years in musicals.”
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The Cambridge Companion to British Theatre
by Daniel O’Quinn
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The Cambridge Companion to Eugene O’Neill
by Michael Manheim
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The Cambridge Companion to George Bernard Shaw
by C. D. Innes
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The Cambridge Guide to African and Caribbean Theatre
by Errol Hill, George Woodyard (Editor), Martin Banham
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The Cambridge Guide to American Theatre
by Don B. Wilmeth (Editor), Tice L. Miller Upd Edition
Amazon.com Expert Editor’s Recommended Book: An updated, corrected and expanded edition of the 1993 hardback, containing more than 2,300 listings for actors, writers, directors, plays, musicals, theatres, theatrical organizations and other must-know stage entries. The book also features some 100 topical features, covering theatre in major U.S. cities and other subjects (such as African American theatre, Hispanic theatre, criticism, costumes, puppets, circus, etc.). A highlight of this indispensable guide is a biographical index of more than 3,000 names.
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The Cambridge Guide to Asian Theatre
by James R. Brandon (Editor)
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The Cambridge Guide to Theater
by Martin Banham (Editor) New Edition
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The Cambridge History of American Theatre: Beginning to Post-Civil
War
by Don B. Wilmeth, Christopher Bigsby
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The Cambridge Illustrated History of British Theatre
by Simon Trussler
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Canadian Drama and the Critics
by L. W. Conolly (Editor), D. A. Hadfield (Editor)
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Chekhov: Letters About the Theatre
by Carol Rocamora (Translator)
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A Comfortable House: Lanford Wilson, Marshall W. Mason and the Circle
Repertory Theatre
by Philip Middleton Williams
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Companion to Theatre in Australia
by Philip Parsons (Editor), Victoria Chance (Editor)
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The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre
by Peter Found (Editor), Phyllis Hartnoll
2nd Edition
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Contemporary American Playwrights
by C. W. E. Bigsby
In this study Christopher Bigsby explores the works and influences of ten contemporary American playwrights: John Guare, Tina Howe, Tony Kushner, Emily Mann, Richard Nelson, Marsha Norman, David Rabe, Paula Vogel, Wendy Wasserstein, and Lanford Wilson. He examines, in some detail, the developing careers of some of America’s most fascinating and original dramatic talent. In addition to well-known works, Bigsby discusses some of the latest plays to reach the stage.
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Dangerous Theatre: The Federal Theatre Project As a Forum for New Plays
by George Kazacoff
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David Hare (Writers and Their Work)
by Jeremy Ridgeman
A short, clear, critical study of David Hare’s work for theatre, film and television, concentrating on questions of staging, performance and narrative and dramatic form.
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David Mamet and American Macho
by Arthur Holmberg
Why did Americans reject the British gentleman as their dominant model of masculinity? Why is a boy’s relationship to his mother a crucial factor in shaping his masculinity? What and how do boys learn about what it means to be a man? Holmberg demonstrates how David Mamet’s plays provide insights into these questions, and into the masculine malaise. The book provides close readings of Mamet’s well-known plays as well as plays which have not previously received the critical attention they deserve, and includes discussions of recent films and unpublished film scripts that shed light on Mamet’s attitudes to American macho. Holmberg also presents detailed analysis of Mamet as director of his own plays, which gives fascinating insights into the playwright’s intentions through his instructions to actors on how to play a part. “Holmberg uncovers Mamet’s complex approach to American masculinity, revealing how the playwright celebrates men but also critiques the structures by which they define their identities.” — D. E. Magill, Choice
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Drama and Ideology in Modern Israel
by Glenda Abramson
Many political plays have been written in Israel over the past fifty years, and they are perceived, by audiences and critics, as major interventions in political debate. In this first full-length study Glenda Abramson shows that Israeli drama has been at the center of public controversies on many topics, including the ethical basis of Zionism, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the wars and the Holocaust. Hanokh Levin, Yehoshua Sobol, Yosef Mundi and Miriam Kainy are among the playwrights examining Zionism as it affects contemporary Israeli society.
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Dramatists and Dramas
by Harold Bloom (Editor)
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A Documentary History of the African Theatre
by George A. Thompson
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The Dramatists Guild Resource Directory: The Writers Guide to the Theatrical Marketplace
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Dumbocracy in America: Studies in the Theatre of Guilt, 1987-1994
by Robert Brustein
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Enchanted Evenings: The Broadway Musical from Show Boat to Sondheim
by Geoffrey Holden Block
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The Encyclopedia of Stage Plays into Film
by John C. Tibbetts, James M. Welsh, John Staniunas (Editor)
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Everything Was Possible: The Birth of the Musical “Follies”
by Ted Chapin
In 1971, college student Ted Chapin was in the right place at the right time. As a production assistant, or gofer, he found himself front row center at the creation of one of the greatest of all Broadway musicals: Follies. And since (as part of a college assignment) he kept a journal of everything he saw and heard, he was able to document — in unprecedented detail — how a musical is actually made.
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The Facts on File Companion to American Drama
by Jackson R. Bryer (Editor), Mary C. Hartig (Editor)
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The Fervent Years: The Group Theatre and the Thirties
by Harold Clurman
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The Great American Playwrights on the Screen: A Critical Guide to Film, TV, Video and DVD
by Jerry Roberts
The Great American Playwrights on the Screen is a complete, up-to-date record of movie and television productions of classic and contemporary works of the great playwrights. Rich in historical value and detail, this reference book not only tracks Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winners, but also unearths unheralded treasures and forgotten performances by great actors and the great directors they served.
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Harold Pinter’s Politics: A Silence Beyond Echo
by Charles Grimes
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The History of Southern Drama
by Charles S. Watson
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History of the Theatre (10th Edition)
by Oscar G. Brockett & Franklin J. Hildy
Known as the “bible” of theatre history, Brockett and Hildy’s History of the Theatre is the most comprehensive and widely used survey of theatre history in the market. This 40th Anniversary Edition retains all of the traditional features that have made History of the Theatre the most successful text of its kind including worldwide coverage, more than 530 photos and illustrations, useful maps, and the expertise of Oscar G. Brockett and Franklin J. Hildy, two of the most widely respected theatre historians in the field. This tenth edition continues to provide the most thorough and accurate assessment of theatre history available and includes contemporary milestones in theatre history.
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Hot Seat: Theater Criticism for the New York Times, 1980-1993
by Frank Rich
They didn’t call him “The Butcher of Broadway” for nothing. With the stroke of a pen, longtime New York Times theater critic Frank Rich could make or break a Broadway show. “Hot Seat” is an encyclopedic collection of his writing, including opening-night reviews of Broadway shows and reflections on the careers of theatrical luminaries.
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Inside the Royal Court Theatre, 1956-1981: Artists Talk
by Gresdna A. Doty, Billy J. Harbin (Editor)
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In the House of Oshugbo: Critical Essays on Wole Soyinka
by Henry Louis, Jr. Gates (Editor)
Wole Soyinka, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, is one of the most respected of the modern African playwrights. This collection of essays on his plays, poetry and poetics brings together an international list of drama critics including Richard Gilman, Eric Bentley and Robert Brustein, and such literary figures as Raymond Williams, Toni Morrison, Ishmael Reed and Imamu Baraka.
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In-Yer-Face Theatre: British Drama Today
by Aleks Sierz
A definitive look at a brash and provocative genre of contemporary British theater. In the 1990s, British theater audiences were shocked to see blatant portrayals of physical and psychological violence, murder, rape, incest, adultery, drug abuse, and homosexuality onstage. These confrontational and aggressive plays, written by young, honest, and uncompromising playwrights, came to be known as in-yer-face theater. With their use of obscene language, nudity, and even the performance of actual sex acts onstage, the playwrights in this genre intended to force people to think about and question their own desires and impulses.
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The Joint Stock Book: The Making of a Theatre Collective (Methuen Theatrefile)
by Rob Ritchie (Editor)
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Joy Ride: Show People and Their Shows
by John Lahr
Joy Ride throws open the stage door and introduces readers to such makers of contemporary drama as Arthur Miller, Tony Kushner, Wallace Shawn, Harold Pinter, David Rabe, David Mamet, Mike Nichols, and August Wilson. Lahr takes us to the cabin in the woods that Arthur Miller built in order to write Death of a Salesman; we walk with August Wilson through the Pittsburgh ghetto where we encounter the inspiration for his great cycle; we sit with Ingmar Bergman at the Kunglinga Theatre in Stockholm, where he attended his first play; we visit with Harold Pinter at his London home and learn the source of the feisty David Mamet’s legendary ear for dialogue. In its juxtaposition of biographical detail and critical analysis, Joy Ride explores with insight and panache not only the lives of the theatricals but the liveliness of the stage worlds they have created. “Lahr creates a book worthy of its title: It is a living celebration of theater itself.” — Caryn James, New York Times Book Review
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Mapping South Asia through Contemporary Theatre: Essays on the Theatres of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka
Ashis Sengupta (Editor)
Probes the overlap of theatre, society and politics in contemporary South Asia, approaching theatre primarily in politico-aesthetic terms and locating it in the simultaneity of local, national and regional discourse. While re-mapping the region by examining enduring historical and cultural connections, the study discusses multiple traditions and practices of theatre and performance in five South Asian countries.
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Mark Ravenhill (Routledge Modern and Contemporary Dramatists)
by John F. Deeney
Mark Ravenhill is the first book to provide a detailed analysis of the work of arguably the most important dramatist to have emerged from the British theatre over the past twenty years.
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Millennial Stages: Essays and Reviews 2001-2005
by Robert Brustein
A major figure in the world of theater as critic, playwright, scholar, teacher, director, actor, and producer, Robert Brustein offers a unique perspective on the American stage and its artists. In this wise, witty, and wide-ranging collection of recent writings, Brustein examines crucial issues relating to theater in the post-9/11 years, analyzing specific plays, emerging and established performers, and theatrical production throughout the world. Brustein relates our theater to our society in a manner that reminds us why the performing arts matter.
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The Musical: A Concise History
by Kurt Ganzl
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The Musical Theater of Stephen Schwartz: From Godspell to Wicked and Beyond Hardcover
by Paul R. Laird
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The National Theatre Story
by Daniel Rosenthal
Draws on Daniel Rosenthal’s unprecedented access to the National Theatre’s own archives, unpublished correspondence and more than 100 new interviews with directors, playwrights and actors, including Olivier’s successors as Director (Peter Hall, Richard Eyre, Trevor Nunn and Nicholas Hytner), and other great figures from the last 50 years of British and American drama, among them Edward Albee, Alan Bennett, Judi Dench, Michael Gambon, David Hare, Tony Kushner, Ian McKellen, Diana Rigg, Maggie Smith, Peter Shaffer, Stephen Sondheim and Tom Stoppard.
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Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops
by Ken Mandelbaum
From such legendary catastrophes as “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and “Carrie” to the failures of Alan Jay Lerner and Rodgers and Hammerstein, this hilarious account of some “lost” theatre history provides stories of nearly 200 musical flops that played from 1950 to 1991. Framed by the 1988 megaflop Carrie , which theater buffs still speak of in hushed tones, the shows are presented thematically rather than chronologically, thus better underscoring the reasons for failure. While Mandelbaum can be scathing about mediocre material, he carefully analyzes each show, pointing out both problems and strengths, and demonstrates a keen insight into Broadway musical history. Brief synopses and fascinating backstage gossip combine with intelligent criticism and well-chosen illustrations to make this study a required addition to all theater collections. “As befits the subject, ‘Not Since Carrie’ is full of entertaining backstage reportage . . . The illustrations are also fun and wittily chosen, whether embarrassing production photos or sadly hopeful posters and advertising.” –Frank Rich, The New York Times/WQXR.
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The Oberon Anthology of Contemporary American Plays: Volume Two
by Mark Subias (Editor)
The second volume in this series brings together some of the best new writing from contemporary American playwrights. Each play is introduced by critically acclaimed writers themselves. The volume includes: “The Edge of our Bodies” by Adam Rapp, introduced by AM Homes, “The Coward” by Nick Jones, introduced by Marsha Norman, “The Book of Grace” by Suzan-Lori Parks, introduced by Oskar Eustis, “What Once We Felt” by Ann Marie Healy, introduced by Paula Vogel.
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Opening Nights: 25 Years of the Manhattan Theatre Club
by John W. Pereira
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Orphans’ Home: The Voice and Vision of Horton Foote
by Laurin Porter
A Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, an Emmy-winning television writer, and an Oscar-winning screenwriter of such notable films as To Kill a Mockingbird and Tender Mercies, the amazingly versatile Horton Foote has been a force on the American cultural scene for more than fifty years. By critical consensus, Foote’s foremost achievement is the Orphans’ Home Cycle-a course of nine independent yet interlocking plays that traces the transformation of a small-town southern orphan, Horace Robedaux, into a husband, father, and patriarch. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including interviews with Foote, Laurin Porter demonstrates why the author’s masterpiece is a unique accomplishment not only in his personal oeurve but also in the canon of American drama.
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The Oxford Companion to American Theatre
by Gerald Bordman
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The Oxford Companion to Canadian Theatre
by L.W. Conolly (Editor), Eugene Benson
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The Oxford Companion to the Theatre
by Phyllis Hartnoll (Editor)
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The Oxford Dictionary Of Plays
by Michael Patterson
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The Oxford Illustrated History of Theatre
by John Russell Brown
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Peggy to her Playwrights: The Letters of Margaret Ramsay, Play Agent
by Colin Chambers and Peggy Ramsay
Peggy Ramsay (1908-1991) was the foremost play agent of her time. Her list of clients shows her to have been at the centre of British playwriting for several generations from the late 1950s on. To her remarkable array of clients, her letter writing was notorious, marked by searing candour, both a wondrous motivation and an unforgiving scrutiny to be feared. “Peggy judged by the most exalted standards and lashed her writers when they failed to meet them. Her force of personality made her well-nigh irresistible. The letters she wrote to her writers and to producers are extraordinary documents, filled with all these qualities, and indiscreet, blasphemous and saucy to boot.” – Simon Callow
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The Penguin Dictionary of the Theatre
by John Russell Taylor
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The Playbill Broadway Yearbook
by Robert Viagas (Editor)
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Playwrights of Color
by Meg Swanson, Robin Murray
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Plays Of Beth Henley: A Critical Study
by Gene A. Plunka
Elizabeth Becker Henley is a present-day dramatist whose 12 complete plays, three of which have been turned into films, have achieved worldwide production. At age 29 she produced her first full-length drama, Crimes of the Heart, which attained Pulitzer Prize status and garnered three Academy Award nominations as a film. Her Mississippi upbringing and her penchant for the eccentricities of southern culture, however, have caused critics to categorize her writing as a kind of southern gothic folklore inspired by feminist ideology. This book, the first critical study of Henley’s complete plays, attempts to dispel the common stereotypes that associate Henley’s work with regional drama and sociological treatises. It argues instead that Henley can best be perceived as a dramatist who delineates an existential despair manifested in various forms of what Freud calls the modern neurosis. The book maintains that Henley’s plays must be understood as universal statements about the angst of modern civilization, and Henley’s characters are assessed in light of Freud’s proposition that cultural restrictions create neurotic individuals.
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Poetics, Politics And Protest in Arab Theatre: The Bitter Cup And the Holy Rain
by Mas’ud Hamdan
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Right Brain Vacation Photos: New Plays and Production Photographs
from the Omaha Magic Theatre 1972 – 1992
by Jo Ann Schmidman, Sora Kimberlain, Megan Terry
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Rise Up!: Broadway and American Society from ‘Angels in America’ to ‘Hamilton’
by Chris Jones
Penned by one of America’s best-known daily theatre critics and organized chronologically, this lively and readable book tells the story of Broadway’s renaissance from the darkest days of the AIDS crisis, via the disaster that was Spiderman: Turn off the Dark through the unparalleled financial, artistic and political success of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton.
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She Also Wrote Plays: An International Guide to Women Playwrights from the 10th to the 21st Century
by Susan Croft
Looking for plays by women to produce, perform, or read? She Also Wrote Plays is a comprehensive international guide to women playwrights and their work. In an attempt to make visible those who have often been obscured, the entries included herein provide biographical details on over four hundred writers, summaries of their major plays along with a list of other works, and a complete publication history, as well as an extensive, supplemental bibliography. The author, Susan Croft, includes writers whose work demonstrates the diversity and development of dramatic writing in English-speaking countries over the millennia. This diverse collection spans the tenth to the twenty-first centuries; the Americas to the Far East; and covers the works of well-known writers, such as Pulitzer Prize winner Marsha Norman, alongside the lesser-known dramatic adaptations of Jane Austen and Harriet Beecher Stowe and hard-to-find manuscripts, such as the unpublished translations of leading Finnish playwright Hella Wuolijoki. An essential tool for playwrights, performers, producers, and students, She Also Wrote Plays is for anyone interested in the cultural legacy of women in the theatrical world.
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Something Wonderful: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Broadway Revolution
by Todd S. Purdum
“Affectionate and richly researched . . . Something Wonderful offers a fresh look at the milieu and circumstances that contributed to the creation of some of the musical theater’s greatest and most enduring treasures . . . In giving us access to the world that gave birth to them, Purdum’s authoritative and ultimately moving book brings these masterpieces to life with bracing clarity.” — The New York Times Book Review (Editor’s Choice). “A fresh and revelatory look at the personalities of these legendary figures, their relationship with each other, their creative process, and their groundbreaking innovations….Full of illuminating anecdotes about the biggest stars of the day….A celebration of the lives and legacy of one of the most iconic partnerships in artistic history, sure to please anyone who loves musical theater.” — Broadway World
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Theatre Directory
by Theatre Communications Group
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Tony Kushner: New Essays on the Art And Politics of the Plays
by James Fisher (Editor)
11 scholars explore the works of Tony Kushner across his career. Several address Angels: one explores the presentation of homosexuality by Kushner compared to that of Tennessee Williams, who wrote in a less tolerant era; another places Angels in the contexts of Hegel’s concept of freedom and the gay revolution; a third discusses the play in terms of queer theory and politics. Homebody/Kabul is examined in two essays, one analyzing media reaction, the other exploring cultural and economic differences, religious fundamentalism and the “West’s luxurious predominance in the world.”
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Understanding Lillian Hellman (Understanding Series)
by Alice Griffin, Geraldine Thorsten
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Unleashing Britain: Theatre Gets Real, 1955-64
by Jim Fowler
Re-creating this era of constant flux, author Jim Fowler draws on the London Theatre Museum’s rich archive, celebrating a generation that reshaped British culture, including Harold Pinter, Peter Hall, Alan Bennett, Peter Cook, and Dudley Moore. The result is a telling portrait of a key period in modern theater, the influence of which can still be felt around the world.
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Video Versions: A Guide to Plays Available on Video
by Thomas L. Erskine (Editor), et al
Many of our favorite films began as plays — some as well known as Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, and some not so well known as You’ve Got Mail’s origin, a 1937 play Parfumerie by Miklos Laszlo. Video Versions identifies nearly 300 films and their theatrical origins, providing readers with an overview of the films and highlighting similarities and differences to the source plays. Perfect for teachers, students, and anyone interested in theater and film, it is the most complete resource available for video versions of plays.
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Wendy Wasserstein: Dramatizing Women, Their Choices And Their Boundaries
by Gail Ciociola
Although Wasserstein calls herself a humanist, her works reflect a political rhetoric, if cloaked in humor, that she herself could not imagine to be anything but feminist. Shaped by literal, cultural, and materialistic feminist theory, Wasserstein illustrates the impact of the women’s movement on the lives of her female characters. The five major works, with their near-sequel effect, let us see her characters’ college years, mid-twenties, mid-thirties and middle age. Through the use of a newly devised critical context called fem-en(act)ment, or textual or performance drama that is guided by feminist disposition thematically and stylistically, the author here allows for a fresh reading of the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright.
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Women’s Theatre Writing in Victorian Britain
by Katherine Newey
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The World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theatre: Europe (Vol. 1)
by Don Rubin (Editor)
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The World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theatre: Americas (Vol 2)
by Don Rubin (Editor)
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