All Theatre Arts Subject Guide: Background Research

Covers all major playwrights, works, traditions, theories, companies, venues and events; Details the origins of popular theatre tradition; Discusses the work of actors, directors and designers; Written by over 100 expert contributors; Illustrated throughout.

This new and updated encyclopedic guide, with over 2700 cross-referenced entries, covers all aspects of the American theatre from its earliest history to the present. Entries include people, venues and companies scattered through the USA, plays and musicals, and theatrical phenomena. Additionally, there are some 100 topical entries covering theatre in major US cities and such disparate subjects as Asian American theatre, Chicano theatre, censorship, Filipino American theatre, one-person performances, performance art, and puppetry. Major popular forms are represented in entries such as circus, burlesque, vaudeville, and tent shows. Highly illustrated, the Guide is supplemented with a thorough historical survey as introduction, a bibliography of major sources published since the compilation of the first edition, and a unique and valued biographical index covering over 3200 individuals mentioned in the text. This new edition includes hundreds of new and updated entries, making it the most up-to-date guide to American theatre available.

A comprehensive and authoritative single-volume reference work on the theatre arts of Asia-Oceania. Nine expert scholars provide entries on performance in twenty countries from Pakistan in the west, through India and Southeast Asia to China, Japan and Korea in the east. An introductory pan-Asian essay explores basic themes - they include ritual, dance, puppetry, training, performance and masks. The national entries concentrate on the historical development of theatre in each country, followed by entries on the major theatre forms, and articles on playwrights, actors and directors. The entries are accompanied by rare photographs and helpful reading lists.

Coverage ranges from ancient Greek theatre to the latest developments around the globe, including non-Western styles. Dance, opera, performance art, radio,film, and television are covered at length. The Encyclopedia also embraces para-theatrical, non-dramatic, and popular performance, including ritual, carnivals, parades, the circus, and public executions. Biographical entries cover the lives and work of major figures: actors, playwrights, directors,designers, and critics. Innovative entries on cities and regions place performance in its local social and political context.

A detailed and authoritative survey of traditional and contemporary Asian theatre.
Includes hundreds of alphabetically arranged entries written by more than 90 expert contributors.

Guide to the American stage from its beginnings to the present. The book covers not only classic works but also many commercially successful plays plus entries on foreign figures that have influenced our dramatic development (from Shakespeare to Beckett and Pinter).

Provides information on 1000 of the most important plays of world theatre. Each entry contains essential information including title, author, dates of composition and first performance, genre, composition of the cast, a synopsis of the plot, and a brief commentary.

There are entries on dramatists, actors and actresses, directors, theaters, and critics. In addition, there are entries on theater styles, drama festivals, and fascinating details about everything from theater companies, designers, and producers to winners of the Pulitzer Prize. The more technical aspects of theater are also covered, for example lighting, sound, method acting, and the different parts of a stage.

This concise, illustrated dictionary of Shakespeariana, compiled by one of the best-known authorities on his works, provides ready access to a mass of up-to-date material concerning Shakespeare and his cultural heritage in Britain and overseas. Alphabetically arranged entries guide the reader to a wealth of information on Shakespeare's life and times, on the sources and early publication of his works, on their performance history on stage and screen, on actors and writers especially associated with them, on operas and other musical worksderiving from them, on theatres, editions, international Shakespeare organizations - in short, on all aspects of Shakespearian interest. The volume is complemented by a series of striking pronouncements about Shakespeare over the ages, by tables providing interesting facts about the plays, and by auseful guide to further reading. Entries on the plays and the major characters Shakespeare's life and his contemporaries Actors - from Edmund Kean and Ellen Terry to Peter O'Toole and Kenneth Branagh Theatres - including the new Globe in London Directors - Trevor Nunn, Terry Hands, and Adrian Noble Box features with passages about Shakespeare, from authors including Jane Austen, Dr Johnson, and Bernard Levin Illustrations include theatres, portraits of Shakespeare, and famous documents bearing his signature.