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National Theatre Studies
See also: Theatre > Canadian
Theatre Studies and Theatre Criticism,
History & Theory New
 Noh
Mutsuo Takahashi, Toshiro Morita & Kazuya Takaoka
Noh is a form of masked drama, but the function of the masks is different from that in Greek Tragedy. In Noh, the main purpose of the mask is not to assist the audience in identifying the character, but rather to enable to actor to better inhabit the role. This beautifully illustrated book is an excellent introduction to this fascinating art form. Softcover, 286 pp. $41.00.
 Theatre World Volume 58: 2001-2002
John Willis
The authoritative statistical and pictorial record of the Broadway and Off-Broadway season, touring companies, and professional regional companies throughout the United States with more than 500 dramatic photographs. Complete cast listings, replacements, producers, directors, authors, composers, opening and closing dates, song titles, and much, much more. Special sections with biographical data, obituaries, listings of major drama awards, including photos of the season's 12 Theatre World Award winners. Softcover, 321 pp. $25.95.
 The American Stage
Laurence Senelick
Here is the story, told firsthand through electric, deeply engaged writing, of America's living theatre, high and low, mainstream and experimental. Drawing on history, criticism, memoir, fiction, poetry, and parody, editor Laurence Senelick presents writers with the special knack "to distill both the immediate experience and the recollected impression, to draw the reader into the charmed circle and conjure up what has already vanished." Through the words of playwrights and critics, actors and directors, and others behind the footlights, the entertainments and high artistic strivings of successive eras come vividly, sometimes tumultuously, to life. Hardcover, 867 pp. $50.00.
 London's Grand Guignol
Richard J. Hand & Michael Wilson
This book considers the importance and influence of the English Grand Guignol within its social, cultural and historical contexts. It also presents a selection of ten remarkable English-language Grand Guignol plays, some of which were banned by the Lord Chamberlain, the censor of the day, and have never been published or publically performed. Among the plays in this book is a previously unpublished work by Noel Coward, The Better Half, first performed at the Little Theatre in 1922. Softcover, 291 pp. $34.95.
Performing Violence
Birgit Beumers & Mark Lipovetsky
New Russian Drama began its rise at the end of the twentieth century, following a decline in dramatic writing in Russia that stemmed back to the 1980s. This the first English-language study of the consequent boom in drama and why this new breed of authors were writing fierce plays, whilst previous generations had preferred poetry and prose. Softcover, 316 pp. $31.95.
 The American Theatre Reader: Essays and Conversations from American Theatre Magazine
Editors of American Theatre Magazine
On the occasion of American Theatre magazine's 25th anniversary, the editors have selected the best essays and interviews from its pages to provide an intimate look at the people, plays and events that have shaped the American theatre over the past quarter-century? Softcover, 615 pp. $29.95.
 Oxford Playhouse: High and Low Drama in a University City
Don Chapman
To coincide with the seventieth anniversay of its present home, Don Chapman tells, for the first time, the story of the Oxford Playhouse. He traces the history of this great theatre back to its earliest roots in a production of Agamemnon in 1880 which led to the founding of the Oxford University Drama Society, the rebuilding of Oxford's New Theatre and, eventually, the launch of the Playhouse itself. Along the way, the book also celebrates a galaxy of actors including Flora Robson, John Gielgud, Maggie Smith, Ronnie Barker, Judi Dench, and Helena Bonham-Carter and records the first steps of countless students from Peter Brook and Maria Aitken, to Diana Quick to Rowan Atkinson. Hardcover, 343 pp. $41.95.
 Theatreland: A Journey Through the Heart of London's Theatre
Paul Ibrell
Covering the five centuries from Shakespeare's Bankside playhouses to today's West End, this book explores the history and current state of the London stage, taking the reader through the streets, squares, and alleyways of the theatre capital of the world. In the process, Theatreland brings back to life the generations of actors, impresarios, princes and playwrights, restauranteurs, and hoteliers who created and shaped this cityscape, and describes how the 21st century theatre scene continues to develop and change. Hardcover, 240 pp. $49.95.
 Buzz Buzz! Playwrights, Actors and Directors at the National Theatre
Jonathon Croall
How did Simon Russell Beale and Ann-Marie Duff get inside the minds of Hamlet and Saint Joan? Why did Tom Stoppard create three plays for Coast of Utopia instead of one? What lay behind Katie Mitchell's controversial re-working of Strindberg? How did Harold Pinter go about adapting Proust for the stage? These questions, and more, are answered in Buzz Buzz!: an exciting new collection of interviews with over one hundred leading playwrights, actors, and directors. Softcover, 224 pp. $27.50.
 Chagall and the Artists of the Russian Jewish Theater
Susan Tumarkin Goodman
Shortly after the Bolshevik Revolution, Soviet Jewish theatres became catalysts for modernist experimentation. From the Jewish mystical and folkloric plays produced at Habima to the daring, expressionistic Yiddish dramas presented at the Moscow State Yiddish Theatre, Chagall and the Artists of the Russian Jewish Theater illuminates this remarkable artistic period. Hardcover, 226 pp. $81.95.
 The Spanish Golden Age in English
Edited by Catherine Boyle & David Johnston
The eight essays and three interview in this book explore some of the many issues that emerged from the Royal Shakespeare Company's groundbreaking experiments in staging Spanish Golden Age plays in English. The contributors are both leading academics and renowned practitioners, providing a unique level of insight on what it means to perform Spanish Golden Age theatre on today's English-speaking stage. Hardcover, 154 pp. $57.50.
 A New Theatre
Tyrone Guthrie
A New Theatre chronicles how Sir Tyrone Guthrie, disillusioned with the artistic standards and financial compromises of Broadway and London's West End, created the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis in the 1960s. In his amusing and personable style, Guthrie welcomes readers on a tour of one of the most dynamic theatrical institutions in the world and discusses his larger views of theatre's future and its role in society. Softcover, 212 pp. $18.95.
 The Guthrie Theatre: Images, History, and Inside Stories
Peg Guilfolyle
A little history and a lot of storytelling from every season and every section of the Guthrie community. Actors and theatre folk tell the stories that take you inside America's leading regional theatre, where ideas are the daily currency, great dramatic texts are the vehicles, and relentless opening nights are always coming. These are the stories that Guthrie people tell each other, laughing or shaking their heads, telling the tales of a theatre that is not just an institution and not just a building but a place where people bring their most important dreams and excercise their greatest abilities. Hardcover, 239 pp. $45.95.
 State of the Nation: British Theatre Since 1945
Michael Billington
Michael Billington's State of the Nation looks at post-war Britain from a theatrical perspective the constant interplay between theatre and society from the resurgent optimism of the Attlee years to the satire boom of the sixties and the growth of political theatre under Tony Blair. Controversial, witty and informed, State of the Nation offers a fresh and challenging look at the vast upheavals that have taken place in Britain and its theatre in the course of sixty turbulent years. Softcover, 435 pp. $42.00.
 Lincoln Center A Promise Realized - 1979-2006
Stephen Stamas & Sharon Zane
By 1979, its 20th anniversary, Lincoln Center had become an unofficial New York City landmark and a place recognized throughout the world for the excellence of its artistic offerings. Here, authors Stamas and Zane chronicle the major milestones in the artistic, physical, and administrative history of Lincoln Center. It also includes over sixty beautiful black-and-white photographs that highlight the Center's rich cultural history. Hardcover, 244 pp. $47.99.
 London Stage in the 20th Century
Robert Tanitch
The London Stage is an encyclopedaeic view of the plays, players and performers of London's Wesr End throughout the last century. No other city came close to rivalling London in terms of the volume and quality of its theatrical productions between 1900 and 2000. No serious follower of the London theatre will be able to resist the temptation of this book and the compendium of knowledge and information it contains. Hardcover, 330 pp. $46.50.
 Cool Britannia? British Political Drama in the 1990s
Edited by Rebecca D'Monte & Graham Saunders
The 1990s were a defining moment for British theatre history. Drawing on new research and existing studies, this is a readable introduction to the variety of evolving and often contradictory styles of political drama that emerged during this decade. Cool Britannia creates a broad critical framework for approaching the drama of this period, examining both the work of established playwrights as well as the so-called 'In-Yer-Face' generation of young writers. Softcover, 251 pp. $27.95.
 Dramaturgy and Performance
Cathy Behrndt & Synne Turner
Dramaturgy and Performance is one of the first books to examine the role of the dramaturg in the UK, extending the focus beyond writer development to look at production dramaturgy and devising processes. Highly accessible in style, this invaluable resource provides a comprehensive overview of the concept of dramaturgy and the practice of the dramaturg for both undergraduate students and practitioners. Softcover, 229 pp. $27.95.
 The Moscow Yiddish Theater
Benjamin Harshov
The Moscow Yiddish Theater was born in 1919 and almost immediately became one of the most remarkable avant-garde theaters in Europe. This book focuses not on how the theater was persecuted but on its ambitious beginnings as a revolutionary organization for passionate artistic exploration. Hardcover, 199 pp. $51.95.
 Chinese Shadow Theatre: History, Popular Religion, and Women Warriors
Fan Pen Li Chen
Chinese shadow theatre, a rare and ancient art form combining exquisite carvings with painting, music, singing, performance, and literature, owes its preservation to a non-elite, peripheral, and silent majority. In Chinese Shadow Theatre, Fan Pen Li Chen documents and corrects misconceptions about this once-popular art form. Hardcover, 343 pp. $75.00.
 All That Glittered: The Golden Age of Drama on Broadway, 1919-1959
Ethan Mordden
From the 1920s to the late 1950s, the Broadway theatre was the center of America's cultural universe. Ethan Mordden, long one of the liveliest chriniclers of Broadway's history, re-creates this lost world as only he can, telling us how those fifteen square blocks of Manhattan real estate became every American's touchstone for sophistication, intelligence, and wit. Hardcover, 340 pp. $40.95.
 The Routledge Guide to Broadway
Ken Bloom
This is an A-to-Z reference guide aimed at students of performance, theatre history, direction and production, as well as anyone with an interest in Broadway. Includes a comprehensive history of Broadway theatre, focusing on key performers, writers, directors, plays, musicals, and the folklore of Broadway. Softcover, 288 pp. $24.95.
 Hijikata Tatsumi and Ohno Kazuo
Sondra Fraleigh & Tamah Nakamura
Routledge Performance Practitioners is a series of introductory guides to the key theatre-makers of the last century. Hijikata Tatsumi and Ohno Kazuo is the first book to combine: an exploration of the impact of the social and political issues of post WWII Japan on the aesthetic development of butoh; metaphoric dance experiences that students of butoh can explore, and a glossary of English and Japanese terms, among other things. Softcover, 178 pp. $36.50.
 The
Faber Pocket Guide to Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama
Simon Trussler
This essential guide provides clear and lively information on thirty-four
great Elizabethan and Jacobean plays. The book is for anyone wishing
to understand this fertile period in British drama, and will be invaluable
for students of Shakespeare seeking a fuller understanding of the
exciting theatrical times in which he wrote. Softcover, 269 pp. $12.99.
 The Cambridge History of American Theatre
Volume II: 1870-1945
Don B. Wilmeth & Christopher Bigsby
This second volume of The Cambridge History of American Theatre begins
in the post-Civil War period and traces the development of American theatre
up to 1945. It discusses the role of vaudville, European influences,
the rise of the Little Theatre movement, changing audiences, modernism,
the
Federal Theatre movement, major actors and the rise of the star system,
and the achievements of notable playwrights. Softcover, 590 pp. $52.95.
 The Cambridge History of American Theatre
Volume III: Post-World War II to the 1990s
Don B. Wilmeth & Christopher Bigsby
This third volume of The Cambridge History of American Theatre examines
the development of the theatre after World War II, through the productions
of Broadway and beyond and into regional theatre across the country.
Contributors also analyze new directions in theatre design, directing,
and acting, as
well as key plays and playwrights through the 1990s. Softcover, 582 pp.
$52.95.
 Unspeakable Acts: The Avant-Garde Theatre of Terayama Shuji and
Postwar Japan
Carol Fisher Sorgenfrei
One of 20th century Japan's most gifted and controversial playwrights/directors,
Terayama Shuji has been compared to such artists as Robert Wilson
and John Cage. During his lifetime his work incited scandal, outrage,
even violence.
Unspeakable Acts examines postwar Japanese culture and theatre through
the creative work of this unique yet emblematic artist. This book
will be essential reading for anyone interested in the paradoxical
nature of
postwar Japanese theatre and culture and the cross-cultural influences
in international avant-garde performance.
Hardcover, $65.50.
 The Ethos of Noh: Actors and Their Art
Eric C. Rath
Since the inception of the noh drama six centuries ago, actors have resisted
the notion that noh rests on natural talent alone. Correct performance,
they claim, demands on adherence to "traditions." Yet what constitutes
noh's traditions and who can claim authority over them have been in dispute
throughout noh's history. This book traces how definitions of noh, both
as an art and as a profession, have changed over time. The author seeks
to show that the definition of noh as an art is inseparable from its
definition as a profession. Accordingly he analyzes the mechanisms and
the agents who
have determined what noh meant both as an art and as a profession. Softcover,
317 pp. $28.00.
 The Lord Chamberlain Regrets...A History of British Theatre Censorship
Dominic Shellard & Steve Nicholson
Between 1824 and 1968, British theatre was controlled by censorship. Under
the dictate of the Lord Chamberlain's Office, all new plays were read
for unfavorable or corrupting content with the intention of protecting
the 'vulnerable'
audiences of the time. Objectional material was either instructed to
be cut or the play be banned. Revealed here for the first time are a
selection of extensive extracts from key reports, correspondence and
memoranda about
some of the most significant (and controversial) plays of the period.
Hardcover, 197 pp. $38.00.
 Summer Stock: An American Theatrical Phenomenon
Martha Schmoyer LoMonaco
This summertime entertainment grew up and prospered in the 1920s
and 30s in places like Westport, Connecticut and Stockbridge, Massachusetts,
throughout New England, and down the East Coast. It provided, and continues
to provide vacationing families with charming, humorous and intelligent
entertainment. The largely overlooked history of this uniquely American
phenomenon is illuminated in this energetic and captivating book. Hardcover,
293 pp. $41.95.
 Queen Victoria and the Theatre of Her Age
Richard W. Schoch
Throughout her life, Queen Victoria was fascinated and beguiled
by the theatre,
and even by some of the more "lowbrow" performing arts. However common
these pleasures may have seemed, there was a social and political purpose behind
it all. This edifying book seeks out answers as it tells the story of the most
enduring alliance in British history between stage and throne. Lively, accessible,
and intensively researched, this book will appeal to anyone interested in monarchy's
place in popular
culture. Hardcover, 235 pp. $65.00.
 Chanteuse in the City
Kelley Conway
An icon of working-class feminity and the underworld, the realist
singer signaled the emergence of new cultural roles for women as well
as shifts in the nature of
popular entertainment. Chanteuse in the City provides a genealogy of realist
performance through analysis of the music hall careers and film roles of Mistinguett,
Josephine Baker, Frehel, and Damia. Above all, this volume offers a fresh interpretation
of 1930s French cinema, emphasizing its love affair with popular song and its
close connections to the music hall and the cafe-concert. Softcover, 246 pp.
$37.95.
 Dodin & The Maly Drama Theatre: Process to Performance
Maria Shevtsova
This is the first ever full-length study of internationally-aclaimed
theatre company, the Maly Drama Theatre of St. Petersburg, and it's
director, Lev Dodin. With insight into Dodin's directorial process,
the company's actor training, devising and rehearsal methods as well
as detailed analysis of the Maly's main productions, this book provides
a valuable methodological model for actor training and a unique insight
into the journeys taken from studio to stage. Softcover, 229 pp. $60.00.
 The Red Atlantis: Communist Culture In The Absence of Communism
J. Hoberman
"These essays, at once funny and heartbreaking, survey the work of Soviet
and Eastern European artists, writers and filmmakers. Hoberman is an expert gifted
with high intellectual spirits, but he doesn't take cheap shots: he never lets
us forget the pressures and dangers that affected even the most devoted Communists
under Communism." - The New Yorker. Softcover, 315 pp. $31.95.
 A History of Irish Theatre 1601 - 2000
Christopher Morash
Chris Morash's widely praised account of Irish theatre traces an often forgotten
history leading up to the Irish Literary Revival. He then follows that history
to the present by creating a clear picture of the cultural contexts which produced
the playwrights who have been responsible for making Irish theatre's world-wide
historical and contemporary reputation. This book is an essential, entertaining
and highly original guide to the history and performance of Irish theatre. Softcover,
322 pp. $36.00.
 Cambridge
Guide to Twentieth-Century Irish Drama
Shaun Richards
The essays in this collection cover the whole range of Irish drama
from the late-nineteenth-century melodramas which anticipated the rise
of the Abbey Theatre to the contemporary Dublin of theatre festivals.
Additionally one will find studies of individual playwrights as well
as an examination of the relationship between the theatre and its political
context. Softcover, 287 pp. $33.95.
 The Generation of Plays
Yoruba Popular Life in Theatre
Karin Barber
From the 1940's to the 1980's, Yoruba popular theatre was one of
the most spectacularly successful theatres in Africa. This important
book affords a unique view of the social and cultural worlds of the
actors and audiences involved in this once vital and flourishing enterprise.
Softcover, 485 pp. $44.95.
 'Other' Spanish Theatres: Erasure and Inscription on the Twentieth-Century
Spanish
Stage
Maria M. Delgado
In this broad and detailed study, Delgado selects six case studies which map
out alternative readings a nation's theatrical innovation through the twentieth
century. Accordingly many of the conclusions reached are new ones, and the case
for acknowledging the wide influence of Spanish practioners on theatre in Europe
and the Americas is
made in persuasive terms. Softcover, 336 pp. $36.95.
 National Abjection: The Asian American Body Onstage
Karen Shimakawa
By looking at the orgins of Asian American theatre, particularly
through the memoires of some of its pioneers, Karen Shimakawa examines
the vexed relationship between "Asian Americaness" and "Americaness." This
intellectual study also looks at the emergence of Asian American
community theatre companies and their
strategies for countering the stereotypes of Asian Americans and
the subsequent lack of visability of Asian American performers within
the theatre world. Softcover, 192
pp. $31.95.
 The Performance Arts in Africa
Frances Harding
This collection of 24 essays, divided into 4 themes (Theory, Performers and performing,
Voice, language and words, and Spectators, space and time), is the first anthology
on African performance with key writings from many parts of the continent. This book
will serve as an essential guide for those new to the field and will be an indispensible
resource for those already familiar with African performance. Softcover, 364 pp.
$43.95.
 Changing Stages:
A View of British Theatre in the 20th Century
Richard Eyre & Nicholas Wright
Two of Britain's leading theatre practitioners give us what they call "
a partial, personal, unscholarly view of the century's theatre." The
authors' own deeply felt love and understanding of theatre shines
through the whole book,
and their infectious passion is transferred to the reader from the
first page. A BBC TV Series has been based on the book. SC $39.95.
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