Vol. for 1888 includes dramatic directory for Feb.-Dec.; vol. for 1889 includes dramatic directory for Jan.-May.

Who was William Shakespeare? How much do we really know about him, and why is he so famous? This book explains the world of theatre in which Shakespeare lived, worked and did business.

Beginning with Aristotle and the Greeks and ending with semiotics and post-structuralism, Theories of the Theatre is the first comprehensive survey of Western dramatic theory. In this expanded edition the author has updated the book and added a new concluding chapter that focuses on theoretical developments since 1980, emphasizing the impact of feminist theory.

Born in the final years of the seventeenth century, and dying a decade before the beginning of the French Revolution, Voltaire was a quintessential figure of the eighteenth century. He was the most popular and influential dramatist of his time, creating successful works in all the most appealing genres of the period--comedy, tragedy, opera, comic opera, and court spectacle. This book chronicles his life and dramatic achievements and thus illuminates much of eighteenth century culture. His theatrical biography involves all aspects of acting and staging in amateur and society theatre as well as on major professional stages and performances at court. His extended visits to England and Germany are covered in chapters that also provide an introduction to the theatre of the period in those countries, and his international interests and correspondence provide insights into the eighteenth century theatre in places such as Italy, Russia, and Denmark.

The first comprehensive study of the leading American avant-garde theatre director Robert Wilson.

A collection of manifestos originally published in 1938, in which the French artist and philosopher attacks conventional assumptions about the drama, and calls for the influx of irrational material - based on dreams, religion, and emotion - in order to make the theater vital for modern audiences.

English royal funeral ceremony from Mary, Queen of Scots to James I gives fascinating insight into the relationship between power and ritual at the renaissance court.

This new full color edition is significantly up-dated to new interviews with "old masters" and successful "divas" of the industry, up-dated safety tips, and additional insights into the business of scenic design. Expanded to include a new chapter dedicated to painting techniques, the book will now feature detailed step-by-step descriptions of common two-dimensional painting techniques. Wood graining, marble and stone, and brick painting are few examples of the new techniques to be covered. *New interviews with "old masters" and successful "divas" of the industry * Insights into the business of scenic design * A new chapter dedicated to painting techniques and detailed step-by-step descriptions of common two-dimensional painting techniques

In 1953, Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot premiered at a tiny avant-garde theatre in Paris; within five years, it had been translated into more than twenty languages and seen by more than a million spectators. Its startling popularity marked the emergence of a new type of theatre whose proponents—Beckett, Ionesco, Genet, Pinter, and others—shattered dramatic conventions and paid scant attention to psychological realism, while highlighting their characters’ inability to understand one another. In 1961, Martin Esslin gave a name to the phenomenon in his groundbreaking study of these playwrights who dramatized the absurdity at the core of the human condition. Over four decades after its initial publication, Esslin’s landmark book has lost none of its freshness. The questions these dramatists raise about the struggle for meaning in a purposeless world are still as incisive and necessary today as they were when Beckett’s tramps first waited beneath a dying tree on a lonely country road for a mysterious benefactor who would never show. Authoritative, engaging, and eminently readable, The Theatre of the Absurd is nothing short of a classic: vital reading for anyone with an interest in the theatre.