The Essential Theatre [Paperback]

Whether you are a theatre major looking forward to a career in the arts or a non-major interested in an overview to increase your appreciation as an audience member, THE ESSENTIAL THEATRE, 11th Edition, provides an engaging, insightful, and informative resource that will enrich your theatre experience throughout your life. Written by highly respected teachers and theatre historians, the text has earned its reputation as one of the most comprehensive, authoritative surveys of the theatre. Its vibrant treatment of theatre practice--past and present--catalogs the origins of theatre through postmodernism and performance art. The Eleventh Edition includes an all-new chapter devoted to musical theatre, new Then and Now boxes that link theatre history to present-day, and numerous new photos--including photos of actors you will quickly recognize from film and television. The comprehensive detail of each chapter is excellent. The topics covered are relevant to modern students' interests and even present some controversial issues that only theater can speak to. ... Contemporary photographs are also a wonderful enhancement and the physical page layout is colorful and engaging to students. THE ESSENTIAL THEATRE is a well-written, intellectually rigorous textbook. & The way that it presents the essential elements of theatre provides excellent building blocks for a beginning theatre student. Preface. PART I: FOUNDATIONS. 1. The Nature of Theatre. 2. The Audience and Criticism. 3. The Play. PART II: VARIETIES OF THEATRICAL EXPERIENCE. 4. Festival Theatre: Greek, Roman, and Medieval Theatre Experiences. 5. Creating a Professional Theatre: Elizabethan England, Italian Commedia dell'Arte, and Seventeenth-Century France. 6. Theatre in the 1800s. 7. Modernism in the Twentieth Century: 1900-1960. 8. Decentralization and Subsidization: New Directions. 9. Contemporary Theatre and Its Diversity. 10. Musical Theatre. 11. Asian and African Theatre. PART III: THEATRICAL PRODUCTION. 12. ThelÝ