Each chapter concludes with “Key Terms.”
Preface. I. LOCATING THEATRE, EXPERIENCING PLAYS: THEORY AND CRITICISM.
1. Theatre: Performance and Art. Theatre as Performance.
Theatre as Art.
Theatre's Relationship with Other Arts.
Theatre as Performing Art.
2. Theatre: Cultural Expression, Business, and the Role of Audience. The Nature of Theatre Audiences.
Theatre as Cultural Expression: The Role of the Audience.
Theatre as Business: The Role of the Audience.
3. How to Read a Play. Preliminary Work.
Play Analysis Using the Parts of Play.
Organizing a Response.
4. How to See a Play. Preliminary Work.
Performance Analysis.
Organizing a Response.
5. Mediators and Gatekeepers. Theatrical Theories Today.
Critics.
Reviewers.
Dramaturgs.
Specialists in Public Relations, Advertising, Marketing.
Agents.
II. TODAY'S THEATRE AND ITS MAKERS.
6. Making Theatre Today: The Context. Theatre Spaces.
Producing Situations in the United States.
Theatre Funding.
7. Playwrights. The Nature of Playwrights and Playwriting.
Being a Playwright.
Training Playwrights.
From Page to Stage: Professional Issues.
What Is Good Playwriting?
8. Actors. The Nature of Acting.
Training Actors.
Audition, Rehearsal, and Performance.
The Personality of the Actor.
What Is Good Acting?
9. Directors. The Nature of Directing.
Directors at Work.
Training Directors.
What Is Good Directing?
10. Designers and Technicians. The Nature of Design.
Designers at Work.
Training Designers.
What Is Good Design?
III. THEATRE OF OTHER TIMES AND PLACES: THEATRE HISTORY.
Theatre: Present and Past.
The Sweep of Theatre History.
IIIA. FACADE STAGES (534BCE-c. 550 CE).
11. The Theatre of Greece. Traits of Greek Theatre.
The Physical Theatre.
Production Practices.
The End of Athens' Golden Age.
Indian Theatre.
12. The Theatre of Rome. Roman Drama.
Theatre Buildings, Scenery, Costumes, and Masks.
The End of Roman Drama.
Theatre Buildings.
Theatrical Entertainments.
The Breakup of the Empire.
The Byzantine Empire: Its Rise and Fall.
IIIB. EMBLEM, ENVIRONMENT, AND SIMULTANEITY.
13. Theatre in the Middle Ages. New Kinds of Drama.
Cycles, Mysteries, and Moralities.
New Staging: Fixed and Movable Performance Spaces.
The End of Medieval Religious Theatre.
Theatres in the East.
14. The Golden Ages of England and Spain. The Renaissance in the North: The Age of Shakespeare.
The Theatre of Shakespeare.
The Closing of English Theatres.
The Spanish Golden Age.
Theatres in the East.
IIIC. ILLUSIONISM.
15. The Italian Renaissance. Theatre in Italy (1550-1750).
An Alternative Theatre: Commedia dell'Arte.
Italy: Eclipse.
Theatres in the East.
16. The Triumph and Decline of Neoclassicism. French Theatre from Its Beginnings Through Its Golden Age.
English Restoration Theatre and Beyond (1660-c. 1750).
Theatres in the East.
17. Successful Failure: Theatre and Reform after 1750. First Wave: Romanticism, 1750-1850.
Romanticism in the Theatre.
An After-Shock: Richard Wagner.
Second Wave: Realism, 1870-1920.
Leading Figures in Realism and Naturalism.
Third Wave: Avant-Gardism, 1890-1960.
Avant-Garde Theatres and Movements.
18. Commercialism. What Is Comercialism?
Drama in the Commercial Theatre.
The American Musical.
Theatres and Production Practices.
The Decline of Commercial Theatre.
Responses to Commercial Theatre.
The Theatres of Colonialism.
Theatre in the East.
19. Theatre for a New Millennium. The Theatre, 1960-2000s.
Commercial Theatre.
Noncommercial Theatre.
Noncommercial Into Commercial.
Global Theatre.
Glossary. 