Theatre History Books

New and Published Books

1. Dramas of the Past on the Twentieth-Century Stage

   In History’s Wings

   By Alexander Feldman

   Series: Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies

   This book defines and exemplifies a major genre of modern dramatic writing, termed historiographic metatheatre, in which self-reflexive engagements with the traditions and forms of dramatic art illuminate historical themes and aid in the representation of historical events and, in doing so,...

   Published December 18th 2012 by Routledge
2. The Path Of The Actor

   By Michael Chekhov

   Edited by Andrei A. Kirillov, Bella Merlin

   This is the first English translation of Michael Chekhov’s two-volume autobiography, combining The Path of the Actor (1927) and extensive extracts from his later volume Life and Encounters. Full of illuminating anecdotes and insightful observations involving prominent characters from the MAT and...

   Published December 14th 2012 by Routledge
3. Comedy and the Public Sphere

   The Rebirth of Theatre as Comedy and the Genealogy of the Modern Public Arena

   By Arpad Szakolczai

   Series: Routledge Studies in Social and Political Thought

   The book aims at reframing the discussion on the "public sphere," usually understood as the place where the public opinion is formed, through rational discussion. The aim of this book is to give an account of this rationality, and its serious shortcomings, examining the role of the media and the...

   Published November 25th 2012 by Routledge
4. The Unwritten Grotowski

   Theory and Practice of the Encounter

   By Kris Salata

   Series: Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies

   This book gives a new view on the legacy of Jerzy Grotowski (1933-1999), one of the central, and yet misunderstood, figures who shaped 20th-century theatre, focusing on his least known last phase of work on ancient songs and the craft of the performer. Salata posits Grotowski’s work as...

   Published November 1st 2012 by Routledge
5. A Companion to Post-War British Theatre (Routledge Revivals)

   By Philip Barnes

   Series: Routledge Revivals

   First published in 1986, this compilation offers a guide to the major aspects of contemporary British theatre. In the period covered, Britain was among the world leaders in theatre as the post-war years saw a remarkable surge in theatrical creativity, associated with the experimental, innovatory...

   Published August 31st 2012 by Focal Press
6. Adapting Chekhov

   The Text and its Mutations

   Edited by J. Douglas Clayton, Yana Meerzon

   Series: Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies

   This book considers the hundred years of re-writes of Anton Chekhov’s work, presenting a wide geographical landscape of Chekhovian influences in drama. The volume examines the elusive quality of Chekhov’s dramatic universe as an intricate mechanism, an engine in which his enigmatic characters exist...

   Published August 16th 2012 by Routledge
7. Memory, Allegory, and Testimony in South American Theater

   Upstaging Dictatorship

   By Ana Elena Puga

   Series: Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies

   Memory, Allegory, and Testimony in South American Theater traces the shaping of a resistant identity in memory, its direct expression in testimony, and its indirect elaboration in two different kinds of allegory. Each chapter focuses on one contemporary playwright (or one collaborative...

   Published May 2nd 2012 by Routledge
8. The Theatre of the Bauhaus

   The Modern and Postmodern Stage of Oskar Schlemmer

   By Melissa Trimingham

   Series: Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies

   Focusing on the work of painter, choreographer and scenic designer Oskar Schlemmer, the "Master Magician" and leader of the Theatre Workshop, this book explains this "theatre of high modernism" and its historical role in design and performance studies; further, it connects the Bauhaus exploration...

   Published April 19th 2012 by Routledge
9. The Piscator Notebook

   By Judith Malina

   'Theater legend Malina has written one of the most interesting studies of the avant-garde theatrical movement published in the last several years.' – CHOICE Judith Malina and The Living Theatre have been icons of political theatre for over six decades. What few realise is that she originally...

   Published April 10th 2012 by Routledge
10. Political and Protest Theatre after 9/11

    Patriotic Dissent

    Edited by Jenny Spencer

    Series: Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies

    This collection documents and examines political and protest theatre produced between the 9/11 attacks in 2001 and Obama’s election in 2008 by British and American artists responding to their own governments’ actions and policies during this time. The plays take up topics such as the ongoing wars...

    Published December 21st 2011 by Routledge