Synopses & Reviews
The Compact Bedford Introduction to Drama presents a well-balanced selection of plays, commentaries, and casebooks in a concise, affordable format. Its 29 chronologically arranged plays represent every major period from classic times to the present. With in-depth treatment of William Shakespeare, a strong representation of plays by women and American multicultural plays, and an exciting contemporary section loaded with prize winners,
The Compact Bedford Introduction to Drama has the plays you want to teach and features designed to help students think critically about all aspects of a play as a work of literature and as a performance.
Giving students a rich understanding of the plays and the contexts from which they emerge, the anthology offers 33 commentaries, two casebooks, the most extensive collection of theater photographs available in a text of this kind, coverage of writing about drama, and a robust companion web site with help for students and instructors.
About the Author
LEE A. JACOBUS is professor emeritus of English at the University of Connecticut and the author/editor of popular English textbooks, among them A World of Ideas: Essential Readings for College Writers, Sixth Edition (Bedford/St. Martin's, 2002); The Longman Anthology of American Drama; and Literature: An Introduction to Critical Reading. Professor Jacobus has written scholarly books on Paradise Lost, on the works of John Cleveland, and on the works of Shakespeare, including Shakespeare and the Dialectic of Certainty. He is also a playwright; two of his plays -- Fair Warning and Long Division -- were produced in New York by the American Theater of Actors; Dance Therapy , three one-act plays, was produced in New York at Where Eagles Dare Theatre. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America. Volcanic Jesus, his book of short stories, is set in Hawaii.
Table of Contents
Preface for Instructors
Introduction: Thinking about Drama
What Is Drama? Drama and Ritual Drama: The Illusion of Reality Seeing a Play Onstage Theaters and Their Effect Reading a Play The Great Ages of Drama Greek Drama Roman Drama Medieval Drama Renaissance Drama Late Seventeenth-and Eighteenth-Century Drama Nineteenth-Century Drama through the Turn of the Twentieth Century Drama in the Early and Mid-Twentieth Century Contemporary Drama Genres of Drama Tragedy Comedy Tragicomedy Elements of Drama Plot Characterization Setting Dialogue Music Movement Theme
Lady Gregory, The Rising of the Moon
Greek Drama Origins of Greek Drama The Greeks and Their Gods The Greek Stage *The Greek Actor Genres of Greek Drama Tragedy Satyr Plays Comedy The Great Age of Greek Drama Greek Drama Timeline Sophocles, Oedipus Rex (Translated by Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald) Oedipus Rex in Performance Commentaries on Oedipus Rex Aristotle, Poetics: Comedy and Epic and Tragedy Sigmund Freud, The Oedipus Complex Claude Lévi-Strauss, From The Structural Study of Myth
Aristophanes, Lysistrata (Translated by Dudley Fitts) Lysistrata in Performance Roman Drama Indigenous Sources The Greek Influence The Roman Stage *The Roman Actor Roman Drama Timeline Roman Dramatists Plautus, Excerpt from The Twin Menaechmi (Act III) Terence, Excerpt from The Brothers (Act V) Seneca, Excerpt from Thyestes (Act V, Scene ii)
Medieval Drama The Role of the Church Miracle Plays Mystery Plays Morality Plays The Medieval Stage *The Medieval Actor Medieval Drama Timeline
Hrosvitha, Dulcitius (Translated by K.M. Wilson) Dulcitius in Performance Commentary on Hrosvitha Sue-Ellen Case, Re-viewing Hrotsvit
Anonymous, Everyman (Edited by A.C. Cawley) Everyman in Performance Renaissance Drama Italian Drama The Italian Theater Commedia dellArte Elizabethan Drama The Elizabethan Theater * The Elizabethan Actor The Elizabethan Audience Female Characters on the English Stage The Masque Spanish Drama Renaissance Drama Timeline William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Nights Dream A Midsummer Nights Dream in Performance Commentaries on A Midsummer Nights Dream Linda Bamber, On A Midsummer Nights Dream Peter Brook, The Play is a Message… Clive Barnes, Review of A Midsummer Nights Dream William Shakespeare, Othello Othello in Performance Commentaries on Othello Virginia Mason Vaughan, Macreadys Othello Margaret Webster, Shakespeare without Tears Ben Jonson, The Masque of Blackness The Masque of Blackness in Performance Commentary on Jonson Eldred Jones, Africa in English Masque and Pageantry Late Seventeenth-and-Eighteenth Century Drama The Restoration: Rebirth of Drama Theater on the Continent: Neoclassicism French Comedy: Moliere *Theater in England: The Restoration Restoration Comedy in England Eighteenth-Century Drama * The Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Actor Drama in Japan Late Seventeenth-and Eighteenth-Century Drama Timeline
* Moliere, Tartuffe (Translated by Richard Wilbur) Tartuffe in Performance Commentary on Moliere * Mel Gussow, Review of ‘Tartuffe * Aphra Behn, The Rover; Or, The Banished Cavaliers The Rover; or, The Banished Cavaliers in Performance Commentaries on Behn * Elaine Hobby, Courtship and Marriage in The Rover Chikamatsu Monzaemon, The Love Suicides at Sonezaki The Love Suicides at Sonezaki in Performance Commentary on Chikamatsu Monzaemon Donald H. Shiveley, The Development of Theater Buildings Nineteenth-Century Drama through the Turn of the Twentieth Century The Nineteenth Century Theater * The Nineteenth-Century Actor Romantic Drama Melodrama The Well-Made Play The Rise of Realism Nineteenth-Century Drama Timeline Henrik Ibsen, A Doll Ho