Synopses & Reviews
This book provides an accessible guide to drama, its craft, and its technique using extensive examples from the major dramatists' most frequently studied plays. It aims to make students familiar with technical vocabulary and critical concepts that will deepen their reading of drama. With a special section on exam technique and a glossary of terms, this is an ideal introduction to the concepts and issues students will find useful when reading drama.
Table of Contents
PROVISIONAL CONTENTS Introduction
I. Performance, Notation, Text
1. Performance: process and the ephemeral
2. Notation: documentation, typography, and the preserved
3. Text: editing and reception
II. Reading Structures
4. What is genre?
5. The classical genres: comedy, tragedy, epic, and satire
6. Religion: the liturgy and medieval cycles
7. Renaissance innovations: Commedia dell'arte, tragicomedy, masque, and opera
8. Modern innovations: panto, melodrama, the well-made play and musicals
9. Social genres: Lehrstucke, agit.-prop., mass, documentary, and community theatre
10. Beyond genre: Beckett and after
III. Defining Architecture
11. The study
12. The workshop and rehearsal rooms
13. The stage and auditorium
14. The printshop and bookshop
15. The library
IV. Personnel in Process
16. Playwrights
17. Actors
18. Directors
19. Dramaturgs
20. Designers
21. Technical Crew
22. Audience
23. Critics
24. Publishers and booksellers
25. Readers
V. Performance: challenges to the playtext
26. Drama versus performance
27. Performance processes
28. Postmodernism and Performance
VI. Exam Conditions
VII Glossary
General index
Index of plays and playwrights cited
Select bibliography