The Cambridge Paperback Guide to Theatre is a concise reference work with 2,826 entries on playwrights, actors, directors, critics and entertainers; on theaters, organizations and companies; on traditions, styles and genres of performance. Entries reach back to Sanskrit drama and the theater of ancient Greece and extend to contemporary practitioners. The emphasis is on performance in its broad sense, including popular entertainment as well as scripted drama, with coverage of circus, musical theater and pantomime; on male and female impersonation; gay and lesbian theater; Indian festival and Japanese puppet theater; and the classic and contemporary theater of Europe and North America. Four contextual essays provide the reader with the background to the great theater traditions of Asia, Africa, South America and the Middle East. This book reflects the diversity and authoritativeness of its parent, The Cambridge Guide to Theatre, in a compact and portable format.