The Oxford Companion to Theatre and Performance

by Dennis Kennedy (Editor)

Overview

Ranging from ancient Greek tragedies to the latest developments around the globe, The Oxford Companion to Theatre and Performance provides an all-embracing approach that encompasses drama and musical, opera, dance, radio, and non-dramatic performances including circuses and parades. Based on the celebrated two-volume Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance, this compact, affordable Companion features more than 2,000 up-to-date entries, covering styles and movements, buildings, organizations, and traditions—with a particularly strong focus on biographies of actors, playwrights, directors, and designers. Editor Dennis Kennedy has significantly updated the timeline of historical and cultural events in the world of theatre and performance, and he has added an appendix of useful weblinks, which are supported and accessible through a companion website. Finally, the book includes many new entries that cover the people and companies who have come into prominence since the publication of the Encyclopedia.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199574193
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	09/17/2010
Pages:	704
Product dimensions:	9.50(w) x 11.28(h) x 1.59(d)

About the Author

Dennis Kennedy is Emeritus Professor and Fellow of Drama and Theatre Studies at Trinity College, Dublin, where he was previously Samuel Beckett Professor and Head of the School of Drama. He has also been Professor of Theatre Arts at the University of Pittsburgh and Associate Professor of English at Grand Valley State University in Michigan. He has held distinguished visiting professorships at the Salzburg Seminar, McMaster University, the University of Victoria, and the University of Wisconsin, and was Senior Fulbright Lecturer at the University of Karachi in Pakistan.

His publications include Granville Barker and the Dream of Theatre (CUP, 1985), Plays by Harley Granville Barker (CUP, 1987), Looking at Shakespeae: a visual history of twentieth-century performance (CUP, 1993, 2nd edn 2001), Foreign Shakespeare (CUP, 1993). His own plays have been performed in New York, London and at regional theatres in the US.

Editorial Reviews

"It is an essential resource for those with a serious interest in theatre" - Cannock and Rugeley Chronicle

"A must-have." - whatsonstage

"The scope of the book is impressive. ... As a reference book, the Companions give readers a quick briefing on almost any theatrical performance subject, which will prove to be incredibly useful for academics, students, critics and other practitioners wishing to gain a foretaste of subjects which may lead to more in-depth study elsewhere." - Francisco Costa, Theatre Research International

From the Publisher

This is a one-volume updated version of the two-volume Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre & Performance published in 2003. Kennedy (former Samuel Beckett Professor, Trinity Coll., Dublin) has succeeded in pulling together 2400 entries intended to educate, delight, and encourage the reader to pursue more in-depth information. The focus of the material is reflected in the title, and literary issues are wisely left to other texts. An impressive number of topics are covered, including plays, practitioners, and movements from other countries and cultures; dance and dance-drama; opera; ritual; the circus; lesbian theater; and Wild West shows. As with any one-volume work, many names and topics must be left out, and selections often appear arbitrary. For example, there is no entry for British playwright Dodie Smith, one of the few commercially successful female playwrights in the Twenties and Thirties, but her contemporary John Van Druten is included. Broadway star and two-time Tony Award winner Bernadette Peters, too, is not profiled, while British actress Maureen Lipman is. BOTTOM LINE Recommended for students who are beginning research in this area and for lovers of theater and performance, who will find much here to value.—Susan L. Peters, Univ. of Texas, Galveston

Library Journal