The Wadsworth Anthology of Drama, Brief Edition / Edition 6

by W. B. Worthen

Overview

The boldest and most distinguished introduction to drama available today, W.B. Worthen's pace-setting text continues to provide exciting plays usefully situated within their historical and cultural contexts. Based on the best-selling WADSWORTH ANTHOLOGY OF DRAMA, the Brief Edition provides many of the important elements of that anthology but in a more streamlined form.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781428288157
Publisher:	Cengage Learning
Publication date:	01/01/2010
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	1104
Product dimensions:	7.90(w) x 9.80(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

W. B. Worthen, Alice Brady Pels Professor in the Arts, is Professor and Chair of the Department of Theater at Barnard College, Columbia University. He is the author of Shakespeare and the Force of Modern Performance (Cambridge University Press, 2003) Shakespeare and the Authority of Performance (Cambridge University Press, 1997), Modern Drama and the Rhetoric of Theater (University of California Press, 1992), The Idea of the Actor: Drama and the Ethics of Performance (Princeton University Press, 1984), Modern Drama: Plays, Criticism, Theory (Wadsworth, 1995), and of many articles on modern drama, Shakespeare, and theories of performance. Professor Worthen received his B. A. in English from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and his Ph.D. in English from Princeton University, and has held research fellowships form the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment of the Humanities. He is past editor of Theatre Journal and current coeditor of Modern Drama.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Drama, Theater, and Culture. Reading Drama and Seeing Theater. Drama and Theater in History. Dramatic Genres. Dramatic Form. The Stage in Critical Practice. Interpreting the Mterial Past. 1. THE THEATER OF CLASSICAL EUROPE. Aside: Roman Drama and Theater. Reading the Material Theater: Pronomos Painter. Sophocles, Oedipus the King. Euripides, Medea. Plautus, The Brothers Menaechmus. Critical Contexts: Aristotle, from The Poetics. Horace, from On the Art of Poetry. 2. CLASSICAL JAPAN. Aside: Sanskrit Drama and Theater. Reading the Material Theater: A Portrait of Seki Sanjuro II. Kan'ami Kiyotsugu, Matsukaze. Nakamura Matagoro II and James R. Brandon, adaptors, Chushingura: The Forty-Seven Samurai. Critical Contexts: Zeami Motokiyo, from A Mirror Held to the Flower. 3. MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE ENGLAND. Aside: The Jacobean Court Masque. Reading the Material Theater: Titus Andronicus title page. Anonymous, The York Crucifixion. William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream. William Shakespeare, Hamlet. Critical Contexts: Sir Philip Sidney, from Apology for Poetry. 4. EARLY MODERN EUROPE. Aside: Commedia Dell' Arte. Reading the Material Theater: Betterton's acting style. Pedro Calderon de la Barca, Life Is a Dream. Moliere, Tartuffe. Aphra Behn, The Rover. Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, Loa to The Divine Narcissus. Critical Contexts: John Dryden, Preface to Troilus and Cressida, Containing the Grounds of Criticism in Tragedy. 5. MODERN EUROPE. Aside: Melodrama. Reading the Material Theater: Ibsen's Notes for the Modern Tragedy. Henrik Ibsen, A Doll's House.Alfred Jarry, Ubu Roi. August Strindberg, A Dream Play. Bernard Shaw, Major Barbara. Bertolt Brecht, Mother Courage and Her Children. Samuel Beckett, Endgame. Caryl Churchill, Cloud Nine. Critical Contexts: Friedrich Nietzsche, from The Birth of Tragedy. mile Zola, from Naturalism in the Theatre. Constantin Stanislavski, from "Direction and Acting". Bertolt Brecht, "The Street Scene". Antonin Artaud, from The Theater and Its Double. 6. THE UNITED STATES. Aside: The Federal Theater Project. Aside: Performance Art. Reading the Material Theater: "A Jury of Her Peers," by Susan Glaspell. Susan Glaspell, Trifles. Sophie Treadwell, Machinal. Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie. Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman. Amiri Barake / LeRoi Jones, Dutchman. Luis Valdez, Los vendidos. David Henry Hwang, M. Butterfly. Tony Kushner, Angels in America, Part 1: Milennium Approaches. Anna Deavere Smith, Fires in the Mirror. Critical Contexts: Arthur Miller, Tragedy and the Common Man. Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones, "The Revolutionary Theatre". 7. WORLD STAGES. Aside: Intercultural Performance. Reading the Material Theater: Program Notes for Translations. Griselda Gambaro, Information for Foreigners. Wole Soyinka, Death and the King's Horseman. Brian Friel, Translations. Gao Xingjian, The Other Shore. Tomson Highway, Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing. Manjula Padmanabhan, Harvest. Critical Contexts: Frantz Fanon, from "The Fact of Blackness." Augusto Boal, from Theatre of the Oppressed. Helen Gilbert and Joanne Tompkins, from Post-Colonial Drama. Glossary. List of Illustrations and Photographs. Index.

Editorial Reviews

"I think the historical introductions are unparalleled."

"The Wadworth Anthology is a superior drama anthology, offering its users an extensive range of plays, critical essays, and historical information for the study of theatre history and dramatic literature."

"W. B. Worthen's selection of plays, choice of criticism and insightful and economical commentary make the Wadsworth Anthology the standout text in its field."

From the Publisher