- Shopping Bag ( 0 items )
![Western Drama through the Ages [Two Volumes] [2 volumes]: A Student Reference Guide](http://img3.imagesbn.com/resources/images/common/blank.gif?cb=1.50.6){kind=small}
Library Journal
In his 13th published work, King (English, Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) has compiled and edited a valuable resource of 45 essays by 38 scholars on the history of Western theater and drama through the ages and continents, from Ancient Greece to modern America. The text as a whole is divided into six parts, with the first volume consisting of "The Four Great Eras of Western Drama," "Two Other Major Eras of Western Drama (Medieval and Restoration)," and "National and Regional Theater." The second volume begins with "Theater Movements and Issues," then goes on to "Dramatic Genres and Styles" and ends with "Theatrical Essentials." A comprehensive index allows users to search by playwright, subject, place, and play title. Each essay ends with "Further Readings" for continuing research on the topics introduced. The "Further Readings" and many subheadings make the books easy to use for those needing an overview, and the bibliography will help anyone interested in looking further. The writing is accessible enough for high school students and yet adult enough for informed lay readers. Suitable for public libraries, high schools with a large drama focus, and academic libraries where students enroll in theater or drama courses.
—Sara Marcus
Overview
The West has a long and rich dramatic tradition. Works by such classical playwrights as Aeschylus and Euripides have influenced centuries of civilization; the plays of Shakespeare are among the most widely studied and performed; more recently the plays of Harold Pinter, August Wilson, and Samuel Beckett have shaped the way we perceive the world. Drama embodies the social and political concerns of the societies that give birth to it, and so an understanding of drama is critical to an understanding of the world. ...