History & Criticism

"Few books blend the critical and creative approaches to drag performance this provocatively and engagingly, and none provides both the historical and the personal perspectives so effectively. Torr and Bottoms fundamentally challenge many long-standing...

Love's Victory by Lady Mary Wroth (1587-1651) is the first romantic comedy written in English by a woman. The Revels Plays publishes for the first time a fully-authorised, modern spelling edition of the Penshurst manuscript, the only copy of the play...

Deep Are the Roots celebrates the pioneers of Black British theatre, beginning in 1825, when Ira Aldridge made history as the first Black actor to play Shakespeare's Othello in the United Kingdom, and ending in 1975 with the success of Britain's first...

'An engrossing, enthralling and utterly captivating read, The Young Pretender tells a simply remarkable story with bounce, energy, wit, and lively authenticity . . . Michael Arditti's brilliant imaginative achievement offers high comedy, dark tragedy and...

Vsevolod Meyerhold considers the life and work of the extraordinary twentieth-century director and theatre-maker. This compact, well-illustrated volume includes: a biographical introduction to Meyerhold's life a clear explanation of his theoretical...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9788792633071Author Yunus TuncelFormat PaperbackPage Count 162Imprint Eyecorner PressPublisher Eyecorner PressWeight(grams) 245gDimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm...

Theatre& Sexuality explains the critical validity of using sexuality as a lens for examining theatre's creation and reception. The book offers clear introductions to sexual identity politics, ways of 'reading' sexuality on stage and a select history of...

The sharpest, funniest comedy about money and morals in the 17th century is still the sharpest and funniest about those things in the 21st. The full play text is accompanied by incisive commentary notes which communicate the devastating comic energy of...

This is the ultimate anthology of theatrical anecdotes, edited by lifelong theatre-lover Gyles Brandreth in the Oxford tradition, and covering every kind of theatrical story and experience from the age of Shakespeare and Marlowe to the age of Stoppard...

Why are so many theatre productions adaptations of one kind of another? Why do contemporary practitioners turn so frequently to non-dramatic texts for inspiration? This study explores the fascination of novels, short stories, children's books and...

Winner of 2019 British Book Design & Production Award for Scholarly, Academic & Reference Books This beautiful book charts the development of the circus as an art form around the world, from antiquity to the present day. Using over 200 circus...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781626549609Author Toby ColeFormat PaperbackPage Count 482Imprint Allegro EditionsPublisher Allegro EditionsWeight(grams) 640gDimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm *...

Site-Specific Art charts the development of an experimental art form in an experimental way. Nick Kaye traces the fascinating historical antecedents of today's installation and performance art, while also assembling a unique documentation of contemporary...

Making contemporary theatre reveals how some of the most significant international contemporary theatre is actually made. The book opens with an introductory chapter which contextualises recent trends in approaches to theatre-making. In the ensuing...

From Plato onwards, philosophers the world over have pondered the fraught relationship between the illusory practices of the stage and the rational pursuit of knowledge. In this engaging and accessible volume, David Kornhaber sheds new light on this...

Epicene is now one of the most widely-studied of Johnson's plays. Brilliantly exploiting the Jacobean convention whereby boys played female roles, it satirises the newly fashionable and sexually ambiguous world of the West End of London, where courtly...

World Theatre: The Basics presents a well-rounded introduction to non-Western theatre, exploring the history and current practice of theatrical traditions in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Oceania, the Caribbean, and the non-English-speaking cultures of...

Blasted brought Sarah Kane to the theatre pages of the broadsheets, the front pages of the tabloids, and to the notice of the nation. Covers all Kane's major plays and productions, contains hitherto unpublished material and reviews, and looks at her...

Liveness: Performance in a Mediatized Culture addresses what may be the single most important question facing all kinds of performance today. What is the status of live performance in a culture dominated by mass media and digital technologies?Since its...

'Who can turn skies back and begin again?'-PeterThis book contends that Peter Grimes, widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential operas of the 20th century, is also one of the British theatre's finest 'lost' plays. Seeking to liberate...

Dramaturgy is at the heart of any musical theatre score, proving that song and music combined can collectively act as drama. The Musical Theatre Composer as Dramatist: A Handbook for Collaboration offers techniques for approaching a musical with the...

'Book InformationISBN 9780801481628Author Eric L. SantnerFormat PaperbackPage Count 216Imprint Cornell University PressPublisher Cornell University PressWeight(grams) 454gDimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 16mm

Tom Stoppard: Faber Critical Guide by Jim Hunter is the essential introduction, analysis and exploration of Tom Stoppard's enormously influential body of plays.Are you fascinated by Stoppard's plays but want an informed view into their complexities?Are...

A fascinating look at the gay and lesbian influence on the American stage by an internationally-recognized authority on the topic From the genteel female impersonators of the 1910s to the raucous drag queens of La Cage Aux Folles, from the men of The...

"The next good mood I find my father in, I'll get him quite discarded" With these chillingly offhand words, Beatrice-Joanna, the spoilt daughter of a powerful nobleman, plots to get rid of the family servant who has crossed her once too often...

Throughout theatrical history, almost every element in stage production has been recycled. Indeed any regular theatergoer is familiar with the experience of a performance that conjures the ghosts of previous productions. The Haunted Stage explores this...

This updated edition of one of the bestselling and comprehensive Broadway reference books, first published in 1985, has been expanded to include many of the most important and memorable productions of American musical theatre, including revivals...

Active Analysis combines two of Maria Knebel's most important books, On Active Analysis of the Play and the Role and The Word in the Actor's Creative Work, in a single edition conceived and edited by one of Knebel's most famous students, the renowned...

Theater, as distinct from other dramatic media, is essentially a relationship between performer, spectator, and the space in which both come together. Space in Performance examines the way theater buildings function to frame the performance event, the...

Choirmaster George Mitchell hated the limelight, yet was responsible for a worldwide show business phenomenon - the George Mitchell Choirs and ultimately the Black and White Minstrel Show, which won the first-ever Golden Rose of Montreux, becoming the...

Shakespeare is at the heart of the British theatrical tradition, but the contribution of Ira Aldridge and the Shakespearean performers of African, African-Caribbean, south Asian and east Asian heritage who came after him is not widely known. Telling the...

Greasepaint Puritan details the life and work of Bradford Ropes, author of the bawdy 1932 novel 42nd Street, on which the classic film and its stage adaptation are based. Each of Ropes's long-forgotten novels was inspired by his own experiences as a...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780312357740Author Farley GrangerFormat PaperbackPage Count 288Imprint St Martin's PressPublisher St Martin's PressWeight(grams) 431gDimensions(mm) 229mm *...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780307744166Author Pamela KatzFormat PaperbackPage Count 496Imprint Alfred A. KnopfPublisher Alfred A. KnopfWeight(grams) 414gDimensions(mm) 202mm * 133mm *...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780956501394Author Alan StockwellFormat PaperbackPage Count 212Imprint Vesper Hawk PublishingPublisher Vesper Hawk PublishingWeight(grams)...

Featuring original essays by leading scholars in the field, this book explores the immense legacy of women playwrights in Irish theatre since the beginning of theTwentieth century. Chapters consider the intersecting contexts of gender, sexuality and the...

Exploring thirty years of work by The Centre for Performance Research (CPR), A Performance Cosmology explores the future challenges of performance and theatre through a diverse and fascinating series of interviews, testimonies and perspectives from...

This is the first book to dedicate scholarly attention to the work of Tarell Alvin McCraney, one of the most significant writers and theater-makers of the twenty-first century. Featuring essays, interviews, and commentaries by scholars and artists who...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780679746980Author Stella AdlerFormat PaperbackPage Count 352Imprint Vintage BooksPublisher Random House USA IncWeight(grams) 306gDimensions(mm) 203mm *...

A reflection on one of Broadway's most iconic flops, this memoir follows a musical that featured one of the silver screen's most powerful personalities. Bette Davis was nominated for twelve Academy Awards and twice won the Best Actress award, starring in...