The Routledge Drama Anthology is an original compilation of works from key movements in the history of the modern theatre, from the late nineteenth to the early twenty-first century. This expanded new edition now features twenty new plays and essays.

The anthology spans:

• Naturalism and Symbolism
• The Historical Avant-Garde
• Political Theatres
• Late Modernism
• Contemporary Theatre and Performance

Each of the book's five sections comprises a selection of plays and performance texts that define the period, reproduced in full and accompanied by key theoretical writings from performers, playwrights and critics that inform and contextualize their reading. Substantial introductions from experts in the field also provide these sections with an overview of the works and their significance.

This textbook provides an unprecedented collection of comprehensive resource materials that will facilitate in-depth critical analysis. It enables a dialogue between playwrights and performance practitioners on one hand, and on the other, critics and theorists such as Roland Barthes, Jean Baudrillard, Walter Benjamin, Andre Breton, Martin Esslin, Michael Kirby, Hans Thies Lehmann, Jacques Ranciere and Theodor Adorno.

About the Author

Maggie B. Gale is Chair of Drama at the University of Manchester (UK). She is the co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to the Actress; author of West End Women: Women on the London Stage 1918-1962, and J.B.Priestley from the series Routledge Modern and Contemporary Dramatists.

John F. Deeney is Senior Lecturer in Drama at Manchester Metropolitan University (UK), Editor of Writing Live and author of the book Mark Ravenhill from the series Routledge Modern and Contemporary Dramatists

Reviews

"In a good number of ways this is the book I have fantasized about as I've taught modern and post-modern Western theatre history over the last decades."

- Rhonda Blair - Southern Methodist University, USA. Past President, American Society for Theatre Research.

At last, a full-service textbook that productively collects plays, performances, theory, and criticism from Naturalism to now. This book refuses the predictably conventional and gives us every excuse to shake up not just what we teach as "modern drama," but what we understand as its importance."

- Susan Bennett - University of Calgary, Canada

"An invaluable resource for students and scholars of theatre in the UK and worldwide."

- Osita Okagbue, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK

"This volume represents a collection of comprehensive source materials and primary texts in English seminal to the understanding of modernist theatre, and will serve as a valuable resource for students, teachers, and researchers of theatre."

- UpStage

"This is an exceptionally well-chosen anthology, which would make a robust and comprehensive core text for a course, or series of courses, on modern and experimental theatre."

- Theron Schmidt, University of New South Wales, Australia

"This is precisely the text I would choose for a seminar on modern and contemporary dramatic literature."

- Jennifer Goff, Virginia Tech University, USA

"A rich and well-balanced compilation of key theatrical and critical texts for twentieth century drama."

- Daniel Schulze, University of Wurzburg, Germany

Routledge have created an outstanding drama anthology, a must for any undergraduate drama student."

- James Issitt, University of Cumbria, UK

"This book perfectly corresponds with the scope of my Modern Drama course. I like that it includes not only the central plays but also the critical writings by theorists and thinkers in each era. I can do with this one book what it took me multiple textbooks to do in the past."

- Kay Lynn Perry, Regent University, USA

"Produces a rich understanding of the aesthetic and political trajectories of Western theatre from the origins of naturalism to the contemporary postmodern."

- Noe Montez, Director of Graduate Studies, Tufts University, USA

"I teach a lot about the "in-between" dramatic literature of the 20th C: those movements that were the engine-rooms of innovation where new dramatic device, convention and content challenged the status quo and enthralled audiences. This is a rare anthology as it brings many of these practitioners together in one book."

- Janet McDonald - University of Southern Queensland, Australia

Book Information
ISBN 9780415724173
Author Maggie B. Gale
Format Paperback
Page Count 880
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 1852g