Criticism, Theory & History

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See also: Canadian Theatre Studies and National Theatre Studies.

Writing in Restaurants
David Mamet
Pulitzer Prize winning author David Mamet offers his insights, philosophies, and observations on life, theater, and himself. Written with passion, clarity, wit and intelligence. $16.99.

Theatrical Companion to Coward
Raymond Mander & Joe Mitchenson
This new edition of the detailed Noel Coward companion is updated by Coward experts Barry Day and Sheridan Morley. Includes reviews, original cast, and many other notes on all of Coward's work. Large-format hardcover, $107.95.

Theater of the Ridiculous
Revised and expanded
Bonnie Marranca & Gautam Dasgupta, editors
Essays on Jack Smith, Ronald Tavel, Charles Ludlam and Kenneth Bernard. $22.50.

 

A Sourcebook of Feminist Theatre and Performance:
On and Beyond the Stage
Carol Martin, ed.
Key articles on feminist theatre and performance. This is an exciting and stimulating book and an invaluable aid to students and practitioners of theatre and performance, as well as those interested in the performance of sexualities and genders. $38.99.

The Living Art of Greek Tragedy
Marianne McDonald
An unparalleled and definitive study of Greek tragedy from antiquity to the present day. With summaries and analyses of the original dramas followed by detailed discussions of modern productions, translations, and adaptations, The Living Art of Greek Tragedy is an ideal introduction to the subject. Softcover, 223 pp. $23.95.

The Death of the Critic
Ronan McDonald
The critic has long been a reviled figure, at best the mere handmaiden of the 'creative' arts, at worst a parasite upon them. In an age of book clubs, celebrity endorsements and internet bloggers, what role is there now for the professional critic as an arbiter of artistic value? Ronan McDonald comes to the defense of the public critic by countering recent claims that all artistic value is simply relative and subjective and considers why high-profile public critics, such as William Empson, F.R. Leavis, or Lionel Trilling, become much rarer in the later 20th century. Softcover, 160 pp. $20.95.


The Cambridge Introduction to Samuel Beckett
Ronan McDonald
This is an accessible introduction to one of the most important writers of the twentieth century, explaining how we might interpret famously difficult and experimental works such as Waiting for Godot, Endgame, and Happy Days, and providing an overview of Beckett and his time. Softcover, 140 pp. $23.95.

Renaissance Drama
Andrew McRae
This book considers Renaissance plays in the context of crucial contemporary issues and debates, on matters such as identity, sexuality, social order, religion, state power, and colonialism. It provides an introduction to the work of writers including Shakespeare, Marlowe, Jonson, Dekker, Webster, Middleton and Ford. Softcover, 180 pp. $29.95.

August Wilson's Fences
Ladrica Menson-Furr
Critics and scholars have lauded August Wilson's work for its universality and its ability, especially in Fences, to transcend racial barriers and this play helped earn him the titles of "America's greatest playwright" and "African American Shakespeare." Softcover, 107 pp. $20.95.

Ariane Mnouchkine
Judith G. Miller
Ariane Mnouchkine, the most significant living French theatre director, has devised over the last forty years a form of research and creation with her theatre collective, Le Theatre du Soleil, that is both engaged with contemporary history and committed to reinvigorating theatre by foregrounding the centrality of the actor. Softcover, 157 pp. $36.50.

Voices Made Flesh: Performing Women's Autobiography
Lynn C. Miller, Jacqueline Taylor & M. Heather Carver
Fourteen bold, dynamic, and sassy women take the stage in this collection of women's lives and stories. The volume as a whole highlights issues of representation, identity and staging in autobiographical performance. It examines the links among theory and criticism of women's autobiography, feminist performance theory, and performance practice. Softcover, 322 pp. $40.95.

Romancing The Bard: Stratford At Fifty
Martin Minter
Romancing the Bard is a celebration of our foremost theatre, presented in a collection of photographs and essays about memorable productions and people in Stratford's history. A lovely book. $39.99.

Henrik Ibsen and the Birth of Modernism
Toril Moi
Henrik Ibsen's standing as a founder of modern theatre is unquestioned; yet to many he is seen as a dull realist, with little significance to the nineteenth-century's larger cultural trajectory. One hundred years after his death, Toril Moi presents a radical new appraisal. Ibsen is here an astonishing innovator; a powerful influence on a generation of European writers; a painter and philosopher whose clear-eyed chronicling of relationships overturned idealism, the dominant aesthetic of his age. Henrik Ibsen and the Birth of Modernism rewrites nineteenth-century literary history, placing Ibsen in his rightful place alongside Baudelaire, Flaubert, and Manet as a founder of European modernism. Hardcover, 382 pp. $48.95.

The Cambridge Companion to British Theatre, 1730-1830
Edited by Jane Moody & Daniel O'Quinn
Written by leading international scholars, chapters in this volume cover subjects such as actors and acting, playwrights and performers such as James Quin and Sarah Siddons, and the major theatrical forms of the period such as comedy, melodrama and pantomime. The Companion explains what made the theatre such an important political, social and cultural venue for spectators from all classes of British society during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. An essential guide to one of the most exciting and innovative periods in British theatrical history. Softcover, 285 pp. $30.95.

Theatre's Strangest Acts
Sheridan Morley
This highly entertaining collection of weird and wonderful stories from the theatre's rich history ranges from the Greek theatre of Aeschylus and Sophocles to Broadway and London's West End, via a great variety of extraordinary productions and people. Softcover, 218 pp. $22.95.

Wild Theatre: The History of One Yellow Rabbit
Martin Morrow
This breezy, irreverent story tells the history of the company considered by many to be English Canada's foremost creation theatre. A lively, intimate tale, Wild Theatre tracks the Rabbits through two decades of daring experiments, national controversy, and international success. Softcover, 400 pp. $24.95.

The Secret Life of Puppets
Victoria Nelson
In this remarkable book, Victoria Nelson illuminates the deep yet hidden attraction the supernatural still holds for a secular mainstream culture that forced the transcendental to go underground and firmly displaced wonder and awe with the forces of reason, materialism and science. Winner of the 10th Annual Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Comparative Literary Studies.Softcover, 350 pp. $26.95.

Applied Drama: The Gift of Theatre
Helen Nicholson
Applied Theatre offers an insight into theatre-making that takes place in communities across the world. It celebrates the gift of practice that takes place in different - and sometimes unglamorous - settings: prisons, schools, hostels for the homeless, care homes for the elderly, and on the street. Ideal for students and practitioners, Helen Nicholson's lively study poses critical questions about the efficacy of applied drama, prompting debate about the significance of theatre in society as a whole. Softcover, 196 pp. $33.95.

Tony Kushner's Angels in America
Ken Nielson
Angels in America paved a new way for American theatre in its combination of heightened theatricality and politics. With the scope of characters' sexual, class, and religous affiliations that Tony Kushner created, the play offers a unique possibility to discuss the construction of American identity in the late 1980s and 1990s. This guide provides students with a comprehensive critical introduction to the play, including its structure, style, characters and key productions issues and choices. It also offers an overview of the performance history of Millenium Approaches and Perestroika including the HBO adaptation. Softcover, 136 pp. $18.95.

Migrations of Gesture
Edited by Carrie Noland & Sally Ann Ness
Migrations of Gesture provides a complex theory on the value of gesture for understanding human behaviour. Juxtaposing distinct approaches to gesture in order to explore the ways in which they at once shape and are influenced by culture, the contributors examine the work of various writers along with cultural practices such as gang walking, ballet, and classical Indian dance. Softcover, 296 pp. $29.95.

Stratford Gold: 50 Years, 50 Stars, 50 Conversations
Richard Ouzounian
This unique book is a collection of interviews with fifty performing artists who had a unique role in the history of The Stratford Festival. Includes discussions with such luminaries as: Tom Patterson, Timothy Findley, Christopher Plummer, Maggie Smith, Zoe Caldwell, Alan Bates, Martha Henry, William Hutt, Peter Ustinov, William Shatner and others.Statford Gold also features interviews with all of the surviving Artistic Directors: Michael Langham, Robin Phillips, John Neville, David William and Richard Monette. Hardcover, 397 pp., $29.95.

A Companion to Restoration Drama
Susan J. Owen
This book illustrates the vitality and diversity of dramatic works in the period from 1660 to 1710. Twenty-five essays by leading scholars in the field bring together the best recent insights into the full range of dramatic practice and innovation at the time. They examine well-known genres such as Restoration sex comedy in a new light, and explore other genres such as heroic plays, satirical comedy and sentimental 'she-tragedy', tragicomedy and political tragedy. Hardcover, 456 pp. $58.95.

Susan Glaspell and Sophie Treadwell
Barbara Ozieblo & Jerry Dickey
This book presents critical introductions to two of the most significant American dramatists of the early twentieth century. This is the first book to deal with Glaspell's and Treadwell's plays from a theatrical rather than literary perspective, and presents a comprehensive overview of their work from lesser know plays to seminal productions of Trifles and Machinal. Softcover, 228 pp. $36.95.

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Gentlemen Callers: Tennessee Williams, Homosexuality, and Mid-Twentieth-Century Drama
Michael Paller
Gentlemen Callers provides a fascinating look at America's greatest twentieth-century playwright. Michael Paller examines Tennessee William's plays from the 1940s through the 1980s against the backdrop of the playwright's life story and the culture in which he worked, providing fresh details. Lively, blunt, and provocative, this book will appeal to anyone who loves Williams, Broadway, and the theatre. Hardcover, 269 pp. $38.95.

The Complete Critical Guide to Samuel Beckett
David Pattie
Why did Waiting for Godot have such a radical impact on contemporary drama? Was Beckett the last of the modernists, or was he the first of the post-modernists? These questions, and more are answered in this comprehensive and accessible guide. Inside the reader will find basic information on Beckett's life, contexts and works, outlines of the major issues surrounding his work, and a guide to further reading. Softcover, 220 pp. $35.95.

The Soul of Tragedy: Essays on Athenian Drama
Victoria Pedrick & Steven M. Oberhelman
The Soul of Tragedy brings together top scholars to offer a wide range of perspectives on Greek tragedy. The collection pays homage to the ancient, enduring theatrical and literary genre by offering a deep exploration into the oldest form of dramatic expression. It is a reminder that, for all their years, these dramas still have much to teach us. Softcover, 323 pp. $31.95.

The Ends of Performance
Peggy Phelan & Jill Lane, eds.
Focusing on the living arts, performance studies expands our understanding of performance as both a vital artistic practice and a means by which we understand social and cultural processes; it explores the myriad ways in which performance creates meaning and shapes our everyday lives. $32.50.

Tragedy: A Very Short Introduction
Adrian Poole
What do we mean by 'tragedy' now? What has it been made to mean by dramatists, story-tellers, philosophers, politicians and journalists over the last two and a half millenia? When we turn on the news, does a report of the latest atrocity have any connection with Sophocles and Shakespeare? Addressing questions about belief, blame, revenge, pain, witnessing, and ending, this concise guide demonstrates the enduring significance of attempts to make sense of terrible suffering. Softcover, 147 pp. $12.95.

The Cambridge Companion to Native American Literature
Joy Porter & Kenneth M. Roemer
The Cambridge Companion to Native American Literature provides an informative and wide-ranging overview of a relatively new field of literary-cultural studies, covering literature written and narrated in English by American Indians in many genres from the 1770s to present day. In addition to the seventeen chapters written by respected experts, this companion includes bio-bibliographies of forty authors, maps, suggestions for further reading, and a timeline which details major works of Native American literature and mainstream American literature, as well as significant social, cultural, and historical events. Softcover, 343 pp. $33.95.

The Cambridge Introduction to Theatre Historiography
Thomas Postlewait
Designed for students and teachers alike, this introduction provides a detailed guide for historical research in the performing arts. The book examines basic procedures and problems in both documentary scholarship and cultural history. A practical guide, this study demonstrates how to construct historical events -- large and small -- and place them in relation to the political, social, and economic conditions, the artistic traditions, audience responses and values, and historical periods. Softcover, 346 pp. $31.95.

Actresses and Whores: On Stage and in Society
Kristen Pullen
The image of actress as prostitute has haunted the theatrical profession since women first went on the stage. Through case studies, interviews, and archival research, Kirsten Pullen presents this highly original feminist and cultural perspective on the myth and reality of the actress/whore. Softcover, 215 pp. $33.95.

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Last modified December 28, 2009.
Please note that all prices are in Canadian dollars. All prices are subject to change without notice.