Theatre in Theory 1900-2000

David Krasner is Associate Professor of Performing Arts and Head of the Acting Program at Emerson College. He is the coeditor (with Rebecca Schneider) of the University of Michigan Press's Series Theater: Theory/Text/Performance.

"This book presents perspectives from the era's major playwrights, directors, scholars and philosophers." Times Higher Education Supplement“At once comprehensive and original, this collection assembles for the first time an impressive body of theory drawn from a wide range of disciplines and traditions. This will be an indispensable sourcebook for anyone who enjoys not only going to the theatre, but also thinking about it afterwards.”Martin Puchner, Columbia University“An eclectic anthology of writings on theatre, many made accessible here for the first time. The often bracing juxtaposition of viewpoints from practitioners, playwrights, scholars, and theoreticians reminds us how rich the collective discourse of theatre has been since the beginning of the twentieth century. Bridging the divides that have so often characterized this field, Theatre in Theory offers a resounding testament to theatre’s urgency in the modern world.”Stanton B. Garner, Jr., University of Tennessee

• Acknowledgments. Introduction.Part I: 1900–1920:.Introduction to Part I.1. August Strindberg (1849–1912).Preface to Miss Julie (1888).2. Oscar Wilde (1854–1900).The Decay of Lying: An Observation (1889).3. Henri Bergson (1859–1941).Laughter (Le Rire, 1900).4. Valery Bryusov (1873–1924).Against Naturalism in the Theatre (from “Unnecessary Truth”) (1902).5. Romain Rolland (1866–1944).The People’s Theatre (1903).6. Maurice Maeterlinck (1862–1949).The Modern Drama (1904).7. Aida Overton Walker (1880–1914).Colored Men and Women on the Stage (1905).8. Vsevolod Vaslov Meyerhold (1874–1940).The Naturalistic Theatre and the Theatre of Mood (1908).9. Edward Gordon Craig (1872–1966).The Actor and the Über-marionette (1908).10. William Butler Yeats (1865–1939).The Tragic Theatre (1910).11. George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950).Against the Well-Made Play (1911).12. F. T. Marinetti (1876–1944).Futurism and the Theatre (1913).13. Georg Lukács (1885–1971).The Sociology of Modern Drama (1914).14. Emma Goldman (1869–1940).Foreword to The Social Significance of Modern Drama (1917).Part II: 1920–1940:.Introduction to Part II.15. Luigi Pirandello (1867–1936).On Comedy (1920).16. Stanislaw Witkiewicz (1885–1939).On a New Type of Play (1920).17. Adolphe Appia (1862–1928).Organic Unity (1921).18. Georg Kaiser (1878–1945).Man in the Tunnel, or: The Poet and the Play (1923).19. Alain Locke (1886–1954).The Negro and the American Stage (1926).The Drama of Negro Life (1926).20. W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963).“Krigwa Players Little Negro Theatre”: The Story of a Little Theatre Movement (1926).Criteria of Negro Art (1926).21. Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956).The Modern Theatre is the Epic Theatre (1930).Theatre for Pleasure or Theatre for Instruction (ca. 1936).Alienation Effect in Chinese Acting (1936).22. Eugene O’Neill (1888–1953).Memoranda on Masks (1932).Second Thoughts (1932).A Dramatist’s Notebook (1933).23. Gertrude Stein (1874–1946).Plays (1934).24. Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960).Characteristics of Negro Expression (1934).25. Federico García Lorca (1899–1936).The Prophecy of Lorca (1934).26. Antonin Artaud (1896–1949).On the Balinese Theatre (1938).No More Masterpieces (1938).27. Walter Benjamin (1892–1940).What is Epic Theatre? (1939).28. Maxwell Anderson (1888–1959).The Essence of Tragedy (1939).29. Karel Brušák (1913–2004).Signs in the Chinese Theatre (1939).Part III: 1940–1960:.Introduction to Part III.30. Jindřich Honzl (1894–1953).Dynamics of the Sign in the Theatre (1940).31. Thornton Wilder (1897–1975).Some Thoughts on Playwrighting (1941).32. Arthur Miller (1915–2005).Tragedy and the Common Man (1949).33. T. S. Eliot (1888–1965).Poetry and Drama (1950).34. Tennessee Williams (1911–1983).The Timeless World of the Play (1951).35. John Gassner (1903–1967).“Enlightenment” and Modern Drama (1954).36. Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–1990).Problems of the Theatre (1955).37. Sean O’Casey (1880–1964).Green Goddess of Realism (1956).38. Eric Bentley (b. 1916).What is Theatre? A Point of View (1956).39. Northrop Frye (1912–1991).Specific Forms of Drama (1957).40. Eugène Ionesco (1909–1994).The Avant-Garde Theatre (1960).41. Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980).Beyond Bourgeois Theatre (1960).Part IV: 1960–1980:.Introduction to Part IV.42. Martin Esslin (1918–2002).The Theatre of the Absurd (1961).43. George Steiner (b. 1929).The Death of Tragedy (1961).44. Roland Barthes (1915–1980).The Task of Brechtian Criticism (1956).Theatre and Signification (1963).45. Lionel Abel (1910–2001).Of Bert Brecht – Not Simple but Simplified (1963).46. Francis Fergusson (1904–1986).The Notion of “Action” (1964).47. Peter Szondi (1929–1971).The Drama (1965).48. Kenneth Burke (1897–1993).Dramatic Form – And: Tracking Down Implications (1966).49. Jacques Derrida (1930–2004).Theatre of Cruelty and the Closure of Representation (1966).50. Jerzy Grotowski (1933–1999).Towards the Poor Theatre (1967).51. Raymond Williams (1921–1988).Drama from Ibsen to Brecht (1968).52. Peter Brook (b. 1925).The Immediate Theatre (1968).53. Peter Weiss (1916–1982).Notes on the Contemporary Theatre (1971).54. Joyce Carol Oates (b. 1938).The Edge of Impossibility: Tragic Forms in Literature (1972).55. Luis Valdez (b. 1940).Notes on Chicano Theater (1973).56. Augusto Boal (b. 1931).“Empathy or What? Emotion or Reason?” and “Experiments with the People’s Theatre in Peru” (1974).57. Charles Ludlam (1943–1987).Ridiculous Theatre, Scourge of Human Folly (1975).58. Michael Kirby (b. 1931).Manifesto of Structuralism (1975).59. Wole Soyinka (b. 1934).Drama and the African World-View (1976).60. Robert Wilson (b. 1941).“… I thought I was hallucinating hallucinating” (1977).61. Patrice Pavis (b. 1947).Languages of the Stage (1978).62. Heiner Müller (1929–1995).Reflections on Post-Modernism (1979).63. Ntozake Shange (b. 1948).unrecovered losses/black theater traditions (1979).Part V: 1980–2000:.Introduction to Part V.64. Tadeusz Kantor (1915–1990).Theatre Happening 1967 (1982).65. Jeffrey Huntsman.Native American Theatre (1983).66. Bert O. States (b. 1929).The World On Stage (1985).67. Victor Turner (1920–1983).Images and Reflections: Ritual, Drama, Carnival, Film, and Spectacle in Cultural Performance (1987).68. Eugenio Barba (b. 1936).Eurasian Theatre (1988).69. Megumi Sata.Aristotle’s Poetics and Zeami’s Teachings on Style and the Flower (1989).70. Jill Dolan.Desire Cloaked in a Trenchcoat (1989).71. Judith Butler (b. 1956).From Parody to Politics (1990).72. Reza Abdoh (1963–1995).Los Angeles (1992).73. Richard Foreman (b. 1937).Foundations for a Theater (1992).74. Suzan-Lori Parks (b. 1964).Elements of Style (1994).75. Rebecca Schneider (b. 1959).The Explicit Body in Performance (1997).76. Peggy Phelan (b. 1959).Mourning Sex: Performing Public Memories (1997).77. Erika Fischer-Lichte.Written Drama/Oral Performance (1997).78. Richard Schechner (b. 1934).What is Performance Studies Anyway? (1998).79. Alina Troyano.I, Carmelita Tropicana (2000).80. Herbert Blau.Limits of Performance: The Insane Root (2001).81. Mitsuya Mori.The Structure of Theater: A Japanese View of Theatricality (2002).82. Heisnam Kanhailal (b. 1941).Ritual Theatre (Theatre of Transition) (2004).Theatre in Theory: Working Units.Selected Bibliography.Index