This introductory text acquaints students with the theatre its artistic and social functions, its development, and how each of the theatre arts functions as a unit. In the thirty-five years since it was first published, The Essential Theatre has established a reputation as one of the most comprehensive, authoritative surveys of the theatre in academia. The Essential Theatre works in tandem with its companion anthology, Plays for the Theatre (7th edition), edited by Oscar G. Brockett with Robert Ball. The scripts in Plays serve as the foundation for discussion of the various types of theatrical experience explored in The Essential Theatre. The Essential Theatre is intended to meet the needs of two courses: Introduction to Theatre (an overview serving as a foundation for students who expect to major in theatre, focusing on the theatrical experience from the viewpoint of the players) and Theatre Appreciation (an overview providing insight for non-majors, focusing on the theatrical experience from the viewpoint of audience members).
Preface
Part One Foundations
Chapter 1 The Nature of Theatre
Chapter 2 Performance, Audience, and Critic
Chapter 3 The Playscript
Part Two Varieties of Theatrical Experience
Chapter 4 Festival Theatre: Greek, Roman, and Medieval Theatre Experiences
Chapter 5 Creating a Professional Theatre: Elizabethan England, Italian Commedia dell's Arte, and Seventeenth-Century France
Chapter 6 From Melodrama to Realism
Chapter 7 The Modernist Temperament: 1885-1940
Chapter 8 Reevaluation, Decentralization, and Subsidization
Chapter 9 Contemporary Diversity
Part Three Theatrical Production
Chapter 10 Theatrical Space and Production Design
Chapter 11 Playwriting and Dramaturgy
Chapter 12 Directing and Producing
Chapter 13 Acting
Chapter 14 Scenic Design
Chapter 15 Costume Design and Makeup
Chapter 16 Lighting Design, Sound, and Multimedia
Appendix Opportunities to Work in the Theatre
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
Oscar G. Brockett enjoys an international reputation as a theatre historian. A Distinguished Scholar honoree of the American Society of Theatre Research, he has received career achievement awards from: the Association for Theatre in Higher Education; the United States Institute for Theatre Technology; and is a recipient of the Robert Lewis Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Theatre Research. After receiving his Ph.D. from Stanford University, he taught at several major American universities and at the University of Bristol in England. He has also served as President of the American Theatre Association, Dean of the College of Fine Arts at University of Texas, Editor of Theatre Journal, and on the editorial board of the Asian Theatre Journal. He held the prestigious University of Texas Z.T. Scott Family Chair in Drama and was the Director of the Center for Dramatic and Performance Studies for several years. Dr. Brockett is the author of many articles in leading journals and has written several books, including History of the Theatre and The Essential Theatre. He is currently a Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and the Dean of the Fellows of the American Theatre. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
