The Wadsworth Anthology of Drama - Softcover

Worthen, W. B.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0838407501 ISBN 13: 9780838407509

Publisher: Cengage Learning, 1980

Synopsis

Known through three editions as the boldest and most distinguished introduction to drama, William Worthen's pace-setting text continues to provide exciting plays usefully situated within their historical and cultural contexts.

About this title

Review

Introduction: Drama, Theater, and Culture. Reading Drama and Seeing Theater. Drama and Theater in History. Dramatic Genres. Dramatic Form. The Stage in Critical Practice. *Reading the Material Theatre. 1. CLASSICAL ATHENS. Aside: Roman Drama and Theater. *Reading the Material Theater: Pronomos Painter. Aeschylus, Agamemnon. Sophocles, Oedipus the King. Euripides, Medea. Aristophanes, Lysistrata. Critical Contexts: Aristotle, from The Poetics. Performance in History. Sue-Ellen Case, from Classic Drag: the Greek Creation of Female Parts. Niall W. Slater, from The Idea of the Actor. *An Actor's Perspective: Interview with Fiona Shaw on Medea. A Performance Review: Michael Billington, review of The Oresteia. Royal National Theatre, 1981. 2. CLASSICAL JAPAN. Aside: Sanskrit Drama and Theater. *Reading the Material Theater: A Portrait of Seki Sanjuro II. Kan'ami Kiyotsugu, Matsukaze. Nakamura Matagoro II and James R. Brandon, adaptors, Chushingura: The Forty-Seven Samurai. Critical Contexts: Zeami Motokiyo, from A Mirror Held to the Flower. *Performance in History: Graham Ley, Aristotle's Poetics, Bharatamuni's Natyasastra, and Zeami's Treatises: Theory as Discourse. A Playwright's Perspective: Zeami Motokiyo, from Teachings on Style and the Flower. A Performance Review: Sandra Schlanger, review of Chushingura: The Forty-Seven Samurai University of Hawaii (1979). 3. MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE ENGLAND. Aside: The Jacobean Court Masque. *Reading the Material Theater: Titus Andronicus title page. Anonymous, The Wakefield Second Shepherds' Pageant. Anonymous, Everyman. Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus. William Shakespeare, Hamlet. William Shakespeare, The Tempest. Critical Contexts: Sir Philip Sidney, from Apology for Poetry. *Performance in History: Phyllis Rackin, Misogyny is Everywhere. An Actor's Perspective: Michael Pennington, Hamlet, from Players of Shakespeare. A Performance Review: Mel Gussow, review of Hamlet, Royal Shakespeare Company (1980). 4. EARLY MODERN EUROPE. Aside: Commedia Dell' Arte. Reading the Material Theater: Betterton's acting style. Pedro Calderon de la Barca, Life Is a Dream. Moliere, Tartuffe. Jean Racine, Phaedra. Aphra Behn, The Rover. Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, Loa to The Divine Narcissus. Critical Contexts: John Dryden, Preface to Troilus and Cressida, Containing the Grounds of Criticism in Tragedy. Performance in History: Katharine Eisaman Maus, from 'Playhouse Flesh and Blood': Sexual Ideology and the Restoration Actress. *An Actress's Perspective: Hippolyte Clairon, from Memoirs. A Performance Review: Frank Rich, review of The Rover Williamstown Theatre (1987). 5. MODERN EUROPE. Aside: Melodrama. *Reading the Material Theater: Ibsen's Notes for the Modern Tragedy. Henrik Ibsen, A Doll's House. August Strindberg, The Father. Anton Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard. *Elizabeth Robins, Votes for Women! Bernard Shaw, Major Barbara. Luigi Pirandello, Six Characters In Search of an Author. Bertolt Brecht, Mother Courage and Her Children. Samuel Beckett, Endgame. Harold Pinter, The Homecoming. *Marguerite Duras, India Song. Heiner Muller, Hamletmachine. Caryl Churchill, Cloud Nine. *David Edgar, Pentecost. Critical Contexts: Friedrich Nietzsche, from The Birth of Tragedy. Emile Zola, from Naturalism in the Theatre. Martin Esslin, from The Theatre of the Absurd. Fredric Jameson, from "Postmodernism and Consumer Society". Performance in History: Constantin. Stanislavski, from "Direction and Acting". Bertolt Brecht, "Theatre for Pleasure or Theatre for Instruction". Antonin Artaud, from The Theater and Its Double. *Una Chaudhuri, from Staging Place: The Geography of Modern Drama. *A Director's Perspective: A Director's approach--Interview with Peter Hall on The Homecoming. Performance Reviews: Bernard Shaw, review of A Doll's House Globe Theatre (1897). Ben Brantley, review of A Doll's House Belasco Theater (1997). 6. THE UNITED STATES. Aside: The Federal Theater Project. Aside: Performance Art. *Reading the Material Theater: Grimke's Rachel--The Play of the Month, The Reason and Synopsis by the Author. *Dion Boucicault, The Octoroon. Susan Glaspell, Trifles. *Angelina Weld Grimke, Rachel. Eugene O'Neill, The Hairy Ape. Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie. *Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman. Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones, Dutchman. *Maria Irene Fornes, Fefu and Her Friends. Sam Shepard, True West. August Wilson, Fences. David Henry Hwang, M. Butterfly. Tony Kushner, Angels in America, Part 1: Milennium Approaches. Anna Deavere Smith, Fires In the Mirror: Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and Other Identities. *Naomi Iizuka, 36 Views. *Suzan-Lori Parks, Topdog/Underdog. Critical Contexts: Arthur Miller, Tragedy and the Common Man. Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones, "The Revolutionary Theatre". Performance in History: *August Wilson, The Ground on Which I Stand. *Robert Brustein, Subsidized Separatism. A Designer's Perspective: Arnold Aronson, Design for Angels in America: Envisioning the Millennium. A Performance Review: Ben Brantley, review of Topdog / Underdog Joseph Papp Public Theater (2001). 7. WORLD STAGES. Aside: Intercultural Performance. *Reading the Material Theater: Program Notes for Translations. Satoh Makoto, My Beatles. Aime Cesaire, A Tempest. Griselda Gambaro, Information for Foreigners. *Athol Fugard, John Kani, Winston Ntshona, The Island. Wole Soyinka, Death and the King's Horseman. Brian Friel, Translations. Maishe Maponya, Gangsters. Jack Davis, No Sugar. *Gao Xingjian, The Other Shore. Tomson Highway, Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing. *Judith Thompson, Lion in the Streets. *Manjula Padmanabhan, Harvest. Critical Contexts: Frantz Fanon, from "The Fact of Blackness". Homi K. Bhabha, "Of Mimicry and Man: The Ambivalence of Colonial Discourse". Performance in History: Helen Gilbert and Joanne Tompkins, from Post-Colonial Drama. *A Playwright's Perspective: Athol Fugard, selections from Notebooks. *A Performance Review: John Bemrose, Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing. Royal Alexandria Theatre (1991). Appendix: Writing About Drama and Theater. Glossary. Bibliography. Video, Film, And Sound Recordings of Plays. List of Illustrations and Photographs. Index.

About the Author

W. B. Worthen, Alice Brady Pels Professor in the Arts, is Professor and Chair of the Department of Theater at Barnard College, Columbia University. He is the author of Shakespeare and the Force of Modern Performance (Cambridge University Press, 2003) Shakespeare and the Authority of Performance (Cambridge University Press, 1997), Modern Drama and the Rhetoric of Theater (University of California Press, 1992), The Idea of the Actor: Drama and the Ethics of Performance (Princeton University Press, 1984), Modern Drama: Plays, Criticism, Theory (Wadsworth, 1995), and of many articles on modern drama, Shakespeare, and theories of performance. Professor Worthen received his B. A. in English from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and his Ph.D. in English from Princeton University, and has held research fellowships form the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment of the Humanities. He is past editor of Theatre Journal and current coeditor of Modern Drama.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cengage Learning
• Publication date: 1980
• ISBN 10: 0838407501
• ISBN 13: 9780838407509
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 4
• Number of pages: 1728