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Broadway Bookshelf

Biographies, show books, musical scores, history, and must-read theatre books.
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The World of Theatre: Tradition and Innovation (11/29/2005)

The World of Theatre is the first introduction to theatre book to truly focus on diversity and globalism, integrating coverage of multicultural, international and experimental theatre throughout. Theatre is presented as a global and multicultural form that reflects both traditional and evolving world views. While the American commercial theatre and European forms are central to the text, alternative theatres are placed side by side for comparison and contrast in each chapter, thus avoiding the s... 		The World of Theatre: Tradition and Innovation Cover
New York Then/New York Now (2/21/2005)

New York Then/New York Now—a collection of essays, memoirs, interviews, commentary, and plays—contemplates New York City’s history and future as a center for groundbreaking theatrical forms and ideas. Featuring the work of theater artists, producers, and critics, this special issue of Theater is concerned with the ideas and practicalities of making theater in and for New York within specific historical, political, and economic contexts. The first section, “New York Then,” reflects on ... 		New York Then/New York Now Cover
The Complete Annotated Gilbert & Sullivan (1/1/2005)

Lovers of Gilbert and Sullivan will be in heaven with the publication of these two books, which nicely complement each other. Stedman (English, Roosevelt Univ., Chicago) offers an outstanding study of this playwright and his often overlooked works, with much of its value deriving from its study of Gilbert without Sullivan. The author is a recognized expert on Gilbert as well as the Victorian time period, and she shows him to be a complex and interesting man who often found himself at odds with ... 		The Complete Annotated Gilbert & Sullivan Cover
The Wadsworth Anthology of Drama (6/25/2003)

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. 		The Wadsworth Anthology of Drama Cover
Theatre World 1994-1995, Vol. 51 (1/1/2000)

Theatre World, the statistical and pictorial record of the Broadway and off-Broadway season, touring companies, and professional regional companies throughout the United States, has become a classic in its field. The book is complete with cast listings, replacement producers, directors, authors, composers, opening and closing dates, song titles, and much, much more. There are special sections with biographical data, obituary information, listings of annual Shakespeare festivals and major drama a... 		Theatre World 1994-1995, Vol. 51 Cover
Theatre World 1993-1994, Vol. 50 (1/1/2000)

Theatre World, the statistical and pictorial record of the Broadway and off-Broadway season, touring companies, and professional regional companies throughout the United States, has become a classic in its field. The book is complete with cast listings, replacement producers, directors, authors, composers, opening and closing dates, song titles, and much, much more. There are special sections with biographical data, obituary information, listings of annual Shakespeare festivals and major drama a... 		Theatre World 1993-1994, Vol. 50 Cover
The Social Significance of Modern Drama (1/1/2000)

Out of print virtually since its completion in 1914, Emma Goldman's pioneer work Social Significance in Modern Drama bridges modern drama and political philosophy, pointing out the road that remains to be travelled toward a theatre of social empowerment. Activist, feminist, philosopher and anarchist, Emma Goldman was a passionate thinker about all things modern when the 20th century was still raw and new. The emergence of her treatise on the theatre after years of obscurity is certain to arouse ... 		The Social Significance of Modern Drama Cover
Polaroid Stories (1/1/1999)

Naomi Iizuka’s 1997 play, Polaroid Stories, consciously uses stories, characters and themes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses to tell the stories of street kids living on the edge in a desolate, urban landscape. Because these characters are named after Orpheus and Eurydice, and Echo and Narcissus, or based on stories of Dionysus, and Ariadne and Theseus, and because scenes are entitled “The Story of Semele” or “Theseus in the Labyrinth,” Iizuka creates a world that has two dimensions: the g... 		Polaroid Stories Cover
Contemporary American Playwrights (12/31/1969)

The playwrights covered in this study have among them won most of the available awards and experienced considerable success in the theater. They have not, however, found their way so easily into the academic canon. Christopher Bigsby examines, in some detail, the developing careers of some of America's most fascinating and original dramatic talent: John Guare, Tina Howe, Tony Kushner, Emily Mann, Richard Nelson, Marsha Norman, David Rabe, Paula Vogel, Wendy Wasserstein, and Lanford Wilson. In a... 		Contemporary American Playwrights Cover
The Cambridge History of American Theatre 3 Volume Paperback Set (12/31/1969)

This unique three-volume history covers all aspects of American theatre from plays and playwrights, through actors and acting, to theatre groups and directors. Each volume includes an extensive overview and timeline followed by chapters on specific aspects of American theatre including vaudeville and popular entertainment, European influences, theatre in and beyond New York, the rise of the Little Theatre movement, reception, modernism, scenography, stagecraft, and architecture. Volume I covers... 		The Cambridge History of American Theatre 3 Volume Paperback Set Cover
How to Enjoy Opera (12/31/1969)

Discusses the essential elements of opera, surveys the history of opera, and describes the plots of one hundred popular operas. 		How to Enjoy Opera Cover
Charles Osborne's Theatricals: The Collected Dramatic Criticism (12/31/1969)

In 1986 Charles Osborne, ex-actor and translator of plays from French and German (and once described in Vogue as 'a suave 20th century version of the universal man') published a vitriolic attack on British drama critics. As a result, he was offered the posiiton as Chief Theatre Critic for the Daily Telegraph. He agreed to undertake the job for a period of no more than five years. His perceptive, trenchant and wittily expressed reviews established him as a highly respected recorder of the London ... 		Charles Osborne's Theatricals: The Collected Dramatic Criticism Cover
The Theatre of Howard Barker (12/31/1969)

In this second, fully revised edition of his acclaimed study of Barker's work, Charles Lamb sets out to make emotional sense of the characters and their interactions. This is a detailed exploration of the 'scene of seduction' - the challenge, the secret, the abject and the catastrophic, processes which dominate Barker's work. For Lamb, the power of Barker's plays is to be found in the exposure to the irrational and its promotion of a state of unknowing. This revised edition includes: *... 		The Theatre of Howard Barker Cover
The Saint's Tragedy (12/31/1969)

The writer of this play does not differ with his countrymen generally, as to the nature and requirements of a Drama. He has learnt from our Great Masters that it should exhibit human beings engaged in some earnest struggle, certain outward aspects of which may possibly be a spectacle for the amusement of idlers, but which in itself is for the study and the sympathy of those who are struggling themselves. 		The Saint's Tragedy Cover
A Christmas Carol (12/31/1969)

Paul Sills, the master of improvisation and found of The Second City and creator of Story Theatre - and who has influenced some of theatre's most important directors, writers and actors - adapts for stage one of the classic works of literature, Charles Dickens' masterpiece, A Christmas Carol.Included as well are some of the exercises devised for Story Theater by Viola Spolin, renowned for her work with games and improvisation and whose best-selling text has become the definitive guide to improv... 		A Christmas Carol Cover
The Chosen (12/31/1969)

The Chosen is a novel/play written by Chaim Potok. It was published in 1967. It follows the main character Reuven Malter and his friend Daniel Saunders, as they grow up in New York in the 1940s. A sequel featuring Reuven's young adult years is titled The Promise. 		The Chosen Cover
The Methuen Book of Modern Drama: Plays of the '80s and '90s (12/31/1969)

Published to celebrate twenty years of Methuen's Royal Court Writers Series, this volume contains five ground-breaking plays of the eighties and nineties. 		The Methuen Book of Modern Drama: Plays of the '80s and '90s Cover
The Performing Set: The Broadway Designs of William and Jean Eckart (12/31/1969)

The large-scale Broadway musical is one of America's great contributions to world theatre. Bill and Jean Eckart were stage designers and producers at the peak of the musical, and their designs revolutionized Broadway productions. At a time when sets were meant to remain simply backdrops that established time and place but not much else, an Eckart set became part of the performance on stage, equal at times to an actor. Anyone who has seen Phantom of the Opera or Les Miserables has seen the innov... 		The Performing Set: The Broadway Designs of William and Jean Eckart Cover
Pinocchio (12/31/1969)

Noted writer Leon Katz, the champion of the present day commmedia dell'arte, has written a brand-new stage adaptation for children's theatre. Included are the costume sketches, the stage cues and even a few of the stage tricks used to bring not just Pinocchio but all of the play to real life in its acclaimed original American Children's Theatre production. 		Pinocchio Cover
A Heiner Muller Reader: Plays, Poetry, Prose (12/31/1969)

Heiner Muller was born in Eppendorf, Saxony, into a working-class family. His father, a socialist, was beaten, arrested, and lost his job during the Nazi regime. Muller too became a socialist and was a civil servant in East Germany and later worked as a journalist and technical writer for the East German Writers’ Union. He honed his skills as a dramatist working at the Maxim Gorki Theater in East Berlin in the late 1950s. Muller wrote three plays with his wife, Inge Muller. The pair won th... 		A Heiner Muller Reader: Plays, Poetry, Prose Cover
Mary Poppins: Anything Can Happen If You Let It (12/31/1969)

Two veteran writers collaborate on this fascinating behind-the-scenes account of the journey that took the “practically perfect” nanny from the pages of P. L. Travers’s beloved novels to the stage. Well-known British writer and radio personality Brian Sibley tells Mary Poppins’s story, from her obscure origins in Travers’s Australian childhood and her progress through the series of books Travers began to write in 1934, to her incarnation by Julie Andrews in one of the most succe... 		Mary Poppins: Anything Can Happen If You Let It Cover
The Man from Home (12/31/1969)

Newton Booth Tarkington (1869-1946) was an American novelist and dramatist best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning novels The Magnificent Ambersons and Alice Adams. Booth Tarkington was born in Indianapolis. He first attended Purdue University but graduated from Princeton University in 1893. While at Princeton he was the editor of the Nassau Literary Magazine and formed the Princeton Triangle Club. He was also voted the most popular man in his class. He was one of the most popular American no... 		The Man from Home Cover
The Mother (12/31/1969)

The Mother is a play by the German modernist playwright Bertolt Brecht. It is based on Maxim Gorky’s 1906 novel of the same name. It was written in collaboration with Hanns Eisler, Slatan Dudow and Günter Weisenborn from 1930–31 in prose dialogue with unrhymed irregular free verse and ten initial songs in its score, with three more added later. It premièred at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm in Berlin, opening on 17 January 1932. It was directed by Emil Burri and the scenic design was by... 		The Mother Cover
Visions of Simone Machard, The: Schweyk in the Second World War (12/31/1969)

Schweik in the Second World War is a play by German dramatist and poet Bertolt Brecht. It was written by Brecht in 1943 while in exile in California, and is a sequel to the 1923 novel The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek. It is set in Prague and on the Russian Front during World War II. It is a satirical tale of a common man, Schweyk, who is forced into war and manages to survive. He overcomes dangerous situations in Gestapo Headquarters, a military prison, and a Voluntary Labor Service. ... 		Visions of Simone Machard, The: Schweyk in the Second World War Cover
Bertolt Brecht: Journals 1934 - 1955 (12/31/1969)

Bertolt Brecht's work journals trace his years of exile (the period from 1934 to 1955) in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and America, as well as his return, via Switzerland, to East Berlin. These journals include his perceptive and at times polemical critiques of other writers and intellectuals, but the accounts of his own writing practice provide the greatest insights into the creation of his dramatic work as well as the development of his politics and theories about epic theatre. There are memora... 		Bertolt Brecht: Journals 1934 - 1955 Cover
Saint Joan of the Stockyards (12/31/1969)

"A major Brecht play in an outstanding translation with an expert and up-to-date preface." -- Eric Bentley "... a fine translation.... Jones has handled Brecht's meters with great skill." -- Choice 		Saint Joan of the Stockyards Cover
The Caucasian Chalk Circle (12/31/1969)

Writing in exile in the USA during the Second World War, Brecht borrowed from an ancient Chinese story-echoed in the Judgement of Solomon-in which two women both claim the same child. Brecht's subversion of this tale provides a parable which seems to say that resources should go to those in whose hands they will be most productive. Thanks to the rascally judge, Azdak, one of Brecht's most vivid creations, this story, at least, has a happy outcome. The child is entrusted to the peasant Grusha, w... 		The Caucasian Chalk Circle Cover
Sejanus: His Fall (12/31/1969)

We stand not in the lines, that do advance To that so courted point. 		Sejanus: His Fall Cover
Plays And Poems (12/31/1969)

Ben Jonson’s “Song to Celia” is known to millions as “Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes.” Jonson was educated at the prestigious Westminster School in London. He took up acting, and by 1597 he was writing original plays. Jonson’s first widely acclaimed play, Every Man in His Humour, included William Shakespeare in its cast. 		Plays And Poems Cover
The New Inne (12/31/1969)

Playes in themselves have neither hopes, nor feares, Their fate is only in their hearers eares: If you expect more then you had to*night, The maker is sick, and sad. But do him right. 		The New Inne Cover
Volpone and Other Plays (12/31/1969)

The three plays collected in this volume depict the faults, errors and foibles of ordinary people with exuberant humour, savage satire and acute observations. "Volpone" portrays a rich Venetian who pretends to be dying so that his despised acquaintances will flock to his bedside with extravagant gifts in hope of an inheritance. "The Alchemist" also deals with greed and gullibility, as a rascally trio of confidence tricksters, claiming to have the legendary Philosopher's Stone, fool a series of ... 		Volpone and Other Plays Cover
The Ground on Which I Stand (12/31/1969)

August Wilson's radical and provocative call to arms. 		The Ground on Which I Stand Cover
Master Olof (A Drama in Five Acts) (12/31/1969)

A drama based 'the Luther of Sweden' 		Master Olof (A Drama in Five Acts) Cover
Creditors, and Pariah (12/31/1969)

Johan August Strindberg (1849-1912) was a Swedish writer, playwright, and painter. Strindberg is known as one of the fathers of modern theatre. His work falls into two major literary movements, Naturalism and Expressionism. His novel The Red Room (1879) brought him fame. His early plays were written in the Naturalistic style. His best-known play from this period is Miss Julie (1888). Later, he underwent a time of inner turmoil known as the Inferno Period, which culminated in the production of a ... 		Creditors, and Pariah Cover
Open Letters to the Intimate Theater (12/31/1969)

Swedish playwright, novelist, and short-story writer, who combined in his works psychology, naturalism, and later elements of new literary forms. Strindberg was married three times – several of his plays drew on the problems of his marriages and reflected his constant interest in self-analysis. A sensitive and controversial writer, who suffered from hostile reviews, Strindberg represented the 19th-century ideal of artist as a free personality, unrestrained by convention. 		Open Letters to the Intimate Theater Cover
August Strindberg: Selected Essays (12/31/1969)

This is the first fully edited translation of a series of essays by the great Swedish dramatist August Strindberg. The essays, edited and translated by Michael Robinson, have been selected for the light they shed, both directly and indirectly, on Strindberg's contribution to the European theater, first in such masterpieces of psychological realism as The Father and Miss Julie, and subsequently in those works, including A Dream Play and The Ghost Sonata, with which he largely established a basis... 		August Strindberg: Selected Essays Cover
Miss Julie and The Stronger: Two Plays (12/31/1969)

Frank McGuinness presents scintillating new versions of two of August Strindberg's plays -- one a major work, the other less well known. Miss Julie is Strindberg's examination of power, sex, and class, set on a midsummer's eve in a nobleman's house and focusing on the shifting relationship between Miss Julie, the daughter of the house, and Jean, her father's manservant. The Stronger is a short play that explores the complex range of emotions felt by Madame X when she encounters Mademoiselle Y, ... 		Miss Julie and The Stronger: Two Plays Cover
A Dream Play (12/31/1969)

Following the logic of a dream—in which characters merge, locations change in an instant, and a locked door recurs obsessively—Strindberg’s 1902 A Dream Play is a potent mix of Freud plus Alice in Wonderland. Caryl Churchill, perhaps the most fascinating and respected female dramatist in the English-speaking world, has taken on Strindberg’s Dream in this spare and resonant adaptation. 		A Dream Play Cover
Married (12/31/1969)

He had just completed his thirteenth year when his mother died. He felt that he had lost a real friend for during the twelve months of her illness he had come to know her personally as it were and established a relationship between them which is rare between parents and children. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition. 		Married Cover
Captain's Tiger (12/31/1969)

The newest work by the acclaimed South African playwright. The New Yorker has said of Athol Fugard, "A rare playwright, who could be a primary candidate for either the Nobel Prize in Literature or the Nobel Peace Prize." His major works for the stage include: Blood Knot; "Master Harold"...and the boys; My Children! My Africa!; A Lesson from Aloes; The Road to Mecca; Valley Song; and The Captain's Tiger. 		Captain's Tiger Cover
Exits And Entrances (12/31/1969)

"A thought-provoking, elegant, and engrossing new play by Athol Fugard."-The Hollywood Reporter "A rare playwright, who could be a primary candidate for either the Nobel Prize in Literature or the Nobel Peace Prize."-The New Yorker "Athol Fugard can say more with a single line than most playwrights convey in an entire script. One phrase from his new play, 'He's dying of unimportance,' relates to an offstage character, but it also strikingly sums up the slow, painful decline of its fading ... 		Exits And Entrances Cover
A Lesson from Aloes (12/31/1969)

The New Yorker has said of Athol Fugard, "A rare playwright, who could be a primary candidate for either the Nobel Prize in Literature or the Nobel Peace Prize." His major works for the stage include: Blood Knot; "Master Harold"...and the boys; My Children! My Africa!; A Lesson from Aloes; The Road to Mecca; Valley Song; and The Captain's Tiger. 		A Lesson from Aloes Cover
After the Fall: A Play in Two Acts (12/31/1969)

A lost character draws upon events in his past as he searches for life's meaning in Miller's powerful play. 		After the Fall: A Play in Two Acts Cover
On Politics and the Art of Acting (12/31/1969)

Ronald Reagan might have been the first professional actor elected president, but as Arthur Miller reminds us in his delightfully acerbic, On Politics and the Art of Acting, Reagan was by no means the only actor to occupy the White House in modern times. Beginning with our latest farcical election, Miller considers the twin arts of acting and politics in our brave new Age of Entertainment and contrasts the relatively poor thespian skills of presidential candidates Bush and Gore with the con... 		On Politics and the Art of Acting Cover
Conversations with Miller (12/31/1969)

CONVERSATIONS WITH MILLER offers a personal and revealing account of one of the major playwrights of our time. Arthur Miller is revealed in deep and candid conversation with the highly regarded dramatic critic, Mel Gussow. In this series of interviews, which took place over 40 years, Miller is astonishingly forthcoming about his creative sources, his accomplishments and his disappointment; about his staunch resistance to the McCarthy witch hunts of the 1950's; about his private life including h... 		Conversations with Miller Cover
Salesman in Beijing (12/31/1969)

" In 1983 Arthur Miller was invited to direct a Chinese version of his play, "Death of a Salesman." "Salesman in Beijing" is his day by day account of his experience. Most of the book focuses on the problems of communication with the Chinese actors as a result of linguistic and cultural differences. He feels that he was able to overcome these difficulties because of the dedication of the actors and the fact that the play itself deals with universal qualities that transcend local culture. He ... 		Salesman in Beijing Cover
The Theater Essays Of Arthur Miller (12/31/1969)

Arthur Miller is one of the most important and enduring playwrights of the last fifty years. This new edition of The Theater Essays has been expanded by nearly fifty percent to include his most significant articles and interviews since the book's initial publication in 1978. Within these pages Miller discusses the roots of modern drama, the nature of tragedy, and the state of contemporary theater; offers illuminating observations on Ibsen, Strindberg, Chekhov, O'Neill, and Williams; probes the ... 		The Theater Essays Of Arthur Miller Cover
The Great Adventure (12/31/1969)

Enoch Arnold Bennett (1867-1931) was a British novelist. He was born in a modest house in Hanley in the Potteries district of Staffordshire. At age 21 he went to London as a solicitor's clerk. He won a literary competition in Tit Bits magazine in 1889 and was encouraged to take up journalism full time. From 1900 he devoted himself full time to writing, giving up the editorship and writing much serious criticism, and also theatre journalism, one of his special interests. In 1902 Anna of the Five... 		The Great Adventure Cover
The Eleven Comedies (12/31/1969)

The Clouds, Lysistrata, Peace, The Acharnians, The Knights 		The Eleven Comedies Cover
The Knights (12/31/1969)

In many respects 'The Knights' may be reckoned the great Comedian's masterpiece, the direct personal attack on the then all-powerful Cleon, with its scathing satire and tremendous invective, being one of the most vigorous and startling things in literature. Already in 'The Acharnians' he had threatened to "cut up Cleon the Tanner into shoe-leather for the Knights," and he now proceeds to carry his menace into execution, "concentrating the whole force of his wit in the most unscrupulous and merc... 		The Knights Cover

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