The drama handbook : a guide to reading plays / John Lennard and Mary Luckhurst.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lennard, John.

Contributor:

Luckhurst, Mary.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Drama.

Theater.

Physical Description:

xii, 416 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2002.

Summary:

The Drama Handbook is a compact guide to reading plays, and to the art and techniques of drama. Ranging from classical Greece to modern performance, but with particular emphasis on the playwrights who are most widely taught and performed, the Handbook covers the whole range of literary, aesthetic, and political questions attending drama, from theatre-designs and acting style to audience composition and the editing of printed texts. Lennard and Luckhurst give a clear and detailed account of the conventions of dramatic texts and the histories of genres, performance-spaces, and personnel, as well as looking at current theatre-practices and explaining all technical and critical terms in an extensive glossary. A final section deals with drama essays and exams, and includes sample-essays by students. Lucid, practical, and thorough, this book is an invaluable resource for anyone who wants to improve their understanding and appreciation of drama.

Contents:

1. Performance: process and the ephemeral 9

2. Notation: documentation, layout, and the preserved 15

3. Text I: editing and reception 22

4. Text II: the process of reading 37

II Reading Structures 47

5. What is genre? 49

6. Classical genres: tragedy, comedy, satyr-plays, and epic 56

7. Religious genres: the liturgy, Mysteries, and Moralities 68

8. Renaissance genres: Commedia dell'arte, tragicomedy, masque, and opera 76

9. Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century genres: burlesque, sentimental and gothic drama, pantomime, melodrama, music-hall, farce, and well-made plays 89

10. Social genres: political theatre, agit-prop, documentary drama, and epic drama 97

11. The impact of technology: light, sound, radio- and TV-plays, and film-genres 105

III Defining Architectures 117

12. The study 119

13. Rehearsal and administrative spaces 123

14. The stage and auditorium 129

15. The spaces of the book trade: the scriptorium, printshop, publishing house, bookshop, and library 147

IV Personnel in Process 155

16. Playwrights 157

17. Directors 166

18. Actors 173

19. Dramaturgs and literary managers 186

20. Designers 193

21. Production staff, stage-crew, and front-of-house 202

22. Censors 207

23. Audiences 213

24. Critics 222

25. Editors 231

26. Teachers and readers 238

V Theatre Today 243

27. The play-text since the 1950s 245

28. Challenges to the play-text 261

29. Alternatives to the play-text 269

VI Exam Conditions 275

30. Practical criticism 277

31. Period and special papers 283.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0198700709

OCLC:

47356275

Online:

Publisher description