The Wadsworth Anthology of Drama, Revised Edition / Edition 6

by W. B. Worthen

Overview

The boldest and most distinguished introduction to drama available today, W.B. Worthen's pace-setting text continues to provide exciting plays usefully situated within their historical and cultural contexts. Based on the best-selling WADSWORTH ANTHOLOGY OF DRAMA, the Brief Edition provides many of the important elements of that anthology but in a more streamlined form.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780495903239
Publisher:	Cengage Learning
Publication date:	04/27/2010
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	1904
Product dimensions:	7.90(w) x 9.90(h) x 1.90(d)

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.

Table of Contents

Preface. INTRODUCTION: DRAMA, THEATER, AND CULTURE. Reading Drama and Seeing Theater. Drama and Theater in History. Dramatic Genres. Dramatic Form. The Stage in Critical Practice. Interpreting the Material Past. UNIT I: THE THEATER OF CLASSICAL EUROPE: ATHENS AND ROME. Classical Athens. The City Dionysia. The Theater of Dionysus. The Theater and Social Life. Drama and Performance. Women in the Athenian Theater. Forms of Greek Drama. Greek Drama in Performance History. Classical Rome. Roman Festivals and Drama. Roman Theater Architecture. Roman Drama. Roman Drama in Performance History. Aside: Roscius. Reading the Material Theater. Aeschylus Oresteia Agamemnon The Libation Bearers The Eumenides. Sophocles Oedipus the King. Euripides Medea. Aristophanes Lysistrata. Plautus The Brothers Menaechmus. CRITICAL CONTEXTS. Aristotle, from The Poetics. Horace, from The Art of Poetry. CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES. Sue-Ellen Case, from "Classic Drag: The Greek Creation of Female Parts". Anne Carson, "Tragedy: A Curious Art Form". Fiona Shaw: Interview on Medea. CASEBOOK: ON TRANSLATION. Gilbert Murray, from Medea. Countee Cullen, from Medea. Robinson Jeffers, from Medea. Peter D. Arnott, from Medea. Desmond Egan, from Medea. Nicholaas Rudall, from Medea. Michael Collier and Georgia Machemer, from Medea. UNIT II: THE THEATER OF CLASSICAL JAPAN. The Development of Noh Theater. Noh Dramatic Form. The Noh Stage. The Development of Doll Theater. The Doll Theater Stage. The Development of Kabuki Theater. The Kabuki Stage. Classical Japanese Drama in Performance History. Reading the Material Theater. Aside: Sanskrit Drama and Theater. 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". CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES. Graham Ley, "Arisotle's Poetics, Bharatamuni's Natyasastra, and Zeami's Treatises: Theory as Discourse". CASEBOOK: ON NOH ACTING TODAY. An Interview with Kanze Hideo, Noh: Business and Art. UNIT III: THE THEATER OF MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE ENGLAND. Drama and Theater in Medieval England. Morality Drama. Staging Medieval Drama. Drama and Theater in Renaissance London. The Professional Theater and Its Society. Professional Companies. The Theaters. Drama and Performance. Women in Drama and Performance. Medieval and Renaissance Drama in Performance and History. Reading the Material Theater. Aside: Shakespeare's Globe. Aside: The Jacobean Court Masque. Anonymous The York Crucifixion. Anonymous Everyman. Christopher Marlowe Doctor Faustus. William Shakespeare. A Midsummer Night's Dream. Hamlet. The Tempest. CRITICAL CONTEXTS. Sir Philip Sidney, from Apology for Poetry. CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES. Terence Hawkes, from Meaning by Shakespeare. CASEBOOK: ON ACTING HAMLET. Thomas Betterton. David Garrick. Sir John Gielgud. Michael Pennington. Kenneth Branagh. Ethan Hawke. UNIT IV: EARLY MODERN EUROPE. The Political Climate. Theater in France, 1660-1700. Theater in England, 1660-1737. Theater in Spain's Golden Age, 1580-1680. Dramatic Innovation in France, England, and Spain. Neoclassicism, Drama, and Theater. Early Modern Drama in Performance and History. Reading the Material Theater. Aside: Commedia dell'Arte. Pedro Calderon de la Barca Life Is a Dream. Moli re Tartuffe. Jean Racine Phaedra. Aphra Behn The Rover. Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz Loa to The Divine Narcissus. George Farquhar, The Recruiting Officer. CRITICAL CONTEXTS. John Dryden, "Preface to Troilus and Cressida, Containing the Grounds of Criticism in Tragedy". CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES. Katharine Eisaman Maus, from "'Playhouse Flesh and Blood': Sexual Ideology and the Restoration Actress" CASEBOOK: ON ADAPTATION. Bertolt Brecht, from Trumpets and Drums. UNIT V: MODERN EUROPE. Theater and Culture to 1950. The Modern Theater. Forms of Modern Drama. Acting and Performance. Women in Modern Drama and Theater. Theater and Culture Since 1950. Artaud and the Theater of Cruelty. Theater of the Absurd. Political Theater. Drama, Theater and the "Postmodern". Modern European Drama in Performance and History. Aside: Melodrama. Reading the Material Theater. Henrik Ibsen A Doll House. Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest. Alfred Jarry, Ubu Roi. August Strindberg A Dream Play. Anton Chekhov The Cherry Orchard. Bernard Shaw Major Barbara. Luigi Pirandello Six Characters in Search of an Author. Marieluise Fleisser Pioneers in Ingolstadt. Bertolt Brecht Mother Courage and Her Children. Jean Genet The Balcony. Samuel Beckett Endgame. Harold Pinter The Homecoming. Heiner M ller Hamletmachine. Caryl Churchill Cloud Nine. David Hare Stuff Happens. CRITICAL CONTEXTS. Friedrich Nietzsche, from The Birth of Tragedy. mile Zola, from Naturalism in the Theatre. Constantin Stanislavski, "Direction and Acting". Bertolt Brecht, "The Modern Theatre is the Epic Theatre" "The Street Scene". Antonin Artaud, from The Theater and Its Double. CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES. Martin Esslin, from The Theatre of the Absurd. Fredric Jameson, from "Postmodernism and Consumer Society". Hans-Thies Lehmann, from Postdramatic Theatre. CASEBOOK: ON DIRECTING. Samuel Beckett, on directing Endgame. UNIT VI: THEATER IN THE UNITED STATES. "The" American Theater? European Influence and American Innovation. Postwar Experiments. African-American Drama and Theater. Popular Theater and Mass Culture. American Drama in Performance and History. Reading the Material Theater. Susan Glaspell, "A Jury of her Peers". Aside: The Federal Theater Project. Aside: Performance Art. Dion Boucicault The Octoroon. Susan Glaspell Trifles. Eugene O'Neill Hairy Ape. Sophie Treadwell, Machinal. Tennessee Williams The Glass Menagerie. Arthur Miller Death of a Salesman. Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones Dutchman. Luis Valdez Los vendidos. Sam Shepard True West. August Wilson Fences. David Henry Hwang M. Butterfly. Tony Kushner Angels in America, Part 1: Millennium Approaches. Anna Deavere Smith Fires in the Mirror. Suzan-Lori Parks The America Play. Cherrie Moraga The Hungry Woman: A Mexican Medea. Adriano Shaplin Pugilist Specialist. CRITICAL CONTEXTS. Arthur Miller, from "Tragedy and the Common Man". Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones, from "The Revolutionary Theatre" CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES. August Wilson, "The Ground on Which I Stand" / Robert Brustein, "Subsidized Separatism". CASEBOOK: ON DESIGN. Jo Mielziner, on Death of a Salesman. UNIT VII: WORLD STAGES. A Global Theater? Argentina. Canada. China. Czech Republic. India. Ireland and Northern Ireland. Martinique. Nigeria. Russia. South Africa. Analyzing Postcolonial Theater and Drama. Reading the Material Theater. Aside: Intercultural Performance. 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. Gao Xingjian The Other Shore. V clav Havel Temptation. Tomson Highway Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing. Jane Taylor Ubu and the Truth Commission. Manjula Padmanabhan Harvest. Vassily Sigarev Black Milk. Victoria Brittain and Gillian Slovo, Guantanamo: "Honor Bound to Defend Freedom". CRITICAL CONTEXTS. Frantz Fanon,"The Fact of Blackness". Jerzy Grotowski, from Towards a Poor Theatre. Augusto Boal, from Theatre of the Oppressed. CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES. Homi K. Bhabha,"Of Mimicry and Man: The Ambivalence of Colonial Discourse". Helen Gilbert and Joanne Tompkins, from Post-Colonial Drama. CASEBOOK: THE REVIEW. Bruce Weber, "The Spirit in a South African Prison". Frank Rich, "Stage: Soyinka's Death and the King's Horseman". Donald G. McNeil, Jr., "Theater; Puppeteers with a Hand in the Apartheid Protests". GLOSSARY. CREDITS. INDEX.