The Drama Handbook A Guide to Reading Plays

by Lennard, John; Luckhurst, Mary

• ISBN13: 9780198700708
• ISBN10: 0198700709
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-04-04
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This book is a compact guide to reading plays, and the art and techniqueof drama. Ranging from classical Greece to modern World Drama and performance,but with particular emphasis on the playwrights (including Shakespeare) who aremost widely taught and performed, the Handbook covers the whole range ofliterary, aesthetic, and political questions attending drama, from theatredesigns and acting style to audience composition and editing printed texts.Successive sections give clear and detailed information about the conventions ofplaytexts, the histories of the genre, performance spaces, and personnel, aswell as current theatre practices. Each chapter also provides an appropriatetechnical and critical vocabulary, conveniently gathered in glossaries. A finalsection deals with drama essays and exams, and includes samples of essays bystudents. Lucid, practical, and thorough, this book is an invaluable resourcefor anyone who wants to improve their understanding and appreciation of thedramatic genre.

Author Biography

John Lennard teaches at the Universities of Cambridge and Notre Dame, and for the British-American Drama Academy in London Mary Luckhurst is Lecturer in Modern Drama at the University of York

Table of Contents

Figures and display boxes	ix
Acknowledgements	x
Abbreviations	xi
Introduction	1	(6)
I PERFORMANCE, NOTATION, TEXT	7	(40)
Performance: process and the ephemeral	9	(6)
Notation: documentation, layout, and the preserved	15	(7)
Text I: editing and reception	22	(15)
Text II: the process of reading	37	(10)
II READING STRUCTURES	47	(70)
What is genre?	49	(7)
Classical genres: tragedy, comedy, satyr-plays, and epic	56	(12)
Religious genres: the liturgy, Mysteries, and Moralities	68	(8)
Renaissance genres: Commedia dell'arte, tragicomedy, masque, and opera	76	(13)
Eighteenth-and nineteenth-century genres: burlesque, sentimental and gothic drama, pantomime, melodrama, music-hall, farce, and well-made plays	89	(8)
Social genres: political theatre, agit-prop, documentary drama, and epic drama	97	(8)
The impact of technology: light, sound, radio-and TV-plays, and film-genres	105	(12)
III DEFINING ARCHITECTURES	117	(38)
The study	119	(4)
Rehearsal and administrative spaces	123	(6)
The stage and auditorium	129	(18)
The spaces of the book trade: the scriptorium, printshop, publishing house, bookshop, and library	147	(8)
IV PERSONNEL IN PROCESS	155	(88)
Playwrights	157	(9)
Directors	166	(7)
Actors	173	(13)
Dramaturgs and literary managers	186	(7)
Designers	193	(9)
Production staff, stage-crew, and front-of-house	202	(5)
Censors	207	(6)
Audiences	213	(9)
Critics	222	(9)
Editors	231	(7)
Teachers and readers	238	(5)
V THEATRE TODAY	243	(32)
The play-text since the 1950s	245	(16)
Challenges to the play-text	261	(8)
Alternatives to the play-text	269	(6)
VI EXAM CONDITIONS	275	(42)
Practical criticism	277	(6)
Period and special papers	283	(10)
Sample answers	293	(24)
Glossary	317	(56)
Select bibliography and further reading	373	(30)
Index of persons	403	(8)
Index of plays	411