A new edition of the celebrated Continuum Companion to Twentieth Century Theatre (2002), The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Modern Theatre is an A to Z of modern theatre, from the late 19th century to today, featuring short entries and in-depth articles contributed by a unique team of expert academics and celebrated practitioners.
This authoritative and accessible encyclopedia consists of over 2,500 entries and articles by expert international contributors. Existing entries written by well-known performers including Jessica Lange, Michael Gambon, Hal Prince, Peter Brook, Janet Suzman and Billie Whitelaw, as well as notes on practice from craft specialists like Cicely Berry (Voice), Phil Dale (Prop Making), John Haynes (Photography), John Leonard (Sound), Litz Pisk (Movement), and Jennifer Tipton (Lighting) are supplemented by extensive revisions and new entries including:
- Overviews of major concepts, topics and issues, with new entries on technology in theatre, immersive theatre, verbatim theatre and testimonial theatre;
- Surveys of theatre institutions, countries and genres, with fresh examinations of National Theatres of Scotland and Wales, Punchdrunk, Frantic Assembly, Performing Arts Center at World Trade Center, Ontroerend Goed, and theatre in Eastern Europe in the post-Soviet era;
- Biographical entries on key performers, playwrights, directors, designers, choreographers and composers; including additional profiles of debbie tucker green, Simon Stephens, Annie Baker, Maxine Peake, Brian Dennehy, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Mark Rylance, Katie Mitchell, Vicky Featherstone, Anna D. Shapiro, Ivo van Hove, Mark Thompson and Catherine Martin;
- Articles by leading professionals on theatrical crafts, skills and disciplines with newly-commissioned pieces from Maxine Peake on performing Caryl Churchill; Maria Friedman on musical theatre; Robert Lepage on theatre technology; Scott Graham (Frantic Assembly) on devising; Rae Smith on making puppets for performance and Neil Bartlett on site-specific work.
Combining factual and biographical entries with reflective articles by established practitioners, The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Modern Theatre gives the reader more texture and insight than any other encyclopedia of theatre. It is an essential purchase for college and university libraries around the world.
Author Biography:
Colin Chambers, a former journalist and theatre critic, was Literary Manager of the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1981 to 1997, and since 2014 has been Emeritus Professor of Drama at Kingston University, UK. As well as editing and contributing to the Continuum Companion to Twentieth Century Theatre, he has written extensively on the theatre, including the books Other Spaces: New Writing and the RSC; Playwrights' Progress (with Michael Prior); The Story of Unity Theatre; Peggy: the Life of Margaret Ramsay, Play Agent (winner of the inaugural Theatre Book Prize); Inside the Royal Shakespeare Company; Here We Stand: Politics, Performers and Performance - Paul Robeson, Isadora Duncan and Charlie Chaplin;and Black and Asian Theatre in Britain: A History.
Mead Hunter is Assistant Professor in the Performing Arts Department of the University of Portland, USA, where he teaches theatre history, dramaturgy and script analysis.
Jim Reynolds is a Senior Lecturer in Drama at Kingston University, UK, teaching courses covering theatre theory, devising, adaptation, research, directing, theatre practice and production, tragedy, and applied theatre.
