Drama: Classical to Contemporary

By John C. Coldewey, W. R. Streitberger, W.R. Streitberger

Book Overview

Suitable for Beginning and Intermediate level courses in Literature, and Introduction to Drama and Humanities courses. This comprehensive anthology includes a varied selection of plays drawn from the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0130884413
• ISBN13: 9780130884411
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Pearson College Div
• Length: 1462 Pages
• Weight: 3.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 1.8" x 7.5"

Customer Reviews

Best and maybe least known college textbook play anthology

First, this book is marketed as a college textbook, so its price reflects textbook prices. That said, this is a wonderful anthology in which the editors seem to have selected the finest and most appropriate plays as examples of particular genres and historical eras. Gainsaying the usual standard selections, this volume includes Three Tall Women by Albee, Mamet's Oleanna, Puig's Kiss of the Spider Woman, and Soynika's The Strong Breed. Shakespeare is represented by "Midsummer..." and "Hamlet" and Beckett, Pirandello, Hansberry and O'Neill demonstrate the diversity of the choices. Even better, there are sample performance reviews--both American and British, with multiple reviews for selected plays: a great way to learn about the range and craft of theatre criticism. The commentaries are extremely well-chosen; they alone could be marketed as a text. They range from Turner's anthropological perpective to T.S. Eliot's aesthetic essays to Ernest Jones' psychoanalytic approach. Raymond William, Barthes, and Bergson are excerpted alongside Walter Kerr, Frank Rich, and Clive Barnes. This book and perhaps a general introduction to theatre history will give anyone an informed perspective on theatre--nowadays that most controversial and endagered art form.