Theatre

First published in 1984, Gerald Bordman's Oxford Companion to American Theatre is the standard one-volume source on American theatre. Critics have hailed its “wealth of authoritative information” (Back Stage), its “fascinating picture of the volatile American stage” (The Guardian), and its “well-chosen, illuminating facts” (Newsday).

This online edition was reviewed and selectively updated by the original authors in 2011.

Now thoroughly revised, this distinguished volume once again provides an up-to-date guide to the American stage from its beginnings to the present. Completely updated by theater professor Thomas Hischak, the volume includes playwrights, plays, actors, directors, producers, songwriters, famous playhouses, dramatic movements, and much more. The book covers not only classic works (such as Death of a Salesman) but also many commercially successful plays (such as Getting Gertie's Garter), plus entries on foreign figures that have influenced our dramatic development (from Shakespeare to Beckett and Pinter). New entries include recent plays such as Angels in America and Six Degrees of Separation, performers such as Eric Bogosian and Bill Irwin, playwrights like David Henry Hwang and Wendy Wasserstein, and relevant developments and issues including AIDS in American theatre, theatrical producing by Disney, and the rise in solo performance. Accessible and authoritative, this valuable A-Z reference is ideal not only for students and scholars of theater, but everyone with a passion for the stage.

TheOxford Companion to Indian Theatre is the first reference work embracing both rural and urban modes of Indian theatre spanning its entire history of over 2000 years. Now accessible online for the first time as part of Oxford’s Reference Library, this comprehensive title consists of 750 entries encompassing forms and personalities across India geographically and historically, in twenty-two languages, according to their contribution to the tradition. In keeping with the highest standards of international reference publishing, the editor has compiled and edited this material from 63 contributors. The theatre defined here spans not just conventional proscenium drama, and devotional and secular rural performing genres, but also musical forms such as Kirtan, dance theatre such as Kathakali, and oral narrative such as Katha Kalakshepam, all of which contain theatres' most fundamental element.

‘A wonderful treasure-house of information and insight’ – Dame Judi Dench

Over 3,200 entries

From the conjectured identity of the Dark Lady of the Sonnets to the misprints in the First Folio, from Shakespeare’s favourite figures of speech to the staging of Othello in South Africa, a team of 100 internationally renowned scholars provides a lucid, stimulating, and authoritative guide to Shakespeare’s plays and poems, and their interpretation around the world over the last four centuries. Now revised and updated to commemorate the 400^th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, this much-loved Companion reflects developments and discoveries made in recent years as well as the performance, interpretation, and influence of Shakespeare’s works up to the present day.

‘I've just had the most tremendous fun with the online platform for The Oxford Dictionary of Original Shakespearean Pronunciation. (...) The spoken words are clear and you can repeat them as often as you wish until you're happy with your own pronunciation.’ - The Bookbag

Over 20,000 entries

This dictionary is the first comprehensive description of Shakespearean original pronunciation (OP), enabling practitioners to answer any queries about the pronunciation of individual words. It includes all the words in the First Folio, transcribed using IPA, and provides sound files as an additional aid to pronunciation. It details the main pronunciation evidence in the texts, notably all spelling variants and rhymes. An extensive introduction provides a full account of the aims, evidence, history, and current use of OP in relation to Shakespeare productions as well as other uses. It is an invaluable resource for producers, directors, actors, and others wishing to present Shakespeare's plays or poetry in original pronunciation, as well as for students and academics in the fields of literary criticism and Shakespeare studies more generally.

‘informative, illuminating, and helpful … a remarkable achievement’ – Michael Billington, The Guardian

Over 1,000 entries

Provides essential information on the best-known, best-loved, and most important plays in world theatre. Each entry includes details of the title, author, date of writing, date of first performance, genre, setting, and composition of cast; there is also a summary of the play's plot, and a brief commentary. Genres covered include: burlesque, comedy, farce, historical drama, kabuki, masque, melodrama, morality play, mystery play, No, romantic comedy, tragicomedy, satire, and tragedy. The perfect guide for students and scholars of drama and literature, theatre professionals, and directors looking for plays for performance.

Over 860 entries

Compiled by one of the best-known authorities on Shakespeare's works, this online-only dictionary offers up-to-date information on all aspects of Shakespeare in his own time and on his impact and influence on later ages. It includes entries on the plays and the major characters, on Shakespeare's life and his contemporaries, on actors from Richard Burbage to Judi Dench, on theatres and directors, plus comments on Shakespeare by later authors such as Jane Austen, Dr Johnson, and Bernard Levin.

This Oxford Companion is based on the celebrated Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance, and covers styles and movements, organizations, regions and traditions; it has a particularly strong focus on biographies of actors, playwrights, directors, and designers. New entries cover the people and companies who have come into prominence since the publication of the Encyclopedia.

The Companion includes all the most popular and accessible information from the Encyclopedia, concentrating primarily on the personalities involved in producing threatre, as well as overviews of the genres within which they work. It has 2,400 entries presented in a far more compact and portable format. The timeline of historical and cultural events in the world of theatre and performance has been significantly updated, along with the extensive bibliography.

The Companion provides an informative and accessible package aimed at both the theatre-going public and at specialists and professionals in the field.

2004 Reference Reviews Top Ten Print Reference Source

2004 Choice Outstanding Academic Title

This encyclopedia provides authoritative and up-to-date information about theatre and performance from ancient Greek theatre to the latest developments in London, Paris, New York, and around the globe. In addition to performances in playhouses, it covers dance, opera, radio, film, television, and popular performance, including carnivals, circus, and public executions. Entries range from short definitions of terms to lengthy considerations of genres and movements, such as feminism and psychoanalytic criticism. Entries on cities and regions place performance in its local social and political context. Written in accessible language, this encyclopedia brings together an international cast of over 300 specialist contributors.

This concise version of the acclaimed Oxford Companion to the Theatre covers all aspects of theatre worldwide and throughout the ages. It contains entries on a vast range of theatrical styles, dramatists, performers, and directors, as well as information on theatres, festivals, and such technical topics as lighting, sound, and method acting. Entries on people and places include Athol Fugard, Anthony Hopkins, Glenda Jackson, Derek Jacobi, Harvey Fierstein, Helen Mirren, Trevor Nunn, Peter O'Toole, Willy Russell, and Stephen Sondheim, Barbican Theatre, The English Shakespeare Company, Michael Gambon, The Swan at Stratford, and the Shubert theatre in New York.

This exciting theatre companion, edited by a former literary manager of the Royal Shakespeare Company, includes over 2500 entries that range widely over theatre in the last century. It features not only exceptional scholarly entries, but a series of fascinating boxed essays written by active professional theatre insiders, including Arnold Wesker writing on playwriting, Ben Kingsley on preparing a part, and Daniel Massey on performing Shaw. The Companion is wide-ranging in geographical scope, with entries on “Portuguese-Speaking African Theatre” and “Arab Theatre”, as well as current, with entries on “Digital performance” and the “Internet”. This is a must-have resource for anyone interested in theatre, professionals, amateurs, and scholars alike.