The term "drama" comes from aGreek word meaning "deed" or "act" (δρᾶμα,drâma), which is derived from "I do" (δράω,dráō). The twomasks associated with drama represent the traditionalgeneric division betweencomedy andtragedy.
In English (as was the analogous case in many other European languages), the wordplay orgame (translating theAnglo-Saxonpleġan orLatinludus) was the standard term for dramas untilWilliam Shakespeare's time—just as its creator was aplay-maker rather than adramatist and the building was aplay-house rather than atheatre.[3]
The use of "drama" in a more narrow sense to designate a specifictype ofplay dates from the modern era. "Drama" in this sense refers to a play that isneither a comedy nor a tragedy—for example,Zola'sThérèse Raquin (1873) orChekhov'sIvanov (1887). It is this narrower sense that thefilm andtelevision industries, along withfilm studies, adopted to describe "drama" as agenre within their respective media. The term "radio drama" has been used in both senses—originally transmitted in a live performance. It may also be used to refer to the more high-brow and serious end of the dramatic output ofradio.[4]
Mime is a form of drama where the action of a story is told only through the movement of the body. Drama can be combined withmusic: the dramatic text inopera is generally sung throughout; as for in some ballets dance "expresses or imitates emotion, character, and narrative action."[6]Musicals include both spokendialogue andsongs; and some forms of drama haveincidental music or musical accompaniment underscoring the dialogue (melodrama and JapaneseNō, for example).[7]Closet drama is a form that is intended to be read, rather than performed.[8] Inimprovisation, the drama does not pre-exist the moment of performance; performers devise a dramatic script spontaneously before an audience.[9]
Only a small fraction of the work of five dramatists, however, has survived to this day: we have a small number of complete texts by the tragediansAeschylus,Sophocles andEuripides, and the comic writersAristophanes and, from the late 4th century,Menander.[13] Aeschylus' historical tragedyThe Persians is the oldest surviving drama, although when it won first prize at theCity Dionysia competition in 472 BC, he had been writing plays for more than 25 years.[14] The competition ("agon") for tragedies may have begun as early as 534 BC; official records ("didaskaliai") begin from 501 BC when thesatyr play was introduced.[15] Tragic dramatists were required to present atetralogy of plays (though the individual works were not necessarily connected by story or theme), which usually consisted of three tragedies and one satyr play (though exceptions were made, as with Euripides'Alcestis in 438 BC).Comedy was officially recognized with a prize in the competition from 487 to 486 BC.
Five comic dramatists competed at the CityDionysia (though during thePeloponnesian War this may have been reduced to three), each offering a single comedy.[16]Ancient Greek comedy is traditionally divided between "old comedy" (5th century BC), "middle comedy" (4th century BC) and "new comedy" (late 4th century to 2nd BC).[17]
An ivory statuette of a Roman actor oftragedy, 1st century AD
Following the expansion of theRoman Republic (527–509 BC) into several Greek territories between 270 and 240 BC, Rome encounteredGreek drama.[18] From the later years of the republic and by means of theRoman Empire (27 BC–476 AD), theatre spread west across Europe, around the Mediterranean and reached England;Roman theatre was more varied, extensive and sophisticated than that of any culture before it.[19]
While Greek drama continued to be performed throughout the Roman period, the year 240 BC marks the beginning of regularRoman drama.[20] From the beginning of the empire, however, interest in full-length drama declined in favour of a broader variety of theatrical entertainments.[21] The first important works ofRoman literature were thetragedies andcomedies thatLivius Andronicus wrote from 240 BC.[22] Five years later,Gnaeus Naevius also began to write drama.[22] No plays from either writer have survived. While both dramatists composed in bothgenres, Andronicus was most appreciated for his tragedies and Naevius for his comedies; their successors tended to specialise in one or the other, which led to a separation of the subsequent development of each type of drama.[22]
By the beginning of the 2nd century BC, drama was firmly established in Rome and aguild of writers (collegium poetarum) had been formed.[23] The Roman comedies that have survived are allfabula palliata (comedies based on Greek subjects) and come from two dramatists:Titus Maccius Plautus (Plautus) andPublius Terentius Afer (Terence).[24] In re-working the Greek originals, the Roman comic dramatists abolished the role of thechorus in dividing the drama intoepisodes and introduced musical accompaniment to itsdialogue (between one-third of the dialogue in the comedies of Plautus and two-thirds in those of Terence).[25] The action of all scenes is set in the exterior location of a street and its complications often follow fromeavesdropping.[25]
Plautus, the more popular of the two, wrote between 205 and 184 BC and twenty of his comedies survive, of which hisfarces are best known; he was admired for thewit of his dialogue and his use of a variety ofpoetic meters.[26] All of the six comedies that Terence wrote between 166 and 160 BC have survived; the complexity of his plots, in which he often combined several Greek originals, was sometimes denounced, but his double-plots enabled a sophisticated presentation of contrasting human behaviour.[26] No early Roman tragedy survives, though it was highly regarded in its day; historians know of three early tragedians—Quintus Ennius,Marcus Pacuvius, andLucius Accius.[25]
From the time of the empire, the work of two tragedians survives—one is an unknown author, while the other is the Stoic philosopherSeneca.[27] Nine of Seneca's tragedies survive, all of which arefabula crepidata (tragedies adapted from Greek originals); hisPhaedra, for example, was based onEuripides'Hippolytus.[28] Historians do not know who wrote the onlyextant example of thefabula praetexta (tragedies based on Roman subjects),Octavia, but in former times it was mistakenly attributed to Seneca due to his appearance as acharacter in the tragedy.[27]
Beginning in theearly Middle Ages, churches staged dramatised versions of biblical events, known asliturgical dramas, to enliven annual celebrations.[29] The earliest example is theEaster tropeWhom do you Seek? (Quem-Quaeritis) (c. 925).[30] Two groups would sing responsively inLatin, though no impersonation ofcharacters was involved. By the 11th century, it had spread through Europe toRussia,Scandinavia, andItaly; excludingIslamic-era Spain.
In the 10th century,Hrosvitha wrote six plays in Latin modeled onTerence's comedies, but which treated religious subjects.[31] Her plays are the first known to be composed by a female dramatist and the first identifiable Western drama of the post-Classical era.[31] Later,Hildegard of Bingen wrote amusical drama,Ordo Virtutum (c. 1155).[31]
Many plays survive fromFrance andGermany in thelate Middle Ages, when some type of religious drama was performed in nearly every European country. Many of these plays containedcomedy,devils,villains, andclowns.[34] In England, trade guilds began to performvernacular "mystery plays", which were composed of long cycles of many playlets or "pageants", of which four areextant:York (48 plays),Chester (24),Wakefield (32) and the so-called "N-Town" (42).The Second Shepherds' Play from the Wakefield cycle is a farcical story of a stolen sheep that itsprotagonist, Mak, tries to pass off as his new-born child asleep in a crib; it ends when the shepherds from whom he has stolen are summoned to theNativity of Jesus.[35]
One of the great flowerings of drama inEngland occurred in the 16th and 17th centuries. Many of these plays were written in verse, particularlyiambic pentameter. In addition to Shakespeare, such authors asChristopher Marlowe,Thomas Middleton, andBen Jonson were prominent playwrights during this period. As in themedieval period, historical plays celebrated the lives of past kings, enhancing the image of theTudor monarchy. Authors of this period drew some of their storylines fromGreek mythology andRoman mythology or from the plays of eminent Roman playwrights such asPlautus andTerence.
Restoration comedy refers to English comedies written and performed in England during theRestoration period from 1660 to 1710.Comedy of manners is used as a synonym of Restoration comedy.[38] Afterpublic theatre had been banned by thePuritan regime, the re-opening of the theatres in 1660 with the Restoration ofCharles II signalled a renaissance ofEnglish drama.[39] Restoration comedy is known for itssexual explicitness, urbane, cosmopolitanwit, up-to-the-minute topical writing, and crowded and bustling plots. Its dramatists stole freely from the contemporary French and Spanish stage, from EnglishJacobean andCaroline plays, and even fromGreek andRoman classical comedies, combining the various plotlines in adventurous ways. Resulting differences of tone in a single play were appreciated rather than frowned on, as the audience prized "variety" within as well as between plays. Restoration comedy peaked twice. The genre came to spectacular maturity in the mid-1670s with an extravaganza ofaristocratic comedies. Twenty lean years followed this short golden age, although the achievement of the first professional female playwright,Aphra Behn, in the 1680s is an important exception. In the mid-1690s, a brief second Restoration comedy renaissance arose, aimed at a wider audience. The comedies of the golden 1670s and 1690s peak times are significantly different from each other.
The unsentimental or "hard" comedies ofJohn Dryden,William Wycherley, andGeorge Etherege reflected the atmosphere at Court and celebrated with frankness an aristocraticmacho lifestyle of unremitting sexual intrigue and conquest. TheEarl of Rochester, real-life Restoration rake, courtier and poet, is flatteringly portrayed in Etherege'sThe Man of Mode (1676) as a riotous, witty, intellectual, and sexually irresistible aristocrat, a template for posterity's idea of the glamorousRestoration rake (actually never a very common character in Restoration comedy). The single play that does most to support the charge ofobscenity levelled then and now at Restoration comedy is probably Wycherley's masterpieceThe Country Wife (1675), whose title contains a lewdpun and whose notorious "china scene" is a series of sustaineddouble entendres.[40]
During the second wave of Restoration comedy in the 1690s, the "softer" comedies ofWilliam Congreve andJohn Vanbrugh set out to appeal to more socially diverse audience with a strong middle-class element, as well as to female spectators. The comic focus shifts from young lovers outwitting the older generation to the vicissitudes of marital relations. In Congreve'sLove for Love (1695) andThe Way of the World (1700), the give-and-take set pieces of couples testing their attraction for one another have mutated into witty prenuptial debates on the eve of marriage, as in the latter's famous "Proviso" scene. Vanbrugh'sThe Provoked Wife (1697) has a light touch and more humanly recognisable characters, whileThe Relapse (1696) has been admired for its throwaway wit and the characterisation of Lord Foppington, an extravagant and affected burlesquefop with a dark side.[41] The tolerance for Restoration comedy even in its modified form was running out by the end of the 17th century, as public opinion turned to respectability and seriousness even faster than the playwrights did.[42] At the much-anticipated all-star première in 1700 ofThe Way of the World, Congreve's first comedy for five years, the audience showed only moderate enthusiasm for that subtle and almost melancholy work. The comedy of sex and wit was about to be replaced bysentimental comedy and the drama of exemplary morality.
The pivotal and innovative contributions of the19th-century Norwegian dramatistHenrik Ibsen and the20th-century German theatre practitionerBertolt Brecht dominate modern drama; each inspired a tradition of imitators, which include many of the greatest playwrights of the modern era.[43] The works of both playwrights are, in their different ways, bothmodernist andrealist, incorporating formalexperimentation,meta-theatricality, andsocial critique.[44] In terms of the traditional theoretical discourse of genre, Ibsen's work has been described as the culmination of "liberal tragedy", while Brecht's has been aligned with anhistoricised comedy.[45]
Western opera is a dramatic art form that arose during theRenaissance[46] in an attempt to revive theclassical Greek drama in which dialogue, dance, and song were combined. Being strongly intertwined withwestern classical music, the opera has undergone enormous changes in the past four centuries and it is an important form of theatre until this day. Noteworthy is the major influence of the German 19th-century composerRichard Wagner on the opera tradition. In his view, there was no proper balance between music and theatre in the operas of his time, because the music seemed to be more important than the dramatic aspects in these works. To restore the connection with the classical drama, he entirely renewed the operatic form to emphasize the equal importance of music and drama in works that he called "music dramas".
Chinese opera has seen a more conservative development over a somewhat longer period of time.
Pantomime (informally "panto"),[47] is a type ofmusical comedy stage production, designed for family entertainment. It was developed in England and is still performed throughout the United Kingdom, generally during the Christmas and New Year season and, to a lesser extent, in other English-speaking countries. Modern pantomime includes songs, gags, slapstick comedy and dancing, employs gender-crossing actors, and combinestopical humour with a story loosely based on a well-known fairy tale, fable orfolk tale.[48][49] It is a participatory form of theatre, in which the audience is expected to sing along with certain parts of the music and shout out phrases to the performers. Part of the appeal ofamateur dramatics pantomime productions is seeing well-known local figures on stage.[50]
These stories follow in the tradition offables andfolk tales. Usually, there is a lesson learned, and with some help from the audience, the hero/heroine saves the day. This kind of play usesstock characters seen in masque and againcommedia dell'arte, these characters include the villain (doctore), the clown/servant (Arlechino/Harlequin/buttons), the lovers etc. These plays usually have an emphasis onmoral dilemmas, and good always triumphs over evil, this kind of play is also very entertaining making it a very effective way of reaching many people.
Pantomime has a long theatrical history in Western culture dating back to classical theatre. It developed partly from the 16th centurycommedia dell'arte tradition of Italy, as well as other European and British stage traditions, such as 17th-centurymasques andmusic hall.[48] An important part of the pantomime, until the late 19th century, was theharlequinade.[51] Outside Britain the word "pantomime" is usually used to meanmiming, rather than the theatrical form discussed here.[52]
Mime is a theatrical medium where the action of a story is told through the movement of the body, without the use of speech. Performance of mime occurred inAncient Greece, and the word is taken from a single masked dancer calledPantomimus, although their performances were not necessarily silent.[53] InMedieval Europe, early forms of mime, such asmummer plays and laterdumbshows, evolved. In the early nineteenth centuryParis,Jean-Gaspard Deburau solidified the many attributes that we have come to know in modern times, including the silent figure in whiteface.[54]
Jacques Copeau, strongly influenced byCommedia dell'arte and JapaneseNoh theatre, used masks in the training of his actors.Étienne Decroux, a pupil of his, was highly influenced by this and started exploring and developing the possibilities of mime and refinedcorporeal mime into a highly sculptural form, taking it outside of the realms ofnaturalism.Jacques Lecoq contributed significantly to the development of mime andphysical theatre with his training methods.[55]
While some ballet emphasises "the lines and patterns of movement itself" dramatic dance "expresses or imitates emotion, character, and narrative action".[6] Such ballets are theatrical works that have characters and "tell a story",[56] Dance movements in ballet "are often closely related to everyday forms of physical expression, [so that] there is an expressive quality inherent in nearly all dancing", and this is used to convey both action and emotions; mime is also used.[56] Examples includePyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky'sSwan Lake, which tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse,Sergei Prokofiev's balletRomeo and Juliet, based on Shakespeare's famous play, andIgor Stravinsky'sPetrushka, which tells the story of the loves and jealousies of three puppets.
Creative drama includes dramatic activities and games used primarily in educational settings with children. Its roots in the United States began in the early 1900s.Winifred Ward is considered to be the founder of creative drama in education, establishing the first academic use of drama in Evanston, Illinois.[57]
The earliest form ofIndian drama was theSanskrit drama.[58] Between the 1st century AD and the 10th was a period of relative peace in thehistory of India during which hundreds of plays were written.[59] With theIslamic conquests that began in the 10th and 11th centuries, theatre was discouraged or forbidden entirely.[60] Later, in an attempt to re-assert indigenous values and ideas, village theatre was encouraged across the subcontinent, developing in various regional languages from the 15th to the 19th centuries.[61] TheBhakti movement was influential in performances in several regions. Apart from regional languages,Assam saw the rise ofVaishnavite drama in an artificially mixed literary language calledBrajavali.[62] A distinct form of one-act plays calledAnkia Naat developed in the works ofSankardev,[63] a particular presentation of which is calledBhaona.[64] Modern Indian theatre developed during theperiod of colonial rule under theBritish Empire, from the mid-19th century until the mid-20th.[65]
The earliest-surviving fragments ofSanskrit drama date from the 1st century AD.[66] The wealth of archeological evidence from earlier periods offers no indication of the existence of a tradition of theatre.[67] The ancientVedas (hymns from between 1500 and 1000 BC that are among the earliest examples ofliterature in the world) contain no hint of it (although a small number are composed in a form ofdialogue) and therituals of theVedic period do not appear to have developed into theatre.[67] TheMahābhāṣya byPatañjali contains the earliest reference to what may have been the seeds of Sanskrit drama.[68] This treatise ongrammar from 140 BC provides a feasible date for the beginnings oftheatre in India.[68]
The major source of evidence for Sanskrit theatre isA Treatise on Theatre (Nātyaśāstra), a compendium whose date of composition is uncertain (estimates range from 200 BC to 200 AD) and whose authorship is attributed toBharata Muni. TheTreatise is the most complete work of dramaturgy in the ancient world. It addressesacting,dance,music,dramatic construction, architecture,costuming,make-up,props, the organisation of companies, the audience, competitions, and offers amythological account of the origin of theatre.[68]
A distinct form of theatre has developed in India where the entire crew travels performing plays from place to place, with makeshift stages and equipment, particularly in the eastern parts of the country.Jatra (Bengali for "travel"), originating in theVaishnavite movement ofChaitanya Mahaprabhu inBengal, is a tradition that follows this format.[70]Vaishnavite plays in the neighbouring state of Assam, pioneered bySrimanta Sankardeva, takes the forms ofAnkia Naat andBhaona. These, along with Western influences, have inspired the development of modern mobile theatre, known inAssamese asBhramyoman, in Assam.[71] Modern Bhramyoman stages everything fromHindu mythology to adaptations ofWestern classics andHollywood movies,[72] and make use of modern techniques, such as live visual effects.[citation needed] Assamese mobile theatre is estimated to be an industry worth a hundred million.[73] The self-contained nature of Bhramyoman, with all equipment and even the stage being carried by the troop itself, allows staging shows even in remote villages, giving wider reach.[citation needed] Pioneers of this industry includeAchyut Lahkar andBrajanath Sarma.
Rabindranath Tagore was a pioneering modern playwright who wrote plays noted for their exploration and questioning of nationalism, identity, spiritualism and material greed.[74] His plays are written inBengali and includeChitra (Chitrangada, 1892),The King of the Dark Chamber (Raja, 1910),The Post Office (Dakghar, 1913), andRed Oleander (Raktakarabi, 1924).[74]Girish Karnad is a noted playwright, who has written a number of plays that use history and mythology, to critique and problematize ideas and ideals that are of contemporary relevance. Karnad's numerous plays such asTughlaq,Hayavadana,Taledanda, andNaga-Mandala are significant contributions to Indian drama.Vijay Tendulkar andMahesh Dattani are amongst the major Indian playwrights of the 20th century. Mohan Rakesh in Hindi and Danish Iqbal in Urdu are considered architects of new age Drama. Mohan Rakesh's Aadhe Adhoore and Danish Iqbal'sDara Shikoh are considered modern classics.
A 1958 U.S.S.R.postage stamp commemoratingGuan Hanqing, one of the great Chinese dramatists, who is renowned for his "zaju" plays
Chinese theatre has a long and complex history. Today it is often calledChinese opera although this normally refers specifically to the popular form known asBeijing opera andKunqu; there have been many other forms of theatre in China, such aszaju.
JapaneseNō drama is a serious dramatic form that combines drama, music, and dance into a complete aesthetic performance experience. It developed in the 14th and 15th centuries and has its own musical instruments and performance techniques, which were often handed down from father to son. The performers were generally male (for both male and female roles), although female amateurs also perform Nō dramas. Nō drama was supported by the government, and particularly the military, with many military commanders having their own troupes and sometimes performing themselves. It is still performed in Japan today.[75]
Kyōgen is the comic counterpart to Nō drama. It concentrates more on dialogue and less on music, although Nō instrumentalists sometimes appear also in Kyōgen.Kabuki drama, developed from the 17th century, is another comic form, which includes dance.
Modern theatrical and musical drama has also developed in Japan in forms such asshingeki and theTakarazuka Revue.
^Francis Fergusson writes that "a drama, as distinguished from alyric, is not primarily a composition in the verbal medium; thewords result, as one might put it, from the underlyingstructure of incident andcharacter. AsAristotle remarks, 'the poet, or "maker" should be the maker ofplots rather than of verses; since he is a poet because heimitates, and what he imitates areactions'" (1949, 8).
^Wickham (1959, 32–41; 1969, 133; 1981, 68–69). The sense of the creator of plays as a "maker" rather than a "writer" is preserved in the wordplaywright.The Theatre, one of the first purpose-built playhouses in London, was an intentional reference to the Latin term for that particular playhouse, rather than a term for the buildings in general (1967, 133). The word 'dramatist' "was at that time still unknown in the English language" (1981, 68).
^See the entries for "opera", "musical theatre, American", "melodrama" and "Nō" in Banham (1998).
^Manfred byByron, for example, is a good example of a "dramatic poem." See the entry on "Byron (George George)" in Banham (1998).
^Some forms of improvisation, notably thecommedia dell'arte, improvise on the basis of 'lazzi' or rough outlines of scenic action (see Gordon (1983) and Duchartre (1929)). All forms of improvisation take their cue from their immediate response to one another, their characters' situations (which are sometimes established in advance), and, often, their interaction with the audience. The classic formulations of improvisation in the theatre originated withJoan Littlewood andKeith Johnstone in the UK andViola Spolin in the US; see Johnstone (1981) and Spolin (1963).
^Brown (1998, 441), Cartledge (1997, 3–5), Goldhill (1997, 54), and Ley (2007, 206). Taxidou notes that "most scholars now call 'Greek' tragedy 'Athenian' tragedy, which is historically correct" (2004, 104). Brown writes thatancient Greek drama "was essentially the creation ofclassical Athens: all the dramatists who were later regarded as classics were active at Athens in the 5th and 4th centuries BC (the time of theAthenian democracy), and all the surviving plays date from this period" (1998, 441). "The dominant culture ofAthens in the fifth century", Goldhill writes, "can be said to have inventedtheatre" (1997, 54).
^Brockett and Hildy (2003, 13–15) and Banham (1998, 441–447).
^Brockett and Hildy (2003, 76, 78). Many churches would have only performed one or twoliturgical dramas per year and a larger number never performed any at all.
^The Provoked Wife is something of a Restorationproblem play in its attention to the subordinate legal position of married women and the complexities of "divorce" and separation, issues that had been highlighted in the mid-1690s by some notorious cases before theHouse of Lords.
^Moi (2006, 1, 23–26). Taxidou writes: "It is probably historically more accurate, although methodologically less satisfactory, to read theNaturalist movement in the theatre in conjunction with the more anti-illusionist aesthetics of the theatres of the same period. These interlock and overlap in all sorts of complicated ways, even when they are vehemently denouncing each other (perhaps particularly when) in the favoured mode of the time, the manifesto" (2007, 58).
^abReid-Walsh, Jacqueline. "Pantomime",The Oxford Encyclopedia of Children's Literature, Jack Zipes (ed.), Oxford University Press (2006),ISBN9780195146561
^Neog, Maheswar (1975).Assamese Drama and Theatre: A Series of Two Lectures Delivered at the Indian School of Drama and Asian Theatre Centre, New Delhi, April 1962. Neog.
^Neog, Maheswar (1984).Bhaona: The Ritual Play of Assam. Sangeet Natak Academy.
^Richmond (1998, 516) and Richmond, Swann, and Zarrilli (1993, 13).
^Brandon (1981, xvii) and Richmond (1998, 516–517).
^JatraSouth Asian Folklore: An Encyclopedia : Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, by Peter J. Claus, Sarah Diamond, Margaret Ann Mills. Published by Taylor & Francis, 2003.ISBN0-415-93919-4.Page 307.
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