The Wadsworth Anthology of Drama, Brief Edition » (6th Edition)

W. B. Worthen, Alice Brady Pels Professor in the Arts, is Professor and Chair of the Department of Theater at Barnard College, Columbia University. He is the author of Shakespeare and the Force of Modern Performance (Cambridge University Press, 2003) Shakespeare and the Authority of Performance (Cambridge University Press, 1997), Modern Drama and the Rhetoric of Theater (University of California Press, 1992), The Idea of the Actor: Drama and the Ethics of Performance (Princeton University Press, 1984), Modern Drama: Plays, Criticism, Theory (Wadsworth, 1995), and of many articles on modern drama, Shakespeare, and theories of performance. Professor Worthen received his B. A. in English from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and his Ph.D. in English from Princeton University, and has held research fellowships form the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment of the Humanities. He is past editor of Theatre Journal and current coeditor of Modern Drama.

THE WADSWORTH ANTHOLOGY OF DRAMA, BRIEF EDITION offers you a bold and most distinguished introduction to drama packed with exciting plays usefully situated within their historical and cultural contexts.

Introduction: Drama, Theater, and Culture. Reading Drama and Seeing Theater. Drama and Theater in History. Dramatic Genres. Dramatic Form. The Stage in Critical Practice. Reading the Material Theatre. 1. CLASSICAL ATHENS. Aside: Roman Drama and Theater. Reading the Material Theater: Pronomos Painter. Sophocles, Oedipus the King. Euripides, Medea. Aristophanes, Lysistrata. Critical Contexts: Aristotle, from The Poetics. 2. CLASSICAL JAPAN. Aside: Sanskrit Drama and Theater. Reading the Material Theater: A Portrait of Seki Sanjuro II. Kan'ami Kiyotsugu, Matsukaze. Nakamura Matagoro II and James R. Brandon, adaptors, Chushingura: The Forty-Seven Samurai. Critical Contexts: Zeami Motokiyo, from A Mirror Held to the Flower. 3. MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE ENGLAND. Aside: The Jacobean Court Masque. Reading the Material Theater: Titus Andronicus title page. Anonymous, Everyman. William Shakespeare, Hamlet. William Shakespeare, The Tempest. Critical Contexts: Sir Philip Sidney, from Apology for Poetry. 4. EARLY MODERN EUROPE. Aside: Commedia Dell' Arte. Reading the Material Theater: Betterton's acting style. Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Life Is a Dream. Moli're, Tartuffe. Aphra Behn, The Rover. Sor Juana In's de la Cruz, Loa to The Divine Narcissus. Critical Contexts: John Dryden, Preface to Troilus and Cressida, Containing the Grounds of Criticism in Tragedy. 5. MODERN EUROPE. Aside: Melodrama. Reading the Material Theater: Ibsen's Notes for the Modern Tragedy. Henrik Ibsen, A Doll's House. Oscar Wilde, The Importance of being Earnest. Anton Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard. Bernard Shaw, Major Barbara. Bertolt Brecht, Mother Courage and Her Children. Samuel Beckett, Endgame. Caryl Churchill, Cloud Nine. Sarah Kane, Blasted. Critical Contexts: Friedrich Nietzsche, from The Birth of Tragedy. ?mile Zola, from Naturalism in the Theatre. Constantin Stanislavski, from Direction and Acting". Bertolt Brecht, "Theatre for Pleasure or Theatre for Instruction". Antonin Artaud, from The Theater and Its Double. Augusto Boal, from Theater of the Oppressed. 6. THE UNITED STATES. Aside: The Federal Theater Project. Aside: Performance Art. Reading the Material Theater: "A Jury of Her Peers," by Susan Glaspell. Susan Glaspell, Trifles. Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie. Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman. Luis Valdez, Zoot Suit. August Wilson, Fences. Tony Kushner, Angels in America, Part 1: Milennium Approaches. Critical Contexts: Arthur Miller, Tragedy and the Common Man. Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones, "The Revolutionary Theatre". 7. WORLD STAGES. Aside: Intercultural Performance. Reading the Material Theater: Program Notes for Translations. Griselda Gambaro, Information for Foreigners. Brian Friel, Translations. Athol Fugard, "Master Harold" . . . and the boys. Manjula Padmanabhan, Harvest. Critical Contexts: Frantz Fanon, from "The Fact of Blackness." Glossary. List of Illustrations and Photographs. Index."