The Compact Bedford Introduction to Drama

Offering a carefully chosen selection of plays from the ancient Greeks to the present — including many new contemporary prize-winners — The Compact Bedford Introduction to Drama has the plays you want to teach and the features students need at a compact size and an affordable price. Twenty-eight chronologically arranged plays are illuminated by insightful commentaries and casebooks that enrich students’ contextual understanding and encourage critical thinking. Concise introductions for each historical period and play emphasize theater design, staging, and acting style, and a wealth of photographs and illustrations help students visualize plays in performance. A fresh new design highlights the contextual features and additional help for students including a guide to writing about drama, a glossary, and new cross-references to a robust companion Web site.

*New to this edition

Preface for Instructors

What Is Drama?

Drama and Ritual

Drama: The Illusion of Reality

Seeing a Play Onstage

Theaters and Their Effect

Reading a Play

The Great Ages of Drama

     Egyptian Drama

     Greek Drama

     Roman Drama

     Medieval Drama

     Renaissance Drama

     Late Seventeeth- and Eighteenth-Century Drama

     Nineteenth-Century Drama through the Turn of the Twentieth Century

     Drama in the Early and Mid-Twentieth Century

     Contemporary Drama

Genres of Drama

     Tragedy

     Comedy

     Tragicomedy

Elements of Drama

     Plot

     Characterization

     Setting Dialogue

     Music

     Movement

     Theme

The Development of Greek Drama

The Greeks and Their Gods

The Greek Stage

The Greek Actor

Genres of Greek Drama

     Tragedy

     Satyr Plays

     Comedy

The Great Age of Greek Drama

Greek Drama Timeline

     Oedipus Rex in Performance

     Commentaries

          Aristotle, Poetics: Comedy and Epic and Tragedy

          Sigmund Freud, The Oedipus Complex

          Claude Lévi-Strauss, From The Structural Study of Myth

Indigenous Sources

The Greek Influence

The Roman Stage

The Roman Actor

Roman Drama Timeline

Roman Dramatists

     Plautus, Excerpt from The Twin Menaechmi (Act III)

     Terence, Excerpt from The Brothers (Act V)

     Seneca, Excerpt from Thyestes (Act V, Scene ii)

MEDIEVAL DRAMA

The Role of the Church

Miracle Plays

Mystery Plays

Morality Plays

Japanese Drama

The Medieval Stage

The Medieval Actor

Medieval Drama Timeline

     Everyman in Performance

RENAISSANCE DRAMA

The Italian Theater

Commedia dell’Arte

Elizabethan Drama

     The Elizabethan Theater

     The Elizabethan Actor

     The Elizabethan Audience

     Female Characters on the English Stage

     The Masque

Spanish Drama

Renaissance Drama Timeline

     *Hamlet in Performance

     Commentaries

          *A. C. Bradley, Hamlet’s Melancholy

          *T. S. Eliot, Hamlet and His Problems

     *The Tempest in Performance

     *William Strachey, from True Repertory of the Wreck, 1610

     *Michel de Montaigne, from Of Cannibals, 1580

     *Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Ariel and Caliban, from The Lectures of 1811-1812, Lecture IX

     *E. K. Chambers, The Tempest

     *Robert Browning, Caliban Upon Setebos

     *Aimé Césaire, from A Tempest

     *Ania Loomba, Sycorax

     *Marjorie Garber, The Tempest and Colonialism

LATE SEVENTEENTH- AND EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY DRAMA

Theater on the Continent: Neoclassicism

Theater in England: The Restoration

     Restoration Comedy

Eighteenth-Century Drama

The Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Actor

Drama in Japan

Late Seventeenth- and Eighteenth Century Drama Timeline

     Tartuffe in Performance

     Commentary

          Mel Gussow, Review of Tartuffe

     The Love Suicides at Sonezaki in Performance

     Commentary

          Donald H. Shively, The Development of Theater Buildings

The Nineteenth-Century Theater

The Nineteenth-Century Actor

Romantic Drama

Melodrama

The Well-Made Play

The Rise of Realism

Nineteenth-Century Drama Timeline

     A Doll House in Performance

     Commentary

          Henrik Ibsen, Notes for the Modern Tragedy

          Muriel C. Bradbrook, A Doll’s House: Ibsen the Moralist

     Miss Julie in Performance

     Commentary

          August Strindberg, From the Preface to Miss Julie

     The Importance of Being Earnest in Performance

     Commentary

          Joseph Donohue, Interview with Sir Peter Hall, Director of The Importance of Being Earnest

     The Cherry Orchard in Performance

     Commentaries

          Anton Chekhov, From Letters of Anton Chekhov

          Peter Brook, On Chekhov　

DRAMA IN THE EARLY AND MID-TWENTIETH CENTURY

The Heritage of Realism

Realism and Myth

Myth and Culture

Poetic Realism

Social Realism

Realism and Expressionism

Antirealism

Epic Theater

Absurdist Drama

The Early- and Mid-Twentieth-Century Stage

The Early- and Mid-Twentieth-Century Actor

Early- and Mid-Twentieth-Century Drama Timeline

     *Trifles in Performance

     Commentary

          *Christine Dymkowski, On the Edge: The Plays of Susan Glaspell


     Six Characters in Search of an Author in Performance

     Desire Under the Elms in Performance

     Commentary

          *Roger Asselineau, "The Quest for God in Desire Under the Elms"

     Mother Courage and Her Children in Performance

     Commentaries

          Bertolt Brecht, The Alienation Effect

          Bertolt Brecht, Notes for Mother Courage, Scene 12

     *Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in Performance

     Commentaries

          *Tennessee Williams, Memoirs

          *Brenda Murphy, Tennessee Williams and Elia Kazan Collaborate on Cat

     Death of a Salesman in Performance

     Commentary

          Arthur Miller, Tragedy and the Common Man

     Jo Mielziner, Designing a Play: Death of a Salesman

     Elia Kazan, Directing Death of a Salesman

     Arthur Miller, From "The American Theater"

     Brenda Murphy, Racial Consciousness in Casting Death of a Salesman

     June Schluetter and James K. Flanagan, Memorable Willy

     Catherine Diamond, Death of a Salesman in Taipei

     *Endgame in Performance

     Commentary

          Martin Esslin, The Theater of the Absurd

     A Raisin in the Sun in Performance　

CONTEMPORARY DRAMA

Experimentation

     Theater of Cruelty

     Environmental Theater

     "Poor Theater"

     Theater of Images

     Gay and Lesbian Theater and Other New Ensembles

Experimentation within the Tradition

     *Drama in the United States

     *Drama in Europe: England, Ireland, and France

     *Drama in Asia and Africa

The Contemporary Theater

The Contemporary Actor

Contemporary Drama Timeline

     *Cloud Nine in Performance

Athol Fugard, "MASTER HAROLD" . . . and the Boys

     "MASTER HAROLD"…and the Boys in Performance

     Commentary

          Athol Fugard, From Notebooks 1960-1977

     Fences in Performance

     Commentary

          Joan Herrington, The Development of Fences

     Angels in America in Performance

     Commentary

          Andrea Bernstein, Interview with Tony Kushner

     *Topdog/Underdog in Performance

     *Eurydice in Performance

     *Doubt in Performance

*Lynn Nottage, Ruined

     *Ruined in Performance

     Commentary

          *Randy Gener, In Defense of Ruined

Writing about Drama

Writing Criticism about Drama

Approaches to Criticism

     Reader Response Criticism

     Close Reading

From Prewriting to Final Draft: A Sample Essay on The Rising of the Moon

Writing a Review

      What Is the Purpose of a Review?

     What You Need to Write a Good Review

     Preparing to Review a Classic Play

     Preparing to Review a New Play

     Guidelines for Writing Reviews

     Sample Review

Glossary of Dramatic Terms

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