Theatre: Start Here

For tracking show tunes, this large and rich source has an advantage over other books, for it includes non-Broadway shows. Identifies original cast members as well as composer, director, etc.

Includes nearly 3,000 articles on the most productive people and the most produced works throughout most of the world for the last 150 years. Biographical articles include exhaustive lists of works written or performed.

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.

Contains entries discussing film genres; studies; national cinemas; technological, commercial, and cultural issues; and critical theories of film. Entries are intended to reflect both the most influential and the most recent scholarship from the different areas of film studies.

Reviews current knowledge of the character and operation of theatres in Shakespeare's time, with an explanation of their origins. Coverage includes the practices of Elizabethan actors and script writers: methods of characterization; gesture, blocking and choreography, including music, dance and fighting; actors' rhetorical interaction with audiences; and use of costumes, stage props, and make-up.