Theatre: The Lively Art

Edwin Wilson and Alvin Goldfarb combine the best of theatrical elements and history in this best-selling introductory text. Theatre: The Lively Art

is designed both to prepare and inspire students to become lifelong audience members, if not actual participants in theatre. With its clear narrative, concise presentation, and vibrant visual program, Theatre: The Lively Art is appropriate for introductory theatre courses at any college or university. The seventh edition continues to highlight the diversity within theatre while streamlining the text's organization and updating its coverage of the latest processes, techniques, and technologies in theatrical design and production.

...The Lively Art emphasizes the visual dimension of the theater with a four-color interior, revised illustration program, and a new photo essay that chronicles the development and production of a play from concept to curtain call.

Features in this book:

• Color: The Lively Art is four-color throughout. Additionally, the entire illustration program has been revised to include photos from current productions and impress upon students the vibrance and diversity of the theater.
• Photo Essay: From the Illinois Shakespeare Festival production of All's Well That Ends Well, this new feature documents the process of creating a piece for the theater from the building of the set through the closing curtain.
• Theater History: Unlike The Theater Experience, The Lively Art includes coverage of the historical evolution of the theater in addition to the coverage of theatrical elements. Timeline of Each Historical Period: As in the Third Edition, the Fourth includes timelines of each period (Greco-Roman, Medieval, Renaissance, etc . . .) that illustrate the relationship between theatrical developments and cultural and historical events.
• Living History: To further enrich the historical sections of The Lively Art, each is introduced with a narrative description of attending a performance of the period. These sections give students an appreciation of the historical development of the experience of the theater, in addition to the development of the form and content.
• Play Synopses: Another popular supplement to the historical information is the synopses of plays from each period. Among the plays included are Sophocles' "King Oedipus," Kiyotsugo's "Sotoba Komachi," Molière's "Tartuffe," Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard," Brecht's "Mother Courage and Her Children," and Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun."
• Getting Started in the Theater: A popular and retained feature of previous editions, these boxed sections include first-person descriptions by actors, designers, directors, and others of their introduction to, first jobs in, and love for, the theater.
• Coverage of Traditional Asian Theater: Addressing the three major Asian theatrical traditions--those of India, China, and Japan--The Lively Art describes the performance techniques, spaces, forms, and styles that define each.

Edwin Wilson, City University of New York.

Alvin Goldfarb, Illinois State University.