Jane Austen loved the theatre. She learned much of her art from a long tradition of English comic drama and took joyous participation in amateur theatricals and her visits to the theatre in London and Bath. Her juvenilia, then 'Sense and Sensibility', 'Pride and Prejudice', 'Mansfield Park' and 'Emma' were shaped by the arts of theatrical comedy. Her admiration for drama's dialogue, characterisation, plotting, exits and entrances is why she has been...

A history of the drama and the stage. There are facts about the great playhouses, dramatists, plays, poetry, actors, producers and vagabonds of the theatre, etc.

Chronicles the evolution of the theater from its beginnings to the early twenty-first century, covering styles, creative and technical elements, and the theater's impact on society and culture. Focuses largely on Europe and the U.S. but also discusses Africa, Asia, Latin America, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

History of the theatre, from its primitive beginnings to the present. Illustrated with many colored and black-and-white pictures.