Living Theatre: A History [Hardcover]

Edwin Wilson (Author), Alvin Goldfarb (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0072562579 | ISBN-13: 978-0072562576 | Publication Date: August 5, 2003 | Edition: 4

"Living Theatre: A History" conveys the excitement and variety of theatre throughout time, as well as the dynamic way in which our interpretation of theatre history is informed by contemporary scholarship. Rather than presenting readers with a mere catalog of historical facts and figures, it sets each period in context through an exploration of the social, political and economic conditions of the day, creating a vivid study of the developments in theatre during that time.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ed Wilson attended Vanderbilt, the University of Edinburgh, and Yale University where he received the first Doctor of Fine Arts degree awarded by Yale. He has taught at Vanderbilt, Yale, Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Most recently he has been Executive Director of the Segal Theatre Center at the CUNY Graduate Center. He is the author or co-author of three of the most widely used college theater textbooks in the U. S. The tenth edition of his pioneer book, The Theater Experience, was published in 2006 by McGraw-Hill. The sixth edition of his text Theater: The Lively Art (co-authored with Alvin Goldfarb) will be published by McGraw Hill in theDecember, 2006. The fourth edition of his theater history, Living Theatre: Histories of Theatre, (also co-authored with Alvin Goldfarb) will be published in December, 2006. He is also the editor of Shaw on Shakespeare, recently re-issued by Applause Books. He has produced plays on and off Broadway and served one season as the resident director of the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia. He also produced a feature film, The Nashville Sound, recently made available on DVD. He is the author of two original plays, a farce, The Bettinger Prize, and a play about Ponce de Leon, Waterfall. He wrote the book and lyrics for a musical version of Great Expectations. All three have been given a series of successful readings in New York City and elsewhere. Great Expectations was given a full production for three weeks in February and March, 2006, at the Mill Mountain Theatre in Roanoke, Virginia. He conceived the idea of a musical revue of the songs of Jerome Kern which had a well-received try-out production in the fall of 2004 at Catholic University in Washington, D. C. Ed has served a number of times on the Tony Nominating Committee and the Pulitzer Prize Drama Jury, most recently on the Pulitzer Jury in 2003. For twenty two years he was the theater critic of the Wall Street Journal. A long time member of the New York Drama Critics Circle, he was president of the Circle for several years. He is on the board of the John Golden Fund and was also for many years on the Board of the Theater Development Fund, of which he served as President.

Alvin Goldfarb is President and Professor of Theatre at Western Illinois University. Dr. Goldfarb also served as vice president and provost, dean of Fine Arts, and chair of Theatre at Illinois State University. Dr. Goldfarb holds a Ph.D. in theater history from the City University of New York and a master's degree from Hunter College. He is the coauthor of Living Theatre:A History and coeditor of The Anthology of Living Theater with Edwin Wilson. Dr. Goldfarb is also the coeditor, with Rebecca Rovit, of Theatrical Performance during the Holocaust: Texts, Documents, Memoirs, which was a National Jewish Book Award finalist. He has published numerous articles and reviews in scholarly journals and anthologies. Dr. Goldfarb served as a member of the Illinois Arts Council and president of the Illinois Alliance for Arts Education. He has received service awards from the latter organization as well as from the American College Theater Festival. Dr. Goldfarb also received an Alumni Achievement Award from the City University of New York Graduate Center's Alumni Association.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 672 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages; 4 edition (August 5, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0072562579
• ISBN-13: 978-0072562576
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #381,543 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book That Falls Apart a Little at the End, April 5, 2010

By 

Constant Reader (Charlotte NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Living Theatre: A History (Hardcover)

This is an excellent book that is interesting, very well organized and extremely well written.

Then World War II ends and the book fails to remain interesting or well organized. Basically it falls apart. I believe that what happened is that without historical concensus to determine what is important and less important, the book bogs down as it delivers raw facts about present day theater without a framework or context to organize the message.

Never the less, I am keeping the book at 5 stars because if you are looking to read a book on Theater History, this is the one to get. It's a first class read through WWII.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Eh... not the greatest, October 13, 2008

By 

E. DuBon (NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Living Theatre: A History (Hardcover)

True, this book is full of great information. If that's your only basis for analysis, then fine, it's good.

But it tries to be so politically correct that at some points it can't speak at all. Many of the paragraphs are phrased quite redundantly, + there are entire sections of expository text that are a waste of time.

I'm just glad I had a good professor to teach me this, or I would have absolutely hated this book.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent resource for any person studying theater., April 20, 2004

By 

Anya Keyes (Portland, Oregon United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Living Theater: A History (Paperback)

This is a [must have] for anyone who desires to study theater outside of high school and into college. Throughout my studies in college, I constantly referred back to this piece for references. It is an expensive book, but trust me. You will get your money's worth out of this one.