The Enjoyment of Theatre

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Let's face it. Most introductory textbooks are pretty much alike: a little history, a little theory, an overview of what theatre professionals do, etc. Cameron and Gillespie give the student a leg up by writing their chapters in a user-friendly format, with chapter objectives, bulleted (main) points, and key terms at the end of the chapter, as well as web sites for further information. They also provide headings and subheadings as chapters progress, helping us digest the material in conceptual chunks rather than one long narrative. As one reviewer pointed out, there are no cuts from plays inserted, but that gives the instructor the freedom to choose his/her own plays to examine in class. Overall, I think it's an excellent introductory text. I especially like the attention to script analysis using Aristotle's Poetics.

The story of the textbook is to give students an appreciation of theatre, to delineate theatre from other Art forms such as sculpture, dance, and painting as well as film and sporting events. The text gives a concise and accurate, although thoroughly Western, overview of theatre history with brief emphasis on African and Asian theatre. One is taken Chapter by Chapter through a discovery process from the very broad appreciation of theatre as a performing art to the very specific nuances of various Asian performance techniques. Along the way there are three units broken up into various chapters. Unit one focuses on audience relationship to the stage, the social context of theatre, textual and visual analysis a.k.a audience appreciation. Unit Two analyzes the state of theatre today and occupations in theatre. Unit Three focuses entirely on theatre history with chapters on ancient theatre, the middle ages, neoclassicism, romanticism, avant garde, eclectic and current theatre, and concludes with world theatre (mainly African, Islamic, and Asian). The book's weaknesses are its decidedly Western and Caucasian focus, very little of the text is devoted to non-white theatre and (although much improved on other texts) there are very few multi-cultural photos and illustrations included. Also, there are no plays included in the text. It is difficult to encourage script analysis if no script is included, and one page of a script with blocking scribbled all over it does not suffice. There is not much focus on design besides explaining the role of designers in the theatrical process and showing different illustrations of various historical theatre buildings or areas. Lastly, not knowing how to eloquently state this, there is something disturbing about siphoning Chekhov, Ibsen, the Federal Theatre Project, Kathakali, avant garde, Ira Aldridge etc. to two paragraphs or less. By trying to include so many various historical topics in one relatively small text, the authors have sold many of them short. Overall, If used in combination with lectures or texts on design, live performance, and a collection of world drama or scripts this is a solid and very useful text.