Theater criticism

Hardcover. Detroit MI, Wayne State University Press, 1st, 1978, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in a lightly worn dust jacket, 263 pages, b&w illustrations. The author traces the origins of humor to primitive drama, folk ritual, and carnival play. from antiquity to the era of Laurel and Hardy. Light making to about 16 pages.

Hardcover. NY, Doubleday Page & Co., 1st, 1927, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Fair, Hardcover in a worn dust jacket with chunks gone from spine. A witty drama critic from the New York Herald-Tribune offers opinions and gossip on the celebrities of the day. 186 pages. Name on inside front cover, otherwise clean.

Hardcover. NY, Alfred A. Knopf, 1st, 1953, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in a worn, chipped dust jacket, 411 pages plus index. This book was written between 1946 and 1952, and first published in 1953. It is now widely regarded as the standard portrait of the European and American theater in the turbulent and seminal years following World War II. Name on front fly leaf, otherwise clean.

Hardcover. NY, Association Press, 1st, 1973, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover, 312 pages, very good in an edgeworn, chipped dust jacket. 82 Broadway plays reviewed by Atkinson and all illustrated with Hirschfeld's caricatures.

Hardcover. NY, Harcourt, Brace & World, 1st, 1964, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a lightly worn dust jacket. This is Brigit Brophy's original 1964 edition (she later revisited it in 1988) of her profoundly original and controversial psychoanalytic study of Mozart's five most famous operas. 328 pages, clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Samuel French, reprint, 1957, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover, blue cloth in a lightly worn and chipped dust jacket. B&w illustrations. A leading theatrical designer of his day, the Russian-born author (whose credits included many important productions for the Group Theatre and the Theatre Guild in the 1930s) also designed costumes, was a lighting director, and, later in life, a teacher of theatre. In this volume, an acknowledged classic, he "presents a vivid panorama of stage and screen technique, showing how styles of production change constantly in response to new audiences." It is the first adequate study of the social meaning of stage production. It analyzes the artistic relation of the stage to the screen. It describes the effect of new political ideologies on dramatic life and thought.

Hardcover. NY, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1st, 1951, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover. light blue cloth stamped in dark blue. SIGNED BY ATKINSON on front fly leaf along with previous owner's inscription. Illustrated with 12 woodcuts by Don Freeman. One year in the life of the New York journalist and drama critic. Written in a diary format, by month and day. No dust jacket, very good copy.

Hardcover. NY, Zone Books, 1st, 2011, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. An examination of the ultimate power opera grants to singing: the reversal of death. In Operatic Afterlives, Michal Grover-Friedlander examines the implications of opera's founding myth-the story of Orpheus and Eurydice: Orpheus's attempt to revive the dead Eurydice with the power of singing. Grover-Friedlander examines instances in which opera portrays an existence beyond death, a revival of the dead, or a simultaneous presence of life and death. These portrayals-in operas by Puccini and other composers and performances by Maria Callas-are made possible, she argues, by the unique treatment of voice in the operas in question: the occurrence of a breach in which singing itself takes on an afterlife in the face of the singer's death. Clean copy, 252 pages.

Hardcover. New York, Pantheon, 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 1330 pages. Hardcover. Small red remainder mark on bottom edge. Light wear. Clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. NY, Simon and Schuster, 1st, 1965, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. This book is a collection of reviews, essays, and personal opinions that Mr. Brustein wrote during 1959-1965. It is an excellent resource for directors wanting to tackle shows that premiered during this time period. It also demonstrates his uncanny ability to "critique" a dramatic work in the way that it should be, rather than merely stating a "review". Mr. Brusteins specificity for the English language and his committment to excellence in theatre, starting with the drama itself, is an intellectual oasis for those of us wanting to read scholarly criticism from a educated source. 322 pages. Clean copy.

Softcover. Los Angeles, Augustan Reprint Society, reprint, 1986, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 42 pages. Facsimile reprint of the 1732 pamphlet with introduction by Robert Hume. Published anonymously but thought to have been written by Aaron Hill (1685-1750). The pamphlet turns out to be a fascinatingly particular review of the cultural affairs in London during the winter and spring of 1732. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Pantheon Books, 1st, 2004, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. "In 'Shakespeare After All,' Marjorie Garber - professor of English and director of the Humanities Center at Harvard University gives us a magisterial work of criticism, authoritative and engaging, based on her hugely popular lecture courses at Yale and Harvard over the past thirty years. Richly informed by Shakespearean scholarship of the latter half of the twentieth century, this book offers passionate and revealing readings of all thirty-eight of Shakespeare's plays in chronological sequence". 989 pages. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Simon & Schuster, 1st, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, A sociological look at the influence of Shakespeare's Shylock on world mythology describes the character's creation and his evolution on the stage, and presents writing about him by Proust, James, T. S. Eliot, and others. Amazingly, Shylock is in only five scenes in the Merchant of Venice. Yet, as pointed out by Gross, the theater critic for the London Sunday Telegraph , his impact and significance transcend his physical presence, so much so that his name and "pound of flesh" idea are almost universally known. In the first part of this character/cultural study, Gross examines the antecedents of Shylock and the play, and his development within the play. The second part considers "interpretations" both theatrical and literary in England and America until World War II; the third part considers Shylock more broadly as a touchstone (e.g., how his "type" is used by the Victorians--Trollope's Lopez, Dickens's Riah, Ruskin's use of him in Munera Pulveris ). Clean copy.

Hardcover. Cambridge MA, Harvard University Press, 1st, 1940, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Poor, Hardcover, red cloth in a worn and chipped dust jacket with closed tears, 191 pages with index. Dr. Worcester presents a theory of satire, surveying the whole field since Dryden's Discourse of the Origin of Satire and drawing illustrations not only from English but from classical, French, German, and American literature. At the same time he makes a penetrating study of irony and its uses. Name on inside front cover otherwise clean.

Hardcover. NY, Bloomsbury, 1st, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. A brilliant and feared critic, Kenneth Tynan was a nabob of the National Theatre alongside Laurence Olivier, and he was also the daring impresario who created "Oh Calcutta". He was a notorious eccentric, a louche sophisticate: connoisseur of cuisine, wine, literature and women. Where else could you find such a judicious blend of aesthetics, theatre lore, love, marriage, sex and politics? These sizzling diaries will remind older readers of a man whose reputation as the greatest critic of the twentieth century is still unchallenged and introduce younger readers to an electrifying writer who simply could not be boring. B&w photos, 439 pages. Clean copy.

Softcover. Los Angeles, Augustan Reprint Society, reprint, 1985, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 80 pages. The Augustan Reprint Society Number 251-252. Introduction by Janet E. Aikins. Orig. tan card wrappers, stapled binding. An 18th century theatre critic's remarks regarding Otway's play. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Boston, Little, Brown, and Company, reprint, 1928, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover in black cloth with gilt lettering on spine, 298 pages. A collection of articles about the theater by Edward Gordon Craig (1872-1966), a stage designer and theatrical producer and director. Although he directed only a handful of plays, "his controversial theories of scene design and stagecraft gave him eminence in the European and American theater" (The New York Times). For instance, he favored three-dimensional stage effects and more innovative lighting than the traditional footlights. Craig argues that theatre is not just a form of entertainment, but a powerful medium for social and political change. He advocates for a new kind of theatre that is not bound by traditional conventions and that challenges the audience's expectations. Craig also emphasizes the importance of the actor's body and movement, and he proposes new techniques for training actors to be more expressive and dynamic on stage. Previous owner's inscription on front fly leaf, otherwise clean.

Hardcover. NY, Alfred A. Knopf, 1st, 1969, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a lightly worn dust jacket, unclipped. A collection of essays and articles relating to the "new theatre," the Third Theatre off-off Broadway, and the Living Theatre as it displayed itself on its recent American tour. Also includes non-theatre essays - on the Madison Avenue Villain; on horror movies; a memoir, and an assortment of literary reviews and speculations. 294 pages, clean copy.