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Presenting a panoramic, world-ranging view of history, this Guide identifies theatre's most important moments of widespread change from 50,000 BCE to modernity, across Eurasia, Africa, the Americas, and Australasia. It explains why those moments came about and examines how they found expression in distinctive theatre practices. Its global perspective complements more localized perspectives and foregrounds the importance of sometimes trivialized and overlooked traditions. The Guide provides students, scholars, and all who are interested in theatre with a fresh, lively, and compelling understanding of world theatre history.
List of contents
Part I. The Deep History of Theatre (Starting c. 50,000 BCE): 1. The wellspring of theatre; 2. The social uses of theatre; Part II. The Eurasian Breakthroughs (Starting c. 500 BCE): 3. Inventing literary theatre; 4. Silences and successes; Part III. The Eurasian Convergence (Starting c. 900 CE): 5. The engine of convergence; 6. Along the sea-route; 7. On the margins of Eurasia; Part IV. The Eurasian Resurgence (Starting c. 1500 CE): 8. Okuni's crucifix; 9. Islamic empires; 10. Across the South China Sea; 11. Erasmus's prophecy; Part V. The Global Transformation (Starting c. 1800 CE): 12. The dynamo of transformation; 13. The neo-Europes; 14. Colonial experiences; 15. Pacific lands.
About the author
Steve Tillis is the author of The Challenge of World Theatre History (2020), Rethinking Folk Drama (1999), and Toward an Aesthetics of the Puppet (1992). He has taught theatre at Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley, and currently teaches at Saint Mary's College of California.
