PART 1: THE AUDIENCE
Chapter 1—The Audience: Its Role and Imagination
Chapter 2—Background and Expectations of the Audience
Chapter 3—The Critic and the Audience
Chapter 4—Stage Spaces

PART 2: THE PERFORMERS AND THE DIRECTOR
Chapter 5—Acting: Offstage and in the Past
Chapter 6—Stage Acting Today
Chapter 7—The Director and the Producer

PART 3: THE PLAYWRIGHT AND THE PLAY
Chapter 8—Creating the World of the Play
Chapter 9—Dramatic Structure: Climactic, Episodic, and Other Forms
Chapter 10—Dramatic Characters
Chapter 11—Tragedy and Other Serious Drama
Chapter 12—Comedy and Tragicomedy

PART 4: THE DESIGNERS
Chapter 13—Scenery
Chapter 14—Costumes
Chapter 15—Lighting and Sound

PART 5: THE THEATER LANDSCAPE TODAY
Chapter 16—Contemporary American Theater
Chapter 17—Musical Theater
Chapter 18—Contemporary World Theater

Epilogue: Integrating the Elements: Predicting the Future

Appendix A: Play Synopses
King Oedipus, Sophocles
Tartuffe, Molière
A Doll’s House, Henrik Ibsen
The Cherry Orchard, Anton Chekhov
Mother Courage, Bertolt Brecht
A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams
Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller
Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett
A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry
Fences, August Wilson

Appendix B: Historical Outline

Appendix C: Major Theatrical Forms and Movements

Appendix D: Technical Terms

Notes

Select Bibliography

Index