Book Description

Like Vince's two previous volumes in this series, Ancient and Medieval Theatre (1984), and Renaissance Theatre, Neoclassical Theatre provides a valuable resource for theoreticians and practioners. Choice This book provides an introduction to the information sources available to the neoclassical theatre historian and to some of the methods that have been used in the interpretation of those sources. Differences in the cultural context of the theatres in England, France, and Italy as well as in the historiography governing their interpretations are explored in depth. Unlike other books devoted to the history of eighteenth-century theatre, this work examines the materials and the processes of theatre history itself and is international in scope. Among the elements discussed are dramatic texts and promptbooks, public and legal records, playbills and account books, stage plans and scene designs, contemporary history and dramatic theory, biography and memoirs, and stage iconography and theatrical portraiture. The book also provides an evaluative sketch of some valuable reference works and, where possible, the reader is directed to a source where the original evidence is reproduced. The author concludes by examining some of the evidence for and implications of the internationalization of eighteenth-century theatre with suggestions for future study regarding the international geocultural dimension of the discipline.