British Playwrights, 1956-1995 - by William W Demastes (Hardcover)

About the Book

The year 1956 marked a point when British drama and theater fell into the hands of a group of young playwrights who revolutionized the stage. During that time, playwrights such as Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter made the British theater as rich, varied, and vital as any national theater in history. This reference chronicles the history of British theater from 1956 to 1995 by providing detailed information about the playwrights of that period.

Included are entries for some three dozen British playwrights active between 1956 and 1995. Entries are arranged alphabetically to facilitate use. Each entry supplies biographical information, the production history for particular plays, a survey of the playwright's critical reception, an assessment of the dramatist's work, and primary and secondary bibliographies. A selected, general bibliography at the end of the volume directs the reader to important sources of additional information about this period in theater history.

Book Synopsis

The year 1956 marked a point when British drama and theater fell into the hands of a group of young playwrights who revolutionized the stage. During that time, playwrights such as Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter made the British theater as rich, varied, and vital as any national theater in history. This reference chronicles the history of British theater from 1956 to 1995 by providing detailed information about the playwrights of that period.

Included are entries for some three dozen British playwrights active between 1956 and 1995. Entries are arranged alphabetically to facilitate use. Each entry supplies biographical information, the production history for particular plays, a survey of the playwright's critical reception, an assessment of the dramatist's work, and primary and secondary bibliographies. A selected, general bibliography at the end of the volume directs the reader to important sources of additional information about this period in theater history.

Review Quotes

?The biographical sketches, descriptions of theatrical reception, and assessments of playwrights' careers are very informative, and the sections on archival sources are welcome....recommmended for college and university libraries.?-Choice

?Theater historians generally agree that the 1956 premiere of John Osborne's Look Back in Anger marked a turning point in British drama, signalling the dawn of an era in which the London stage became an outlet for a new social consciousness. Focusing on 35 playwrights who reflect the vitality and diversty of the British theater during the 4o years since that landmark event, this compilation of bio-critical essays features a mixture of well-established figures such as Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard, and Michael Frayn and the more recent dramatists David Hare, Louise Page, and Snoo Wilson....this compilation offers drama students and scholars a unique and valuable resource by concentrating on the performance aspects of each dramatist's plays rather than their literary mert. Most academic libraries will want to add this work to their collections.?-Booklist/Reference Books Bulletin

"The biographical sketches, descriptions of theatrical reception, and assessments of playwrights' careers are very informative, and the sections on archival sources are welcome....recommmended for college and university libraries."-Choice

"Theater historians generally agree that the 1956 premiere of John Osborne's Look Back in Anger marked a turning point in British drama, signalling the dawn of an era in which the London stage became an outlet for a new social consciousness. Focusing on 35 playwrights who reflect the vitality and diversty of the British theater during the 4o years since that landmark event, this compilation of bio-critical essays features a mixture of well-established figures such as Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard, and Michael Frayn and the more recent dramatists David Hare, Louise Page, and Snoo Wilson....this compilation offers drama students and scholars a unique and valuable resource by concentrating on the performance aspects of each dramatist's plays rather than their literary mert. Most academic libraries will want to add this work to their collections."-Booklist/Reference Books Bulletin

About the Author

WILLIAM W. DEMASTES is Professor of English at Louisiana State University. He has written numerous articles on modern and contemporary drama, is the author of Beyond Naturalism (Greenwood, 1988), Clifford Odets: A Research and Production Sourcebook (Greenwood, 1991), and Theatre of Chaos (forthcoming), editor of American Playwrights, 1880-1945: A Research and Production Sourcebook (Greenwood, 1994), and Realism and the American Dramatic Tradition (1996), and Series Adviser for the Greenwood Press Modern Dramatists Research and Production Sourcebook series.