Reading the Material Theatre

Ric Knowles develops and demonstrates a method of theatrical performance analysis involving the entire theater experience, from production to reception. Five case studies provide a first-step introduction to key terms and areas of performance theory. They include the cultural work performed by a major Shakespearean repertory theater, a small nationalist theater devoted to new play development, a major New York-based avant-garde touring theater company, and a British socialist company dedicated to the work of Shakespeare, as well as a range of international festivals.

Ric Knowles is Professor of Drama at the School of English and Theatre Studies, University of Guelph, Ontario. He is author of Shakespeare and Canada: Essays on Production, Translation, and Adaptation. (2003) and The Theatre of Form and the Production of Meaning: Contemporary Canadian Dramaturgies (1999), editor of Theatre in Atlantic Canada (1988), and co-editor of Modern Drama: Defining the Field (2003) and Staging Coyote's Dream: An Anthology of First Nations Drama in English (2003).