The following list is partial and does not include the many titles already on reserve or on the syllabus. If, in your study, you read something you think I should include let me know.
Performance Theory
Huizinga, Johannes.
Homo Ludens: A Study of Play. London: Routledge, 2000.
MacAloon, John J.
Rite, drama, festival, spectacle : rehearsals toward a theory of cultural performance. Philadelphia : Institute for the Study of Human Issues, 1984.
Roach, Joseph.
Cities of the Dead: Circumatlantic Performance. New YOrk: Columbia U. Press, l996.
Schechner, Richard.
Between Theater and Anthropology. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, l985.
Taylor, Diana.
The Archive and the Repertoire. Duke University Press, 2003.
Turner, Victor.
From Ritual to Theatre: The Human Seriousness of Play. New York: PAJ Press, l982.
Egypt and Performance
List to be developed.
Greek Theatre and How we Come to Know It
Alexiou, Margaret, et al. The ritual lament in Greek tradition. Rowman & Littlefield, 2002.
On the possibility of the roots of tragedy in the poetics of lament and collective practice.
Andújar, Rosa. “Revolutionizing Greek Tragedy in Cuba: Virgilio Piñera's Electra Garrigó.”
The Oxford Handbook of Greek Drama in the Americas, Oxford Handbooks Online, 2015.
Rosa Andújar is a scholar who works on classical reception in Cuba.
Boegehold, Alan L. When a gesture was expected: a selection of examples from archaic and classical Greek literature. Princeton University Press, 1999.
On gesture & its recoverability, and where gesture may have been indicated in scripts and text.
Cole, Susan Letzler. The absent one: mourning ritual, tragedy, and the performance of ambivalence. Pennsylvania State University Press, 1991.
More on mourning and its relationship to tragedy as ritualized ambivalence.
Csapo, Eric.
Actors and Icons of the Ancient Theater. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. 2010.
On vase paintings as possible documentary evidence for Greek theatre.
Foster, Clare. “Whose Theatre is it Anyway? Ancient Chorality versus Modern Drama”
Clare Foster studies when Greek tragedies came ‘back on the scene’ as plays and not texts.
Hall, Edith, et al. Dionysus since 69: Greek tragedy at the dawn of the third millennium. Oxford University Press, 2007. A collection of essays reflecting on Greek tragedy in the late 20
th century (title refers to Richard Schechner’s play
Dionysus in 69).
Hardwick, Lorna.
Classics in post-Colonial worlds. Oxford University Press, 2010.
See esp: Ch 18, “The Empire Never Ended.” By Ika Willis p 329-348.
Ch 15, “From the Peloponnesian War to the Iraq War: A
Post-Liberal Reading of Greek Tragedy.” By Michiel Leezenberg
John J. Winkler and Froma I. Zeitlin (edd.),
Nothing to Do with Dionysos? Athenian Drama in its Social Context. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990.
See esp: The Theatre of the Polis by Oddone Longo, pp 12-19.
Vasunia, Phiroze. Empire without End: Postcolonialism and the Ancient World. I B Taurus, 2013.
On classics as the touchstone of imperialism and colonialism.
Vasunia, Phiroze.
The gift of the Nile: Hellenizing Egypt from Aeschylus to Alexander. University of California Press, 2001.
On how the Greeks received Egyptian culture and used it to inform their national imagination.
A few notable adaptations/translations that some of these works touch on….
Odale’s Choice (1967)
, Kamau Braithwaite
An adaptation of Antigone intended for school children to perform, written to enact the birth of Ghana as a nation
Flikorna (
“The Girls,” 1968), Mai Zetterling
Feminist film, adaptation of Lysistrata
Dionysus in 69 (1970), Richard Schechner/The Performance Group
Adaptation of Bacchae. Environmental theatre. Everyone is naked. Viewable on youtube.
The Bacchae of Euripides: A communion Rite (1973), Wole Soyinka
Translation by Soyinka of Bacchae, ‘alternate’ ending from Euripides
Omeros (1990), Derek Walcott
Epic poem
General Greek and Roman Theatre
Beacham, Richard.
The Roman Theatre and its Audience. Harvard University Press, 1996.
Beard, Mary.
The Roman Triumph. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2007.
Bergman, Bettinam and Christine Kondoleon, eds.
The Art of Ancient Spectacle. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999
Bobrick, Elizabeth, "The Tyranny of Roles: Privilege in Aristophanes'
Thesmophoriazusae." In
The City as Comedy: Society and Representation in Athenian Drama. University of NOrth Carolina Press, 1998.
Csapo, Eric and William Slater.
The Context of Ancient Drama. University of Michigan Press, l995.
Csapo, Eric, and Margaret Miller.
The Origins of Theater in Ancient Greece and Beyond: From Ritual to Drama. Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Duncan, Anne.
Performance and Identity in the Classical World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006
Easterling, Pat, and Edith Hall, eds.
Greek and Roman Actors: Aspects of an Ancient Profession. Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Eckart Kohne and Cornelia Ewigleben, eds.,
The Power of Spectacle in Ancient Rome: Gladiators and Caesars. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.
Futrell, Allison.
Blood in the Arena : The Spectacle of Roman Power. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1997
Hall, Edith.
The Theatrical Cast of Athens: Interactions between Ancient Greek Drama and Society. Oxford University Press, 2006.
Mannix, Daniel P.
Those About to Die: The Way of the Gladiator. New York : ibooks ; London : Simon & Schuster, 2001.
Landels, John G.,
Music in Ancient Greece and Rome. London: Routledge, 1999
Marshall, C.W.
The Stagecraft and Performance of Roman Comedy. Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Plass, Paul.
The Game of Death in Ancient Rome. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995.
Potter, D.S. and D.J. Mattingly.
Life, Death, and Entertainment in the Roman Empire. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1999.
Scodel, Ruth.
Theater and Society in the Classical World.
Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1993
Silk, M. S.
Aristophanes and the Definition of Comedy. Oxford University Press. 2002.
Slater,Niall W.
Spectator Politics: Metatheatre and Performance in Aristophanes. University of Pennsylvania Press.
Slater, Niall W.
Plautus in Performance. Routledge, 2000.
Smith, Tyler Jo.
Komast Dancers in Ancient Greek Art. Oxford, 2010.
Wiles, David.
Mask and Performance in Greek Tragedy. Cambridge, University Press, 2007.
Wiles, David.
Tragedy in Athens: Performance Space and Theatrical Meaning. Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Winkler, John and Froma Zeitlin.
Nothing to Do with Dionysos? Athenian Drama in Its Social Context. PRinceton University Press, l992.
Wise, Jennifer.
Dionysus Writes: The Invention of Theatre in Ancient Greece. Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press, 2000.
Ancient Indian Theatre
Gupta, Bharat.
Dramatic Concepts, Greek and Indian: A Study of the Poetics and the Natyasatra. D.K. Printworld, 2006. ISBN-10: 8124600252
Ley, Graham. "
Aristotle's Poetics, Bharatamuni's Natyasastra, and Zeami's Treatises: Theory as Discourse." Asian Theatre Journal - Volume 17, Number 2, Fall 2000, pp. 191-214
Mankada, Dolararaya Ram.
Ancient Indian Theatre (an interpretation of Bharata's second Adhyaya). Anand: Charotar Book Stall, 1960.
Panchal, Govardhan.
Theatres of Bharata and Some Aspects of Sanskrit Play-Production. Munshiram, 1996. ISBN-10: 8121506611
Sullivan, Bruce M. "
Dying on the Stage in the Nāṭyaśāstra and Kūṭiyāṭṭam: Perspectives from the Sanskrit Theatre Tradition."
Asian Theatre Journal - Volume 24, Number 2, Fall 2007, pp. 422-439
Tarlekar, G.H.
Studies in the Natyasastra: With Special Reference to the Sanskrit Drama in Performance. Delhi : Motilal Banarsidass, 1999.
Varadpande, Manohar Laxman.
History of Indian Theatre. New Delhi : Abhinav Publications, 1987.
Pre-Colonial African Traditions
Apter, Andrew H.
Black Critics & Kings : The Hermeneutics of Power in Yoruba Society. Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1992.
Arnoldi, Mary Jo.
Playing with Time : Art and Performance in Central Mali. Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 1995.
Banham, Martin, ed.
History of Theatre in Africa. [electronic resource]. Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Harding, Frances, ed.
The Performance Arts in Africa. London ; New York : Routledge, 2002.
Harrison, Paul Carter, et al, eds.
Black Theatre : Ritual Performance in the African Diaspora. Philadelphia : Temple University Press, 2002.
Kramer, Fritz.
The Red Fez : Art and Spirit Possession in Africa, translated by Malcolm Green. New York: Verso, 1993.
Losambe, Lokangaka, and Devi Sarinjeive.
Pre-Colonial and Post-Colonial Drama and Theatre in Africa.Trenton, NJ : Africa World Press, 2001.
Medieval European Theatre
Ault, Thomas. "The Passion of Christ and Ritual Performances in Fifteenth Century Ferrara."
Baylor Journal of Theatre and Performance V.3, No.2, 2006.
Chemers, Michael M. “Anti-Semitism, Surrogacy, and the Invocation of Mohammed in the Play of the Sacrament.”
Comparative Drama 41:1 (Spring 2007), pp. 25-55
Clark, Robert A, and Claire Sponsler. “Other Bodies: Racial Cross-Dressing in the Mystere de la Sainte Hostie and the Croxton Play of the Sacrament.”
Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 29.1 (Winter 1999): 61-88.
Dox, Donnalee.
The Idea of the Theater in Latin Christian Thought: Augustine to the Fourteenth Century. Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, c2004.
Enders, Jody.
Death by Drama and Other Medieval Urban Legends. Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2002.
Enders, Jody. “Theater makes history: Ritual murder by proxy in the Mistere de la Sainte Hostie,”
Speculum 79:4, 2004, 991-1016.
Hanawalt, Barbara A., and Michal Kobialka, eds.,
Medieval Practices of Space, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000, 167-197
Kobialka, Michal. "Holy Space and Representational Place in the Tenth Century." In Levy, Shimon, ed.
Theatre and Holy Script.
Sussex Academic Press, 1999
Senelick, Laurence. "Skirting Christ" in
The Changing Room: Sex, Drag and Theatre (Routledge, 2000).
Southern, Richard.
The Medieval Theatre in the Round; A Study of the Staging of The Castle of Perseverance. London, Faber and Faber, l975.
Other Theatres of the Ancient/Medieval World
Gillam, Robin.
Performance and Drama in Ancient Egypt. Publisher: Duckworth, 2006.
ISBN-10: 0715634046
Moreh, Shmuel.
Live Theatre and Dramatic Literature in the Medieval Arab World. New York : New York University Press, 1992
