Synopsis of Making Theatre: From Text to Performance

This reality of a play is in its performance. Making Theatre focusses on the process by which performance is realised, analysing three major areas: 'Words' and the interpretation of the text; 'Vision', including scenery, costume and lightning, and 'Music' which illustrates the importance of music in all stage action. The forms of theatre covered include straight drama, the musical and opera. Taking productions well-known on both sides of the Atlantic, Peter Mudford examines plays by Shakespeare, Chekhov, Pirandello, Beckett, Pinter, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller and David Mamet; musicals by Rodgers and Hammerstein, Cole Porter and Stephen Sondheim; and operas by Verdi, Wagner and Berg. This account of what makes theatre important and how it works will be invaluable to teachers and students of drama and performance, as well as those interested in theatre as art. Peter Mudford is Professor of English and European Literature at London University.