Theater: Books on Theater

Strike Up the Band focuses not only on what happened on stage but also on how it happened and why it matters to us today. It's a different kind of history that explores the famous and, especially, the not-so famous productions to discover the lineage that paved the way to contemporary musicals. -Amazon.com

1. Slavery and conquest : background to black theatre
2. The African theatre to 'Uncle Tom's cabin'
3. The Civil War to 'The creole show'
4. American minstrelsy in black and white
5. New vistas : plays, spectacles, musicals, and opera
6. The struggle continues
7. The Harlem renaissance
8. Educational theatre
9. The Caribbean connection
10. The Great Depression and federal theatre
11. Creeping toward integration
12. From Hansberry to Shange
13. The millennium.

This collection of modern American plays, edited and introduced by Brooks McNamara, includes "Streamers" by David Rabe, "Crimes of the Heart" by Beth Henley, and "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" by August Wilson, with five others by John Guare, Arthur Kopit, Christopher Durang, A.R. Gurney, and Tina Howe.

Historical dictionary of African American theater.

Introduction. Couples ; Tragedy averted ; Much ado about noting [sic] ; Second chance ; Double ending
About the text
Key facts
Much ado about nothing
Textual notes
Scene-by-scene analysis
Much ado about nothing in performance: the RSC and beyond
Shakespeare's career in the theater
Shakespeare's works: a chronology - Further reading and viewing

Woman at a threshold, beckoning / John Guare
The grand design / Susan Miller
Blue moon over Memphis : a Noh drama about Elvis Presley / Deborah Brevoort
The raunchy dame in the Chinese raincoat / John Ford Noonan
The death of bliss / Jules Tasca
Leash / Peter Maloney
The right to remain / Melanie Marnich
Fit for feet / Jordan Harrison
Perfect / Mary Gallagher
The wounded do not cry / Lavonne Mueller
Water music : a short play / Tina Howe
Ten-dollar drinks / Joe Pintauro.

Sundown names and night-gone things / Leslie Lee
Ma Noah / Mark Clayton Southers
The diva daughters DuPree / Kim Euell
Afterword / Chuck Smith.

God of vengeance / Donald Margulies
A certain Raquel / Nora Glickman
Green violin / Elise Thoron
Life in refusal / Ari Roth
See under: love / Corey Fischer
The action against Sol Schumann / Jeffrey Sweet
Exile in Jerusalem / Motti Lerner
Asher's command / Marilyn Clayton Felt
The last seder / Jennifer Maisel.

Greek drama.