Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Acknowledgments -- Preface -- Contents -- Introduction -- I. Antiquity -- 1. Thespis Meets a Critic -- 2. Aeschylus - Man of the Theater -- 3. Aeschylean Choreography -- 4. Sophocles - Musician and Dancer -- 5. Euripides Rehearsing -- 6. Pollux on Scenes, Machines, and Masks -- 7. Skeptical View of Tragic Conventions -- 8. Early Roman Theatricals -- 9. Profiles of Two Roman Comedians -- 10. A Representative Roman Audience -- 11. A Theater for Eighty Thousand -- 12. A Novel Architectural Idea -- 13. How to Construct a Roman Playhouse -- 14. Showman Pompey -- 15. In Praise of Pantomime -- 16. A Pantomime Production -- II. The Middle Ages -- 1. The Staging of Liturgic Drama -- 2. The Machinery for the Paradise -- 3. The Paradise Improved -- 4. Medieval Stage Directions -- 5. The Stage Magic of Valenciennes -- 6. English Pageant Cars -- 7. The Medieval Stage Director -- III. The Golden Age of Spain -- 1. Strolling Players -- 2. The "Stew-Pan" -- 3. The Afternoon of a Spanish Idler -- 4. A Theater Riot -- 5. Shoemaker and Critic -- 6. The Corpus Christi Procession -- 7. Command Performance for Philip IV -- IV. Italian Renaissance -- 1. The Wonders of Perspective Scenery -- 2. Peruzzi Designs for the Pope -- 3. Scenery for the Medicean Court -- 4. Serlio's Three Scenes -- 5. King Oedipus in the Olympic Theater -- 6. Sabbattini on Theatrical Machinery -- 7. Di Somi on Stagecraft -- V. Tudor and Stuart Periods -- 1. Municipal Prejudice against Plays and Players -- 2. Indicting the Theater on Four Counts -- 3. The Interior of the Swan Theatre -- 4. The Price of Admission -- 5. The Fortune Contract -- 6. A Première at the Fortune -- 7. The Burning of the First Globe Theatre -- 8. Elizabethan Acting -- a) Hamlet's Advice to the Players -- b) Cambridge Theatricals -- c) Qualifications of an Actor.

d) An Excellent Actor -- e) Subjective Approach -- f) Epitaph on Richard Burbage -- g) Proteus Burbage -- 9. Elizabethan Audiences -- a) "The Fruits of Playes" -- b) "Market of Bawdrie" -- c) "The Fashion of Youthes" -- d) Rioting -- e) More Riots -- 10. "A Very Winning Dame" -- 11. The Playhouse Manners of a Gallant -- 12. The Patrons of Blackfriars -- 13. "These Transitory Devices" -- 14. An Early Stuart Masque -- 15. Costumes and Scenery by Inigo Jones -- 16. "Ben Jonson Turned the Globe" -- 17. A Courtly Audience -- 18. Capering Cavaliers -- 19. "The Omnipotent Design" -- 20. The Actors Go Underground -- 21. Razing the "Chapels of Satan" -- 22. Nostalgia for the Pre-Restoration Stage -- VI. The Age of Louis XIV -- 1. Torelli in Paris -- 2. Advice to Poets and Machinists -- 3. Prescriptions for the Ailing French Stage -- 4. Reading and Casting a New Play -- 5. Rehearsals -- 6. The Functions of the Orator -- 7. Prompter and Decorator -- 8. Types of Operatic Settings -- 9. Baroque Ballet Costumes -- 10. An Aristocratic Playgoer -- 11. Bad Theater Manners -- 12. Middle-Class Connoisseurs -- 13. Molière as Stage Director -- VII. The Restoration Theater -- 1. Dorset Garden -- 2. The First Drury Lane -- 3. Alterations in Progress -- 4. Interior of the First Drury Lane -- 5. Second Theatre Royal -- 6. "Drones in the Theatrical Hive" -- 7. Loss of Intimacy -- 8. Social Stratification -- 9. The Play is not the Thing -- 10. My Lady Castlemayne Again -- 11. Sir Charles Steals the Show -- 12. The Ladies in Masks -- 13. Impromptu Comedy in the Galleries -- 14. Vizard-Masks -- 15. Playhouse Impressions -- 16. Manners of the Restoration Gallant -- 17. Betterton's Acting Style -- 18. Bettertonian Roles -- 19. Betterton's Othello and Hamlet -- 20. A Manual for Actors -- 21. Mrs. Barry -- 22. Mrs. Bracegirdle -- 23. Rival Companies -- 24. Another "Third Day".

25. Foreign Importations -- 26. Comedians versus Tragedians -- 27. New Costumes -- 28. Dispute Over a Veil -- 29. A Visit to a Restoration Dressing Room -- 30. Traditional Heroic Costume -- 31. The Haymarket Theatre -- 32. The "Inchanted Island" -- 33. The Age of Business -- VIII. Venetian Comedy -- 1. Impromptu Actors in Rehearsal -- 2. Inside the Oldest Venetian Playhouse -- 3. Mountebanks -- 4. The Venetian Carnival -- 5. The Spirit of Transformation -- 6. Venetian Auditoria -- 7. Scenes and Machines -- 8. The Splendors of a Venetian Opera House -- 9. Skeptical View of the Commedia Masks -- 10. Pantalone Rejuvenated -- 11. Sacchi's Harlequin -- 12. The Waiting Maid's Turn -- 13. Capricious Audience in Rome -- IX. Eighteenth-Century France -- 1. The Auditorium of the Comédie-Française -- 2. Michel Baron -- 3. Mile. Lecouvreur -- 4. Mile. Dumesnil -- 5. Specialist in Fury and Passion -- 6. Mlle. Clairon -- 7. Changes of Style -- 8. Voltaire on Miles. Dumesnil and Clairon -- 9. Diderot on Technique Versus Inspiration -- 10. Rival Actresses -- 11. The Discarded Panier -- 12. Costume Reform -- 13. Changes in Make-up -- 14. Innovations by Mme. Favart -- 15. Spectators on the Stage -- 16. Lekain -- 17. Talma's Tribute to Lekain -- 18. Appeal for Greater Scenic Illusion -- 19. Servandoni's Illusionism -- 20. Grandeur of a Temple Scene -- 21. Chiaroscuro Lighting -- 22. A Piranesi Prison -- 23. Oriental Stage Effects -- 24. Voltaire Coaches Lekain -- 25. Voltaire as Stage Director -- 26. Authentic Costumes -- 27. Clearing the Stage of Spectators -- 28. Diderot on Scene Design and Stage Costume -- 29. The Pantomime Interludes for Eugénie -- 30. Noverre's Innovations -- 31. Reform of the Ballet Costume -- 32. The Unruly Standing Pit -- 33. The Pit Seated -- 34. Parasitical Box-Holders -- 35. Pre-Revolutionary Première -- X. Eighteenth-Century England.

1. Triumvirate of Actor Managers -- 2. Disharmonies in the Triumvirate -- 3. Rich's Pantomimes -- 4. Harlequin Rich -- 5. Thurmond's Harlequin Doctor Faustus -- 6. Development of Scene Painting -- 7. A Covent Garden Inventory -- 8. The "Bellower" Quin -- 9. Macklin Breaks the Tones -- 10. Macklin's Shylock -- 11. Macklin as Teacher -- 12. Garrick's Debut -- 13. Two Schools of Acting -- 14. Garrick's Movements -- 15. Garrick's Hamlet Meets the Ghost -- 16. The Comedian Garrick -- 17. Macklin and Garrick Compared -- 18. Two Managers at Drury Lane -- 19. Garrick's Management -- 20. Garrick as Stage Director -- 21. Removal of Stage Spectators -- 22. Drury Lane Enlarged -- 23. Mrs. Bellamy on Costuming -- 24. More Costume Problems for Mrs. Bellamy -- 25. Inferior Costumes -- 26. Aaron Hill's Costume Directives -- 27. "So Much Shabbiness and Majesty" -- 28. "Conformity to Nature" -- 29. Macklin's Scottish Macbeth -- 30. Praise for the Innovation -- 31. Loutherbourg's Illusionism -- 32. Prominence of the Designer -- 33. Alterations at Covent Garden -- 34. More Changes -- 35. The Shilling-Gallery Restored -- 36. Trend toward Larger Theaters -- 37. New Drury Lane -- 38. Visit to Capon's Workshop -- 39. Kemble Stages Macbeth -- 40. Kemble's Hamlet -- 41. Kemble's Production Books -- 42. The Siddonian Dignity -- 43. Sir Joshua's Counsel -- 44. Two Famous Roles of Mrs. Siddons -- 45. Wanted: A Disciplinarian -- XI. Weimar Classicism -- 1. The Weimar Audience -- 2. Goethe's Management -- 3. Selection of Players -- 4. The "Rules for Actors" -- 5. A Male Hostess of the Inn -- 6. The Ideality of the Stage -- 7. Aesthetic Education of a Playgoer -- 8. Neoclassic Scene Design -- 9. Scenic Color Schemes -- 10. The Function of the Chorus -- XII. Nineteenth-Century England -- 1. Covent Garden Rebuilt -- 2. New Drury Lane -- 3. Theatrical Dimensions -- 4. Majestic Kemble.

5. The Flashes of Lightning -- 6. Edmund Kean's Richard III -- 7. Authentic Costumes -- 8. Tribute to Madame Vestris -- 9. Olympic Drawing Rooms -- 10. Macready's Coriolanus -- 11. Rehearsal Discipline -- 12. Macready on Talma -- 13. Macbeth without Poetry -- 14. In Praise of Macready's Macbeth -- 15. Turbulent Audiences -- 16. Phelps at Sadler's Wells -- 17. A Phelp's Dream -- 18. Phelps' Pericles -- 19. Charles Kean's Antiquarian Macbeth -- 20. Kean's Shakespearean Revivals -- 21. The Sacrifice of Poetry -- 22. Kean's Self-defense -- 23. Tom Robertson's Theatrical Types -- 24. The Meininger in London -- 25. Pictorialized Shakespeare -- XIII. The American Theater -- 1. Lewis Hallam's Company and Repertory -- 2. A Visit to the Nassau Street Theater -- 3. Difficult Territory: Philadelphia -- 4. Appraisal of the "American Company" -- 5. Inside the John Street Theater -- 6. Poor Scenery -- 7. Improvement of Scene Painting -- 8. The Stage Battle of Bunker Hill -- 9. Audience Education -- 10. The First Park Theater -- 11. The Opening Night -- 12. Dunlap's Budget -- 13. The Audience of the First Park Theater -- 14. Special Boxes -- 15. Ludicrous Stage Business -- 16. Shakespeare at the Park -- 17. The First Park Theater Rebuilt -- 18. The Second Park Theater -- 19. An Early American Rehearsal -- 20. The Degrading Star System -- 21. Forrest as Gladiator -- 22. The Forrest-Macready Controversy -- 23. W. B. Wood's Diagnosis of the Ills of the American Stage -- 24. New Managers -- 25. Rehearsals under Daly -- 26. The Actor Edwin Booth -- 27. The Booth Theater in New York -- 28. Belasco's Direction -- XIV. European Naturalism -- 1. Inside the Théâtre-Libre -- 2. Antoine and the Meiningen Crowd Scenes -- 3. Antoine's Audiences -- 4. Strindberg's Naturalism -- 5. Seagull Rehearsals -- 6. Still Wrestling with Chekhov -- Acknowledgments -- References -- Index.