Anthem Studies in Theatre and Performance takes a broad, global approach to cultural analysis to examine and critique a wide range of performative acts from the most traditional forms of theatre studies (music, theatre and dance) to more popular, less structured forms of cultural performance. The twenty-first century in particular has seen theatre and performance studies become a major perspective for examining, understanding and critiquing contemporary culture and its historical roots. In addition to traditional theatre studies, then, the series takes as its subject international folk performances, minstrel and music hall shows, vaudeville, burlesque, ballroom dance, rock concerts, professional wrestling, football and soccer matches, snake charming, American snake-handling religions, shamanism, street protests, Nascar or Formula 1 races, tractor pulls, fortune telling, circuses, techno-mobbing, the gestures of painting and writing, and even the performance that denies itself, that pretends that it is not play(ing). Performance is thus a vital manifestation of culture that is enacted, a form to be experienced, recorded, analysed and theorized. It is among the most useful and dynamic foci for the global study of culture.
Read the Series Editor's posts on the Anthem Press Blog
The Fuzzy Edges of Contemporary Theater
The Canon of European Theater / Canone teatrale europeo
Series Editor
S. E. Gontarski – Florida State University, USA
Editorial Board
Alan Ackerman – University of Toronto, Canada
Enoch Brater – University of Michigan, USA
Annamaria Cascetta – Università Cattolica, Italy
Robson Corrêa de Camargo – Universidade Federal de Goiás, Brazil
Stephen A. Di Benedetto – Michigan State University, USA
Stanton B. Garner, Jr. – University of Tennessee, USA
Lorenzo Mango – Università degli Studi di Napoli "L'Orientale", Italy
Anna McMullan – University of Reading, UK
Marcus Mota – Universidade Federal de Brasilia, Brazil
Martin Puchner – Harvard University, USA
Magda Romanska – Emerson College, USA
Octavian Saiu – National University of Theatre and Film, Romania
Krzystof Salata – Florida State University, USA
Tomasz Wiśniewski – University of Gdańsk, Poland
W. B. Worthen – Columbia University, USA
Proposals
We welcome submissions of proposals for challenging and original works from emerging and established scholars that meet the criteria of our series. We make prompt editorial decisions. Our titles are published in print and e-book editions and are subject to peer review by recognized authorities in the field. Should you wish to send in a proposal for a monograph (mid-length and full-length), edited collection or course book, please contact us at: [email protected].

Antoni Libera and Janusz Pyda
translated by Agnieszka Kolakowska
‘Dialogues on Beckett’ is a collection of 12 conversations about 12 plays by Samuel Beckett, discussions about the meaning of life and the universe between an agnostic and a Christian, based on a close reading of the text.
Hardback
9781783088942
February 2019
£ 70.00 / $ 115.00

Amanda Weldy Boyd
“Staging Memory and Materiality in Eighteenth-Century Theatrical Biography” examines theatrical biography as a developing genre in eighteenth-century England. Drawing heavily on primary sources, then-contemporary reviews and archival material in the form of extra-illustrated or “scrapbooked” copies, this text investigates the increasing emphasis on materiality which was designed to consolidate, but often challenged, the biographer’s authority.
Hardback
9781783086665
December 2017
£ 70.00 / $ 115.00

Annamaria Cascetta
The idea of the tragic has permeated Western culture for millennia, and has been expressed theatrically since the time of the ancient Greeks. However, it was in the Europe of the twentieth century – one of the most violent periods of human history – that the tragic form significantly developed. ‘Modern European Tragedy’ examines the consciousness of this era, drawing a picture of the development of the tragic through an in-depth analysis of some of the twentieth century’s most outstanding texts.
Paperback
9781783084241
March 2015
£ 25.00 / $ 40.00

Anthony R. Guneratne
Revolutions in post-digital archival practice and other forms of historical research necessitate an increasingly sophisticated interdisciplinary approach to Shakespeare studies, with Shakespeare-based films serving as an ideal model for the ongoing transformations of many disciplinary fields.
Hardback
9781839982699
January 2028
£ 80.00 / $ 120.00

Antoni Libera and Janusz Pyda
translated by Agnieszka Kolakowska
‘Dialogues on Beckett’ is a collection of 12 conversations about 12 plays by Samuel Beckett, discussions about the meaning of life and the universe between an agnostic and a Christian, based on a close reading of the text.
Hardback
9781783088942
February 2019
£ 70.00 / $ 115.00

Clark Lunberry
‘Sites of Performance: Of Time and Memory’ focuses on the impact of time and memory as they intersect and constitute the varied spaces of theatre, performance and installation art.
Hardback
9781783082872
October 2014
£ 70.00 / $ 115.00

Edited by David Gallagher
‘World Cinema and the Visual Arts’ combines new analyses of two subjects of ongoing research in the field of humanities: cinema and the visual arts. The films analysed encompass a wide geographical base, and have been drawn from a diverse array of cultural traditions.
Paperback
9781783080540
October 2013
£ 25.00 / $ 40.00

Denise Varney and Sandra D'Urso
‘Australian Theatre, Modernism and Patrick White’ details the rejection of two Patrick White plays – ‘The Ham Funeral’ and ‘Night on Bald Mountain’ – by the Adelaide Festival of Arts in Australia in the early 1960s.
Hardback
9781783088355
September 2018
£ 45.00 / $ 79.95

Graley Herren
This book studies Bob Dylan’s album Time Out of Mind as a series of dreams. These dreams work on three distinct levels: as murder ballads about a killer awaiting execution, as religious allegory about a protagonist torn between salvation and damnation, and as meditation on race and music in America.
Paperback
9781839986772
July 2022
£ 23.99 / $ 29.95

James Moran
This book examines the topic of ‘fake news’ through the lens of theatre and drama, looking at the way in which issues of audience, authorship, and accuracy are intertwined.
Paperback
9781839983108
June 2022
£ 15.95 / $ 19.99

Antoni Libera and Janusz Pyda
translated by Agnieszka Kolakowska
‘Dialogues on Beckett’ is a collection of 12 conversations about 12 plays by Samuel Beckett, discussions about the meaning of life and the universe between an agnostic and a Christian, based on a close reading of the text.
Hardback
9781783088942
February 2019
£ 70.00 / $ 115.00

Edited by Josh Stenberg
created by Yip Siu Hing
Kunqu is among the oldest and most refined traditions of the family of genres known as xiqu (music-drama or “Chinese opera”). This book consists of translated performer narrations that illuminate how one of the major Chinese theatrical forms has been taught and transmitted over the past century.
Hardback
9781785278075
September 2022
£ 120.00 / $ 195.00