A thoroughly updated and expanded edition of The Continuum Companion to Twentieth Century Theatre, now with more coverage than ever.

An A to Z of modern theatre from across the world, stretching from the late-19th century to the present day, this encyclopedia features both short entries and more in-depth articles contributed by a unique team of expert academics and celebrated practitioners.

Entries include audiences, body art, burlesque, carnival, circus, cosplay, dramatic theories, escapology and geek theatre to digital scenography, fireworks, immersive theatre, magic, queer theatre, puppet theatre, verbatim theatre and waxworks.

Entries on the interaction of theatre and other art forms, such as opera, dance, pop music, hip hop, television, radio and cinema, are included alongside entries on theatre’s relationship to a plethora of topics such as food, fashion, photography, empire, slavery, globalization, race, and gender.

Overviews of major concepts, genres and topics can be found alongside entries on individual actors, choreographers, composers, critics, designers, directors, playwrights and producers. Individual cities, festivals, institutions, theatres, and theatre companies are covered in tandem with longer articles on individual countries across the continents.

Combining factual, biographical and reflective articles and totally around 3,000 entries, The Methuen Drama Encyclopedia of Modern Theatre gives the reader more texture of theatrical experience and insight than any other encyclopedia.

Colin Chambers is Emeritus Professor of Drama at Kingston University, UK. Formerly a journalist and theatre critic, he was Literary Manager of the Royal Shakespeare Company (1981-97). He co-authored Kenneth’s First Play and Tynan, adapted David Pinski’s Treasure and edited John Maddison Morton’s Three Farces. He has written extensively on theatre. His books include The Story of Unity Theatre, Peggy (the award-winning biography of play agent Margaret Ramsay), Inside the Royal Shakespeare Company, Here We Stand: Politics and Performance, and Black and Asian Theatre in Britain: A History.

Sara Freeman is Professor of Theatre Arts at the University of Puget Sound, USA. She researches contemporary playwriting and alternative, political and feminist theatre. Her book Playwriting, Dramaturgy, and Space is part of the Cambridge series Elements in Contemporary Performance Texts. She is a series editor for Methuen Drama’s Student Editions, and past editor of the annual journal Theatre History Studies.

James Reynolds lectured in Drama at Kingston University, London, UK. His published books on theatre practice are Robert Lepage/Ex Machina: Revolutions in Theatrical Space, and the co-edited works Addiction and Performance, and Howard Barker's Theatre: Wrestling with Catastrophe. He is also a playwright and actor.