Theatre Histories: An Introduction

Phillip B. Zarrilli is Professor of Performance Practice in the Department of Drama at the University of Exeter. From 1976-1998 he was Professor of Theatre, Folklore, and South Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has also taught at U.C.L.A., Northwestern, N. Y. U. , and the University of Surrey. His books include Kathakali Dance-Drama: Where Gods and Demons Come to Play (Routledge 2000); "When the Body Becomes all Eyes": Paradigms, Practices, and Discourses of Power in Kalarippayattu, 2nd edn (Oxford University Press 2000); Acting (Re)Considered: Theories and Practices, 2nd edn (ed. Routledge 2002); Asian Martial Arts in Actor Training (ed. Madison 2003); Indian Theatre: Traditions of Performance (co-author; University of Hawaii Press 1990); Wilhelm Tell in America's Little Switzerland (co-author; Onalaska: Crescent Printing Company  1987); and The Kathakali Complex: Actor, Performance, Structure (New Delhi: Abhinav 1984).  He is internationally known for training actors using a psychophysical process combining yoga and Asian martial arts, and as a director. His productions of Samuel Beckett's plays in Los Angeles, Austria, and Ireland have won considerable critical acclaim.

Bruce McConachie is Chair of Theatre Arts at the University of Pittsburgh, where he also directs and performs.  He has published widely in American theatre history, theatre historiography, and performance and cognitive studies.  Some of his major books include: Interpreting the Theatrical Past (with Thomas Postlewait, University of Iowa Press, 1989), Melodramatic Formations: American Theatre and Society, 1820-1870 (University of Iowa Press 1992); American Theater in the Culture of the Cold War (University of Iowa Press, 2003); Performance and Cognition (with F. Elizabeth Hart, Routledge 2006); and Engaging Audiences: A Cognitive Approach to Spectating in the Theatre (Palgrave Macmillan 2008). Professor McConachie is also a former President of the American Society for Theatre Research.

Gary Jay Williams is Professor Emeritus, Department of Drama, The Catholic University of America in Washington D.C., where he directed productions and taught theatre history, theory, and Shakespeare in performance for 29 years. He is the author of Moonlight Revels: A Midsummer Night's Dream in the Theatre (University of Iowa Press 1997), winner of Theatre Library Association's George Freedley Award. He was the Editor of Theatre Survey, journal of the American Society for Theatre Research from 1995 to 2001, and is the author of over fifty articles in journals, encyclopedias, and anthologies. He was a professional New York critic and a professional actor.

Carol Fisher Sorgenfrei is Distinguished Professor of Theater and Performance Studies at U.C.L.A. She is a scholar, translator, playwright, and director focusing on Japanese, intercultural, and fusion theatre. She is the author of Unspeakable Acts: the Avant-Garde Theatre of Terayama Shuji and Postwar Japan (University of Hawaii Press 2005), as well as many articles in journals such as TDR, Theatre Journal, and Asian Theatre Journal, essays in books, play translations, and encyclopedia entries. Her fifteen original plays include the award-winning Medea: A No Cycle Based on the Greek Myth and the kabuki-flamenco Blood Wine, Blood Wedding. With Israeli director Zvika Serper, she created the internationally acclaimed Japanese-Israeli fusion play The Dybbuk: Between Two Worlds. She is currently a Research Fellow in the Institute for Theatre Studies at Berlin's Free University.