Book Review – The Amercan Theatre Reader

In celebration of American Theatre’s twenty-fifth anniversary, the editors of the nation’s leading theater magazine have chosen their best essays and interviews to provide an intimate look at the people, plays, and events that have shaped the American theater over the past quarter-century. Over two hundred artists, critics, and theater professionals are gathered in this one-of-a-kind collection, from the visionaries who conceived of a diverse and thriving national theater community, to the practitioners who have made that dream a reality. The American Theatre Reader captures their wideanging stories in a single compelling volume, essential reading for theater professionals and theatergoers alike.

The American Theatre Reader is a compilation of the best essays and interviews from the magazine’s history. It is an intimate look at the people, plays, and events that have shaped American theatre over the past twenty-five years. This one-of-a-kind collection includes more than a hundred artists, critics, and theatre professionals, from the visionaries who conceived of a diverse and thriving national theatre community to the practitioners who have made that dream a reality. The American Theatre Reader captures their wideanging stories in a single compelling volume, essential reading for theatre professionals and theatergoers alike.

My Take On This Book

As a theatre major and one who loves everything to do with the theatre, this was a great book, and would be a great gift for anyone who like me appreciates the Theatre. As I do not receive the American Theatre Magazine, this book provided me a window to the profession that I do not get working in Higher Education or in watching the Tony Awards or in watching a great on-stage production.

This book is a huge treasure trove of theatre material that any theatre enthusiast will enjoy. It will keep any reader enthralled for days with over 600 pages of essays directly related to the field/profession itself.

I have to be honest and say that I would not have liked to have been the editor who had to choose which essays were worthy of such a compilation. Yet, the person or people who did put this together did a wonderful job at providing the reader with a cross reference of the profession with conversations and essays with the like of August Wilson, Hal Prince, José Rivera, Sam Shepard, Stephen Sondheim, and Arthur Miller to name but a few.

So I encourage all of you Theatre lovers to consider this book for yourself or as a gift for someone else this holiday season. The book retails for $24.95 and are exclusively distributed to the book trade by Consortium Book Sales and Distribution. Orders: 800-283-3572. SAN number: 63170X. Individuals may call 212-609-5900 or visit our online bookstore at http://www.tcg.org/. For postage and handling, please add $5.00 for the first book and $.50 for each additional copy. I will also say that I found some other copies at both Amazon and Half.com.

If you are interested in seeing some of the covers of the last 25 years of American Theatre Magazine, the American Theatre Guild has posted them for all to see.

The featured product in this post was provided to me free of charge by the author. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and not influenced in any way by the company. Please refer to this site’s Terms of Use for more information.

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