Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies
About the Book Series
This series is our home for cutting-edge, upper-level scholarly studies and edited collections. Considering theatre and performance alongside topics such as religion, politics, gender, race, ecology, and the avant-garde, titles are characterized by dynamic interventions into established subjects and innovative studies on emerging topics.
Chekhov, The Anxious Playwright: His Four Great Plays in Their Cultural Context
1st Edition
By Jim Curtis
December 24, 2025
This book provides an in-depth analysis of the writer’s four great plays: The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, The Three Sisters, and The Cherry Orchard in their cultural context. This book explores how Chekhov’s historical situation as a non-aristocratic writer gave him an intense awareness of his ...
Kierkegaard and the Performatics of Philosophy
1st Edition
By Leo Cabranes-Grant
December 08, 2025
This groundbreaking work explores Søren Kierkegaard as a pioneering figure in performance theory, revealing how his philosophical approach anticipated contemporary performance studies concepts. The book examines Kierkegaard's use of pseudonyms and dialectical discourse to create a performative ...
Dancing Chineseness and Techno-Choreography
1st Edition
By Zhi Xu
December 01, 2025
This book delves into the embodiment of Chineseness in digital performance, utilising the innovative methodology of ‘techno-choreography.’ The research critically examines professionally trained dancing bodies in Chinese dance from the vantage point of cultural transexperience. It offers profound ...
Theatre and Revolution: Global Perspectives on Performance
1st Edition
Edited
By Logan J. Connors, Lillian Manzor, Emily Sahakian
December 01, 2025
Theater and Revolution explores the dynamic and complex relationship between theatrical expression and revolutionary movements across diverse historical and cultural landscapes. This illuminating volume examines the intricate connections between theater and revolution through a global lens, ...
Directorless Shakespeare: Transformations through collective Embodied Literary Criticism
1st Edition
By Elena M. Pellone
November 17, 2025
Challenging received scholarship on the practice of Shakespeare’s theatre, this book displaces a contemporary cultural bias towards leadership models to reconsider possibilities of working in a non-hierarchical and inclusive creative theatrical practice. It offers ways of restoring to actors a ...
Theatre and Media for Social Change in Malawi
1st Edition
Edited
By Zindaba Chisiza
November 14, 2025
Theatre and Media for Social Change in Malawi examines contemporary participatory theatre and media as instruments for social transformation across multiple domains, including education, prisoner rehabilitation, gender equality, mental health support, and climate action. This book explores ...
In Search of the Performer’s Way: Jerzy Grotowski in Dialogue with Daoism
1st Edition
By Jong Hyuk Song
November 07, 2025
This original study reexamines Grotowski’s work through a fresh perspective rooted in the ancient Eastern philosophy of Daoism. Moving beyond the limitations of existing scholarship, the author reveals how Daoist principles shed new light on Grotowski’s innovations. By contextualizing Daoism within...
Tracing the Soul, Choreographing Transgression in Flamenco and Tauromaquia: Dance and Ritual in Contemporary Spain
1st Edition
By Miriana M. Lausic Arratia
November 07, 2025
This book analyzes gesture, ritual, and performance in flamenco and tauromaquia - the extended definition of bullfighting within the visual arts and poetry - in contemporary Spain. Based on the author's extensive ethnographic field research, it emerges from recent critical thinking on the body in ...
Western Drama Confronts Selfish Humanity: Dramatic Altruisms
1st Edition
By William W. Demastes
October 24, 2025
This book offers a timely exploration of how Western theatre has consistently challenged the notion that human nature is fundamentally selfish. Through millennia of dramatic works, the theatre has served as a vital platform for examining the complex interplay between selfish and selfless behavior, ...
Being Black and British: Before, During and After Drama School
1st Edition
Edited
By Dermot Daly
September 22, 2025
Being Black and British: Before, During and After Drama School is about being Black, being British and being an actor before, during and after training. Written by Black writers working in and around the British performative industries, this book offers practical and theoretical tools to take into ...
Shakespeare's 'Method' for Actors: As Revealed in The First Folio 1623
1st Edition
By Christine Ozanne
September 22, 2025
By using only the First Folio text, this book acts as an original guide to performing Shakespeare’s plays. This book is the accumulation of the many Clues from the First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays (as opposed to any edited version) that help to inform contemporary performances and offers a ...
Temporary Stages III: How High School Theatre Fosters Spiritual Strength and Critical Consciousness
1st Edition
By Jo Beth Gonzalez
September 01, 2025
Theatre activities ask adolescents to empathize with those who are different from themselves. Recognizing divergence invites self-reflection and kindles compassion. These actions tap students’ inner cores while at the same time deepening their understanding of privilege, a key component of critical...