The Philosophy of Theatre, Drama and Acting

These astute philosophical reflections ranging over theatre, drama, and acting show just how much current mainstream aesthetics has missed in largely bypassing these topics. The historical section shows that this neglect has not always been in place and the contemporary contributions offer the promise of exciting new lines of thought to explore.  -- Peter Lamarque, Professor of Philosophy, University of York
A watershed collection of essays.  Theatre, drama, and acting are some of the oldest subjects in the history of philosophy, but until very recently such inquiries had long gone dormant.  In bringing together the work of these pioneering contemporary philosophers and theatre theorists, Stern's volume reinvigorates the philosophical study of theatre and demonstrates its relevance to scholarship today.  Philosophers, theatre artists, and theatre scholars, those new to the field and those already deeply immersed in it, will all be enriched by what they find in these pages. -- David Kornhaber, Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Texas at Austin and author of The Birth of Theater from the Spirit of Philosophy: Nietzsche and the Modern Drama