Books by John L. Styan

This book was originally published in 1965. Professor Styan examines what a play is and discusses such topics as the development of the theatre - its different stages, kinds of drama and types of character - the tone and tempo in which the play is written, the roles of actor and audience and the structure and interplay of plot and subplot.

Max Reinhardt (1873 -1943), one of the major theatre figures of the twentieth century, was among the first to establish the importance of the director in modern theatre. In this book Professor Styan is concerned to illustrate Reinhardt's astonishing versatility as director of more than six hundred productions.

This is an introduction to the drama, singling out and discussing its various elements, such as 'theatrical' standards and a literary understanding on different plays and authors. This is an ideal introduction to the art of the theatre for the general reader and the student of literature.

This book shows how a play 'works' in the theatre: how it generates life, meaning and excitement on the stage for the audience. It is self evident that a play must communicate or it is not a play at all.

This book was first published in 1981. The theories of Wagner and Nietzsche provide the basic principles for this volume, disseminated by the work of Appia and Craig, and affecting the later plays of Ibsen, Maeterlinck, and Lugne-Poe's Theatre de Le'Oeuvre.

Critics of Shakespeare have tended to stress that his plays are poetic structures embodying themes. Professor Styan sees the plays as a series of stage effects planned with great art so as to enrich, reinforce and modify each other. They were written for acting, in a theatre of a particular type.