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  • Introduction

  • Steve Tillis, Saint Mary's College of California
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Guide to World Theatre History
    Published online:
    20 February 2026
    Print publication:
    05 March 2026, pp 1-26
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  • Summary

    This Introduction begins by exposing the fallacies of what it calls the Standard Western Approach to theatre history: an inveterate Eurocentrism; a false dichotomy drawn between “East” and “West” that allows for the trivialization or dismissal of “Eastern” theatre as a single alien entity; and a progressivist thesis that holds that the “West” alone has shown true historical progress. It continues by showing how the perspectives offered by world historians can be applied to theatre history, then offers a definition of “dramatic theatre” that focuses on the enactment of characters in a narrative that is not really occurring at the time and place of the performance but in which an audience assents to engage imaginatively. It then looks to the emergence of individual theatre forms as a means of identifying the major inflection points (and periods) of world theatre history.