The Oxford Companion to Theatre and Performance is a concise adaptation of the celebrated Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance, covering styles and movements, buildings, organizations, regions and traditions, and in particular, a strong focus upon biographies of actors, playwrights, directors, designers, and critics. New entries have been added to those originating from its predecessor, concentrating on companies and people who have come into prominence since the publication of the Encyclopedia.

The Companion includes all the most popular and accessible information originating from the Encyclopedia, concentrating primarily on the personalities involved in producing threatre, as well as overviews of the genres within which they work. It has 2,000 entries, almost half of its predecessor, contained in a far more compact and portable format. The timeline of historical and cultural events in the world of theatre and performance has been significantly updated, and an appendix of useful weblinks added, which is supported and accessible through a companion website.

The Companion provides an informative and accessible package aimed at both the theatre-going public as at specialists and professionals in the field.

Edited by Dennis Kennedy , Beckett Professor of Drama Emeritus, Trinity College, Dublin

Dennis Kennedy is Beckett Professor of Drama Emeritus at Trinity College, Dublin. His books include The Spectator and the Spectacle (CUP, 2009), Looking at Shakespeare: a visual history of twentieth-century performance (CUP, 1993, 2nd edn 2001), Foreign Shakespeare (CUP, 1993), Shakespeare in Asia (CUP, 2010), and Granville Barker and the Dream of Theatre (CUP, 1985). He is also a professional director and playwright. He has held distinguished visiting professorships at the University of California, the Chinese Central Academy of Drama in Beijing, the National University of Singapore, the Salzburg Seminar, McMaster University, the University of Victoria, and the University of Wisconsin, and was Senior Fulbright Lecturer at the University of Karachi in Pakistan.