The theatre an introduction is a book by Oscar G. Brockett. It is a seven hundred and forty two; fourth edition book that was published by Holt Rinehart and Winston in the year 1979. It is a book about theatre and art that explains its history, basic elements, and status in America. The book does not actually have an introduction but contains a preface that serves right as the actual introduction to the book. The book has been divided into three parts and the parts further divided into more chapters. Part one of the book has three chapters. Part one discusses the theoretical foundations plus the fundamental problems of theatre and arts. The second part has thirteen chapters that discuss the history and development of theatre together with drama and the third part, which is divided into eight chapters that discuss the status of theatre arts in the America. The book has a very long index of about twenty-two pages at the back. It has a lot of bibliographies and references, which are all books and no other source.
This book is a very long book with a lot of words and very few photographs, diagrams, and illustrations. This is not a very good feature for a book as lots of words become very tiring when reading and photographs, diagrams, and illustrations are important as they help build up a clear picture of what the author is trying to explain and the same time provide short breaks from reading that break the monotony of constant reading. Another undesirable feature, seen in the book is the long index. An index is a part of a book that contains words together with their meanings. These are usually words used throughout the whole text and include alphabetically arranged specific information or words that are mostly vocabulary. This is undesirable because too much of them may make the book hard to comprehend. It would require one to constantly look at the back to understand the meaning of words used in the text. This is hard and at the same time very much time consuming. The book also has twenty pages full of bibliographies at the back of the book of, which are only books. This is critical because referring to the sources behind the book would be twice as hard since they are too many.
According to reviews of the book, it is a very good book whose content contributes a lot to theatre and arts with a lot of background information about the subject but it is disadvantaged by the way it has been written, arranged, and organised. The book is very long, deep with few illustrations, pictures, and diagrams. It is therefore not ideal for an introductory class. This is because it would not be enticing enough to capture the interest of many students. Many vocabulary words used in it, many chapters, and very little description would make the subject theatre and art seem like a very hard subject to take since the book is tiring and very boring yet the actual content of the book might be good and important but locked in hard words and many pages of the book. An introductory class requires something fun and enjoyable, something easy and understandable, and something that will be attractive to students and it would create a good attitude in them to like and enjoy the subject.
A book can lock information by how it is structured. This book has very many pages but has only been divided into three sections. A book this big should have more sections. These sections would help break down the book into smaller manageable and easy to understand sections. It is a good book but not suitable for an introductory class. It has many hard vocabularies words evident by the size of the index at the back. An introductory class needs easy words that can easily be understood. The words should be simple enough for readers to go through fast and understand the text. The book also has few illustrations, pictures, and diagrams. Illustrations, pictures, and diagrams are very important: they stick more in the mind making it hard to forget about. In addition, they also help by the fact that they speak much more than actual words do. A single picture can explain more than several chapters of the book. Ironically, this is a theatre and arts book but it has few pictures and illustrations in it. They also help by providing breaks during reading therefore breaking the monotony of constant reading. This is helpful as reading becomes less boring and tiring and provides an opportunity for imagination.
The book is therefore ideal for seeking information as it has a lot of content and information but would not be appropriate for an introductory class. It would be very tiring and boring for the class. The size in terms of pages would discourage the students and they would end up forming attitudes towards the subject. The vocabulary would slow the pace of comprehension and the lack of illustrations, pictures, and diagrams would make the class bored.
Works Cited
Brockett, Oscar G.. The theatre, an introduction. 4 ed. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1979. Print.
