A history of the theatre?

[Hermes]

Sorry for a really vague, and random, question, but can anyone recommend any general history of theatre, and its development/popularity? I'm really deficient in this, and would really appreciate it.

[Sasha]

there are no english language books that i could recoment but as an former theater education student ill have a small dig around online for you. if you have any question dont be afraid to ask, i would be happy to answer them. :)

[Sasha]

the wikipedia is actually pretty decent for a general rundown though you will easily get distracted by the sheer number of sublinks and all the other stuff: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_theatre

sadly this article is still a work in progress as so far its looking pretty decent, there are bits missing, it rather abruptly ends in 18somuch and its very westerncentric but still acceptable; http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?groupid=1688&HistoryID=ab35&gtrack=pthc
maybe read this first and fill in the missing bits from wikipedia?

[Arlekino]

I am big fan of theatre I did not visit much now but in Soviet Times I spend most of my times in theatres, I do watch online which available in Russian are plenty to choose for me so I am lucky about that

[Thirsty Crow]

I'd strongly recommend you read Siegfried Melchinger's History of Political Theatre.

[Sasha]

@ arlekino, if your anywhere near London go and see this is January, just went to it and it really blew my away: http://jakopahlbom.nl/theater/?page_id=2005&lang=en