Introduction to Theatre
Online Course
Dr. Eric W. Trumbull, Professor, Theatre/Speech
A note on the textbook and its relationship to these "lectures":
Textbook: REQUIRED TEXT
The required textbook for this course is: Edwin Wilson and Alvin Goldfarb Theater: The Lively Art, 6th Edition (McGraw-Hill) ISBN-139780073514116 (or go HERE for the text's Resource Page)
(you may use the earlier 5th edition if that is all you can get)...
The textbook and this online material are intended to supplement each other, NOT to duplicate each other. My "lectures" will most often veer far away from the textbook material; similarly, the textbook will often discuss information and/or issues that I do not.
There is valuable information to be had from both textbook and online material, and you are responsible for reading all of both of them.
Exams and assignments will be based on BOTH sources of material.
These "lectures" are sometimes fairly free-form; a combination of sentences with ideas in phrases; some of it is outlined, some is not. I hope you will let me know if there is anything unclear, confusing, or that you do not understand.
The best way to do that is to e-mail me.
Or, of course, you can contact me directly by phone.
This class on the web is still a work in progress; there are bound to be some problems as I, and you, work through the "lectures," links, assignments, and readings.
Please try to have some patience if you discover problems. Let me know as soon as you can and I will try to address them quickly.
I will be updating these pages as needed, but I will have the correct revision date at the bottom of each page.
Break a leg!!
A note about navigating through these pages:
MOST of the links from these pages will open up a new window in your browser; the class page you linked from should should still be on your computer. Therefore, in many cases, the "back" button will not work to get you back to the class page; instead, you will need to either:
1) exit from the current window (the one without the "back" button activated) by clicking on the "X" in the upper right-hand corner, or by clicking on "file" and "exit"; or
2) pressing "ALT-TAB" to switch from one task to another (in this case, from one browser window to another--remember, you may find yourself bringing up another active program, and to get back to the browser you need to move the cursor to one of the browser icons...)
The links from one class page to another class page should not bring up a new window, so your "back" button should work fine...
Important consideration about the sources from which I got the information in these "lectures":
I have been teaching this class on and off for more than 25 years and have gathered much information from various sources, so much so that I fear I cannot specify exactly where I got certain pieces of information. Whenever possible, I have tried to give proper credit / citations for material that I know came from sources that I can identify.
In many cases, I have probably used information found in textbooks and other materials I was using in my classes; those sources are not cited specifically, as I am unable to recall what came from where.
I am aware that I have drawn heavily on at least the following sources: