Shakespeare: The Globe and the World by S. Schoenbaum, and: Gay Theatre Alliance Directory of Gay Plays ed. by Terry Helbing, and: Just Play: Beckett’s Theatre by Ruby Cohn, and: The End of the World by Maurice Valency, and: The Theatre of Black Americans (Volume I). Roots & Rituals/The Image Makers ed. by Errol Hill, and: The Theatre of Black Americans (Volume 11). The Presenters/The Participators ed. by Errol Hill, and: Actors on Acting ed. by Toby Cole and Helen Krich Chinoy, and: The Dance Makers: Conversations with American Choreographers by Elinor Rogosin, and: Kabuki Encyclopedia. An English-Language Adaptation of Kabuki Jiten by Samuel L. Leiter, and: Horváth: A Study by Ian Huish (review)

books and com _ Shakespeare: The Globe and the World. S. Schoenbaum. Folger Shakespeare Library/Oxford University Press, 208 pp., $24.95 (cloth); $9.95 (paper). Published as the catalogue for a touring exhibition of the same name, this beautiful book is comprised of illustrations culled from the extraordinary collection of the Folger, and Schoenbaum's text. The predominant sections of the book are listed under the chapter headings of "The Stratford Years" and "The London Years," with other chapters acknowledging the many Shakespearean productions throughout the ages. Shakespeare is chockfull of memorabilia (more than 150 color illustrations) reproduced from the Folger: period maps, books, watercolors, miniatures, early play editions, posters, legal documents, and the like. The accompanying commentary gives an excellent overview and introduction to Shakespeare and his worldview . Bonnie Marranca Gay Theatre Alliance Directory of Gay Plays. Compiled and Edited by Terry Helbing. JH Press, 122 pp., $5.95 (paper). This directory lists approximately 400 plays which have "gayness or gay people (male and female) as their main, primary, or at least very important focus, theme or concern," according to the editor's introduction. Terry Helbing has traced his subject all the way from Marlowe to the present, with the majority of the listings American. As always in bibliographies, entries are open to question. While Martin Sherman's Bent and Harvey Fierstein 's recent work are clearly "gay" plays, there are those, including myself, who would challenge the editor's inclusion of Maria Irene Fornes's Fefu and Her Friends, David Rabe's Streamers and Albert Innaurato's Gemini though each has gay characters among its cast. Nonetheless, for those theatre companies and individuals looking for gay plays, this directory is the best place to start the search. BGM Just Play: Beckett's Theatre. Ruby Cohn. Princeton University Press, 313 pp., $18.50 (cloth). Ruby Cohn's latest Beckett book-her fourth-is full of the kind of impacted wisdom that one has come to expect from this close and sympathetic observor of Beckett's theatre. In this volume Cohn focuses on the different strategies of "play" found in the earliest and least known texts like 132 Human Wishes (1937) and Eleutheria (1947) through the major middle works like Godot and up to the spare minimalist pieces of the '70's like Footfalls. Cohn's familiarity with all of Beckett's works accounts for the endless cataloging of effects she deciphers in the texts. Her personal status as a Beckett intimate make her chapters on the staging of the plays by the playwright himself as well as other directors well-rounded. At times, her thesis that the plays, television and film projects, and fictions adapted to the stage are versions of "just play" seems overly wrought and difficult to penetrate. Cohn demands that we stay with her throughout and discover along with her the widest ramifications of this phrase. A book mainly for Beckett initiates,Just Play looks at Beckett's world as one of performance. Michael Earley The End of the World. Maurice Valency. Oxford University Press, 469 pp., $19.95 (cloth). The subject of this "introduction to contemporary drama" is what Valency chooses to call Symbolism. To him it is the animating force behind modern drama (particularly French drama) from the turn-of-the-century to the present . Its roots lie, as we all know, with Mallarme and Maeterlink. But Valency finds Symbolism as an operative term in the works of Pirandello, Giraudoux, Artaud, lonesco, and Beckett. For the author, Cubism, Surrealism and, in fact, modernism itself are merely offshoots of the movement that sought to discredit the whole illusion of Realism. Valency's status as a commentator on the traditional roots of modern drama goes without saying . His knowledge of literary history is clearly inexhaustable. But since so much of this study places heavy emphasis on the Realism/Symbolism dichotomy, the study of individual playwrights wears a little thin after a while. For most of us today, the anti-mimetic gestures of these writers goes without saying. While Valency really offers nothing new in terms of commentary on all these writers, the urgent and sometimes apocalyptic tone of this book make it a fascinating work...