Introduction

The World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theatre is essentially a piece of cultural cartography — the first attempt to create a truly intercultural and non-colonial world map of theatrical activity. It has tried to avoid value judgements (although that is impossible) in its quest to identify and articulate the theatrical and the performative world-wide. The period covered has essentially been the second half of the twentieth century but in many instances the material ranges much further back in time in an effort to allow the contemporary theatre researcher to draw on related materials giving deeper insight into the period under examination. This particular volume — a bibliography of world theatre and cumulative index — becomes to the five preceding regional volumes a compass of sorts identifying in a somewhat more scientific way specific theatrical rivers and mountains within each land and, on occasion, major roads and topographical landmarks.