This book surveys the professional theatre in the United States from the be-
ginning to the present. It aims to tell the story of our theatre primarily
through contemporary accounts and to interpret that story by commentary
which places and amplifies the eyewitness accounts and picks out patterns of
change in the drama, acting, scenery, lighting, costuming, theatre building,
audience, organization, and operation. It is not a chronological history, or
annals; it does not aim to include mention of all the plays, persons, and
theatres which have played a part in nearly three and a half centuries of
theatre in this country.

This account consists of roughly three-quarters source material and one-
quarter commentary and continuity. Most of the selections are reviews of
performances, but they include also descriptions of other important events
such as the Astor Place Riot and the Iroquois Theatre fire. Before 1800,
contemporary accounts are few. Consequently I have included the long selec-
tion from Lewis Hallam's story of the Comedians from London as reported
by Charles Durang. Thereafter, the selections are briefer, and I have tried to
choose from the continually increasing quantity of material the most significant
and the most vivid. In the later years, the selections provide a sampling of the
work of the drama critics, but the event rather than the reporter has been the
chief basis for inclusion.

A numbered, annotated bibliography, The Selections and Their Authors,
appears in the back of the book. It is arranged by chapters, and the selections
in the text are keyed to it by superfigures. A second bibliography, For Further
Reading, follows the first.

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