Book excerpt: This introductory text acquaints students with the theatre-its artistic and social functions, its development, and how each of the theatre arts functions as a unit. In the thirty-five years since it was first published, THE ESSENTIAL THEATRE has established a reputation as one of the most comprehensive, authoritative surveys of the theatre in academia. THE ESSENTIAL THEATRE works in tandem with its companion anthology, PLAYS FOR THE THEATRE (7/e), edited by Oscar G. Brockett with Robert Ball. The scripts in PLAYS serve as the foundation for discussion of the various types of theatrical experience explored in THE ESSENTIAL THEATRE.