The first comprehensive study of Barker's critical and practical work on Shakespeare, setting it in the context of late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Shakespearean production. Illustrated.

Granville Barker on Theatre brings together some of the most important critical theatrical writings of Harley Granville Barker, a major figure of 20th-century British theatre. Known as a pioneer of the National Theatre and Repertory Movement, and remembered mainly for his Prefaces to Shakespeare, from the 1900s to his death in the 1940s Granville Barker commented enthusiastically in newspaper items, introductions to plays, articles, essays, articles, and published lectures on a range of topics: the nature of theatre as an art form and as a social medium, the need for ensemble playing in a repertory system, the relationship between the three chief constituents of theatre – the actor, the playwright and the audience. Granville Barker on Theatre makes available again these writings in which Barker dissects the state of theatre as he saw it, with coruscating critiques of the commercial system, the long run and censorship, the vitality of theatre outside Britain, and what he saw as the welcome renaissance of theatre in non-professional groups liberated from the profit motive. These writings show a master practitioner concerned with, above all, promoting a new type of drama; vital not only for its own sake but for the sake of the health of society at large.

Harley Granville Barker, the most influential theatre-maker of his time, finds himself adrift in America during the Great War. Estranged from the theatre, and with his spirit almost broken by an acrimonious divorce, he seeks refuge in the relative obscurity of a quiet, backwater, Williamstown, Massachusetts. He finds comfort in the congeniality of his fellow refugees and in the courtesy of strangers - and gradually begins to regain his faith in humanity and his belief in the central role of Theatre in the civilised community.

All four figures in this volume have been canonized as central to 'stage-centred' Shakespearean scholarship and stage practice. From William Poel's reproductions of early modern stages in the late nineteenth century to Sam Wanamaker's reconstruction of the Globe on London's South Bank, they all viewed Shakespeare's plays as being enmeshed in the social and historical dynamics of theatremaking and theatregoing. The volume considers how their attempts to recapture early modern performance conditions can be considered progressive.

The plays of María Martínez Sierra were popular in Spain, South America and in translation on Broadway and London's West End in the first half of the 20th century but they were thought to be written by her husband, the celebrated director and playwright Gregorio Martínez Sierra. After his death, the authorship of his work was revealed to be that of María, making her one of the most important playwrights of her time. This edited collection features three plays by María Martínez Sierra, translated by Helen and Harley Granville-Barker, along with an introduction by Patricia O'Connor, University of Cincinnati, US, which examines María's extraordinary life and work, and the battle for her authorship to be recognized in both the Spanish-speaking and anglophone world. This volume focuses on plays centred on strong women; and each is translated by the eminent man of theatre Harley Granville-Barker and his wife, Helen, whose own story holds stark parallels to Maria's in terms of authorship. The collection is edited by playwright Richard Nelson and Professor Colin Chambers, who contribute an essay on the translation work of the Granville-Barkers. The plays are: The Kingdom of God (1928); The Romantic Young Lady (1920) and Take Two From One (1931). María Martínez Sierra: A Great Playwright Hidden in Plain Sight recognizes María de la O Lejárraga García, to use her birth name, as one of the most important female playwrights, not just in Spain, but globally, in the first half of the 20th century.