This unique three-volume history covers all aspects of American theatre from plays and playwrights, through actors and acting, to theatre groups and directors. Each volume includes an extensive overview and timeline followed by chapters on specific aspects of American theatre including vaudeville and popular entertainment, European influences, theatre in and beyond New York, the rise of the Little Theatre movement, reception, modernism, scenography, stagecraft, and architecture. Volume I covers American theatre from its beginnings to the Civil War; Volume II covers the post-Civil War period to 1945; Volume III covers the period post-World War II to the 1990s.