The new fourth edition of The Critical Survey of Drama contains over 650 new and updated essays-over 550 discuss individual dramatists and nearly 100 cover important overview topics that are critical to the study of drama as a whole. This new edition is newly arranged by World Region and essay type to further enhance its ability to help students and researchers expand their study of dramatists around the globe. This edition includes new coverage of contemporary playwrights who have recently come to be regarded as established figures in the theater-Jez Butterworth, Martin McDonough, Patrick Marber, Marshall Napier, Mark Ravenhill and N.F. Simpson-to name a few. In addition to the entirely new author profiles, many have been updated and revised to include the authors’ new works and achievements, new productions, publications, honors and awards, as well as personal developments. Bibliographies have also been updated and annotated. In addition, these updated essays provide analyses of significant new works.

Each dramatist essay provides such ready-reference material as birth and death dates, and a list of the author’s major dramatic works (with dates of first production and publication). Each essay opens with a brief survey of the author’s publications in literary forms other than drama, a summary of the writer’s professional achievements and awards, an extended biographical sketch that centers on the writer’s development as a dramatist, and an extensive critical analysis of the writer’s major dramatic works. Following this discussion is an annotated bibliography of critical works about the author.

Overview essays, which are arranged under broad subject headings in Volume 8, cover dramatic traditions in the United States, the British Isles, Europe, Africa, Asia, and other parts of the world, as well as various genres and techniques. The nearly 100 Overview Essays provide thoughtful insight into the study of African American Drama, American Regional Theater, Asian Drama, Australian Drama, Chinese Drama, Deaf Theater, Experimental Theater, Feminist Theater, French Drama Since the 1600’s, Irish Drama, LGBTQ Theater, Melodrama, Musical Drama, Native American Drama, Political Theater, Southeast Asian Drama and much more. The set also contains a listing of major dramatic awards, a time line of drama history, a glossary, and bibliography. Five helpful features can be found at the end of each volume: a Glossary; a Category List that groups authors by genre, country, gender, and ethnic identity; an Author Index that lists all authors covered in the set along with their works; a Title Index of all works covered in the set; and a Geographical List which groups the authors by country.