Erika Fischer-Lichte''s introduction to the discipline of Theatre and Performance Studies is a strikingly authoritative and wide ranging guide to the study of theatre in all of its forms. Its three-part structure moves from the first steps in starting to think about performance, through to the diverse and interrelated concerns required of higher-level study:
Part 1 - Central Concepts for Theatre and Performance Research - introduces the language and key ideas that are used to discuss and think about theatre: concepts of performance; the emergence of meaning; and the theatrical event as an experience shared by actors and spectators. Part 1 contextualizes these concepts by tracing the history of Theatre and Performance Studies as a discipline.
Part 2 - Fields, Theories and Methods - looks at how to analyse a performance and how to conduct theatre-historiographical research. This section is concerned with the ''doing'' of Theatre and Performance