title: The Terrain of Comedy (Studies in Genre)
author: Louise Cowan (Editor)
description: Louise Cowan (Ph.D. 1953, Vanderbilt) received the Charles Frankel Award in 1991 for her work in advancing the study of the humanities as Professor of Literature and Graduate Dean at the University of Dallas and later Director of Education at the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture.
zlib_text: THE CRAFT OF COMEDY
  “a work on the art and craft of comedy as important in
  its own way as works by Stanislavski and Chekhov”
  —Oxford Theatre Companion
  In 1939, a young, inexperienced actor wrote to a famous actress
  of his acquaintance, asking for advice on playing comedy. She
  responded enthusiastically, and they corresponded variously over
  the next year. The Craft of Comedy, a record of these exchanges,
  soon emerged as one of the few classic texts in the ﬁeld of comedy
  acting.
  This major new edition takes a brilliant book and makes it
  better. Editor Robert Barton has devised extensive supplementary
  material, including:
  •
  an introduction to the correspondents, the culture of the time,
  and the evolution of their book;
  •
  summaries, deﬁnitions, and exercises and practice scenes for
  readers wishing to explore Athene Seyler’s invaluable advice;
  •
  photographs, additional essays by Seyler, and a guide to easily
  accessed video clips of her performing.
  Seyler’s lucid guidance, and Barton’s scrup