Centre For Excellence in Participatory Theatre Library: Theatre History & Styles

Verbatim Theatre: Oral History and Documentary Techniques

This is an excellent description of social documentary theatre, explaining how the form works and its historical roots. Helpful for contemporary practitioners to better understand the form and see its applications. Derek Paget, 1987

Other Theatres: The Development of Alternative and Experimental Theatre in Britain

This classic book discusses the development of political theatre in the UK since Shakespeare with chapters on post 1960s political and community theatre. Andrew Davies, 1987

Community Art and the State: Storming the Citadels

A classic book that charts the growth of the community arts movement in the UK, its political context and its role in cultural activism. Reissued recently as a free e-book, a useful provocation for contemporary practitioners. Owen Kelly, 1984

Engineers of the Imagination

This book introduces the work of Welfare State International and sets it in context, as well as giving practical guides and techniques for making lanterns, puppets and other ingredients for a WSI spectacle. Tony Coult and Baz Kershaw, 1983

A Good Night Out: Popular Theatre: Audience, Class and Form

John McGrath’s manifesto for Popular Theatre, describing what he believed theatre can achieve when it is taken out of traditional theatre buildings and engages with communities; and how 7:84 achieved this. John McGrath, 1981