Dramaturgy: A Revolution in Theatre is a substantial history of the origins of dramaturgs and literary managers. It frames the explosion of professional appointments in England within a wider continental map reaching back to the Enlightenment and eighteenth-century Germany, examining the work of the major theorists and practitioners of dramaturgy, from Granville Barker and Gotthold Lessing to Brecht and Tynan. This study positions Brecht's model of dramaturgy as central to the worldwide revolution in theatre-making practices, and it also makes a substantial argument for Granville Barker's and Tynan's contributions to the development of literary management. With the territories of play and performance-making being increasingly hotly contested, and the public's appetite for new plays showing no sign of diminishing, Mary Luckhurst investigates the dramaturg as a cultural and political phenomenon.

Mary Luckhurst is Senior Lecturer in Drama at the University of York. Her publications include On Directing, On Acting and The Drama Handbook (with John Lennard), and she has co-edited Theatre and Celebrity in Britain 1660-2000. Her current projects include editing Blackwell's Companion to Twentieth-Century British and Irish Drama, Blackwell's Companion to Contemporary Theatre, and a book on Caryl Churchill. She has written numerous articles on contemporary theatre for journals such as Contemporary Theatre Review. In addition to her academic research, Mary Luckhurst is also a playwright, dramaturg and director, and has most recently directed Caryl Churchill's Far Away at the York Theatre Royal.