The first in-depth study of theatre's relationship to the public sphere in a wide range of cultural and historical contexts.

Christopher B. Balme holds the chair in theatre studies at Universität Munchen. He was born and educated in New Zealand where he graduated from the University of Otago. He has lived and worked in Germany since 1985 with positions at the universities of Würzburg, Munich and Mainz. From 2004 to 2006 he held the chair in theatre studies at the Universiteit van Amsterdam. He has published widely on German theatre, intercultural theatre, and theatre and other media, and is currently president of the IFTR (International Federation for Theatre Research). He is also a former Senior Editor of Theatre Research International. Recent publications include Decolonizing the Stage (1999), Pacific Performances (2007) and The Cambridge Introduction to Theatre Studies (2008). He directs the research project 'Global Theatre Histories' at Universität Munchen.

Introduction; 1. Locating the theatrical public sphere; 2. Reciprocal articulations: from playbills to blogs; 3. Openings and closures: puritans and the pilloried stage; 4. The prophet on stage: theatre, religion and the transnational public sphere; 5. Thresholds of tolerance and the publicity of scandal; 6. Distributed aesthetics and the global public sphere.