Covering nearly 225 years, this volume tries to capture a broad spectrum of the situation of women performers from Gerasim Lebedeff's time (1795), who are considered to be the first performers in modern Bengali theatre, to today's time. The moot question is whether the role of women as performers evolved down the centuries. Whether this question will lead us to their subjugation to their male counterparts, producers, and directors has been explored here to give readers an understanding of when, where, by whom the politics began, and, by tracing the footprints, we have tried to understand if the politics has changed, or remains unchanged, or metamorphosed with regard to the woman's question in the performance discourse. We have explored, in this regard, how her body, mind, and sexuality interacted with and negotiated the phallocentric hierarchy. The essays included are on (i) Baiji/Tawaif culture in eastern and western Bengal; (ii) prostitute/'fallen' women/ patita, beshya performers; (iii) IPTA and the Naxalbari movement; (iv) group and commercial/professional theatre of Kolkata; (v) women's position in the theatre of Bangladesh; (vi) Cabaret (with an interview with Miss Shefali) (vii) Jatra; (viii) Baul tradition. (ix) Besides, there are chapters on English, Anglo-Indian, Jew, Nachni performers and the illustrious dancer Amala Shankar, and film-music-dance in general.

Theatres of India, edited by Professor Ananda Lal, is a comprehensive and accessible guide to theatre in India. The volume surveys both rural and urban modes of Indian theatre across its history of over 2000 years. The first section brings together entries that discuss theatres of India's linguistic regions. The second section includes entries on specific forms and genres, as well as on topics such as street theatre, music, and Tagore's dramatic oeuvre. The book avoids both the Western scholarship's obsession with traditional Asian forms of performance, as well as Indian city-based theatre workers' view that traditional forms do not even qualify as 'theatre'. 'Theatre' in this volume is defined as any form that contains theatre's fundamental element, acting. Importantly, the entries are accompanied by photographs of performances that allow us to view the 'visual-ness' of India's performance forms. In keeping with the highest standards of international reference publishing, Ananda Lal has compiled and edited material from several contributors so that each entry allows us to tap individual documentation and knowledge. Also included in this pioneering, authoritative, and collective resource are short bibliographies for every entry on the regional theatres. Theatres of India will be useful for general readers, theatre professionals, as well as students and researchers of theatre and performance studies.