The so-called ‘theatrical revolution’ of the mid-eighteenth-century is generally hailed as the turning point in the history of English acting patterns, writing styles and playhouse management. As with any revolution, its origins and development have been described by leading participants from the viewpoint of the victor. It is a story of the pioneering labours of such figures as David Garrick and Charles Macklin rendering new performances, of old plays being reset and recast, of puffing up the pride and the prestige of the profession of actors and actresses. In true revolutionary manner, the accumulated weight of tradition which had borne down so heavily on individual talents, narrowing and stifling them, was cast aside. Under the banner of‘realism’ (in some accounts ‘naturalism’), a new generation of actors breathed life into dusty theatres and threw down the challenge of novelty: new styles, new acting manuals, new forms of expression, new representations on stage.

It is difficult to deal with all the ideas and concepts of a man whose writings span a period of some forty years and which are contained within some twenty-one essays. But the time spent on even a cursory exploration into some of the most important ideas presented in Zeami's later essays is most rewarding to anyone interested in theatre, for they are unique in pointing to the nucleus of his concepts on acting and performance based on his own experience and deep insights as a thinker, actor, director and playwright.

Japanese nō is a complex theatrical form, as most Japanese including nō performers themselves will often say. The nō performer must undergo years of training before he will be recognized as an ‘adult’ among other nō performers. But this feature in itself is common to many other performing art forms throughout the world. In terms of pure performing technique, in fact, the physical demands of nō are probably not as great as many other Asian genres – such as kathakali, for example, which demands extensive training to master its complex eye, face and hand techniques, or Peking opera, which requires an often highly acrobatic body control of its performers.

Kasuga Wakamiya no On-matsuri (hereafter referred to as On-matsuri) is a giant annual festival which has taken place for almost 850 years. Nara, the first permanent capital of Japan between 710 and 794 A.D., abounds in ancient rituals and festivals even to the present day; On-matsuri is the largest of these, attracting both local people and visitors from throughout Japan. On-matsuri is known particularly for its wealth of ancient Japanese performing arts such as kagura, bugaku, sēnō, dengaku, sarugaku, and nō, as well as for the ritualistic events of Shintoism, the polytheistic religion indigenous to Japan.

Nikolai Nikolaevich Evreinov (1879–1953) has never been accorded his due credit as one of the most original thinkers and practitioners of modern European theatre. The absence of a rigorous and extensive appraisal of Evreinov's vast creative output has undoubtedly blinded otherwise well-informed critics to the seminal importance of his ideas on the essence of theatre. While names like Stanislavsky, Meyerhold, Strindberg, Piscator, Brecht, Artaud, Craig, Appia, Reinhardt, Pirandello and even the lesser known Russians, Vakhtangov and Tairov have all become by-words in the history of experimental and innovative theatre, Evreinov has remained a shadowy figure.