The Glossary
ESP / ENG
The result of 15 years of work, the Glosario Ilustrado de las Artes Escénicas (Illustrated Glossary of the Performing Arts) fills an evident void in the difficult field of theatrical terminology, thanks to the understanding of the multiple disciplines involved and the technological nature of the theatrical experience.
Its two volumes, 2111 pages, more than 12700 entries and 1650 illustrations, cover the fields of the performing arts (theatre, ballet and dance, music, opera, circus, puppetry), of the theatre (history of the theatre, drama literature, theatrical theories, the organization of theatre, cultural tendencies and movements, actors and performing, setting and staging), of theatre architecture (history of the building, types of theatres, types of stages, theatre buildings, visuals, acoustics, design for all, heritage theatre buildings, restoration), and of the theatrical systems (rigging and machinery, scenery, lighting, sound, audiovisual and video, electroacoustics, special effects, as well as costume and textiles, make-up, hairdressing).
A remarkable aspect of the work is its coordianted cross-referencing of american/ latinamerican/british technology (each entry has the translation or translations of the different meanings into English), as well as its sustained effort to define concepts which are of everyday use in the english speaking countries but that are very seldom included in the theatre glossaries published in Spanish. The use in the glossary of Anglo-Saxon sources, many of then of great value and hardly known in the Spanish speaking world, reflects itself also in the depth of the bibliography, which constitutes by itself a valuable documental resource, including the commented bibliography of part of the sources used in the development of the work. The profusion of illustrations also deserves an special mention, as they make the text of many of the entries much more accesible, and that will make this work, a very useful tool for didactic and reference purposes.
The appendixes, as well, will be very useful, as some of them are bilingual such as the theatre room list or the appendix about knots and ropes, and other such as the one referring to the different types of stages, according to their use, the production diagram and the one about the different types of theatre organization.
