Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2011 - 64

asked by the chair of the department to develop more graduate
level courses. At about the same time he was approached by a
group of graduate students with an intriguing request. Up until
this time, theatre history had been taught mostly through the
reading of plays. But no one taught anything about the history
of the physical theatre. Would he be willing to develop and offer
such a course? Dr. Brockett said that he "would look into it."
From this simple beginning, a complex series of events were set
into motion that would forever change the study of theatre history and create an academic star that still burns bright almost
fifty years later.
Dr. Brockett started by assigning students in that first
class to research projects, and things grew from there. Soon
his research, body of knowledge, and reputation had grown to
the point that he was approached by a publisher and asked to
write an "introduction to the theatre" textbook. By 1963 this
culminated in a whirlwind of activity. First, the new chair of
the University of Indiana Theatre Department, his old Stanford
mentor, Dr. Herbert Hefner, offered his protégé a new job.
Shortly after accepting, Brock learned that his application for a
Fulbright Fellowship-a year's teaching and studying abroad-
had been accepted. It was quickly arranged for Brock to take
a leave of absence for the 1963-64 school year so he could
teach at the University of Bristol in England. He also finished
his manuscript for the introduction to the theatre textbook, and
this was published in early 1964. Originally titled, The Theatre,

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it was revised for the fifth edition and re-titled The Essential
Theatre. This book was so well received that his publisher
asked him to write a history of the theatre. But Brock already
had another project in the works and in 1967 published Plays
for the Theatre: A Drama Anthology to be used as a companion
piece to the introduction to the theatre text (note: the selection
of plays in each of the subsequent eleven editions would change
somewhat to keep it current). The publication the following
year of History of the Theatre was an instant success and, if
you will pardon the pun (Brock used it first), the rest is history.
"And that's the story of the way I got started writing books," he
laughed all those years later. "It was almost an accident."
Dr. Brockett stayed at the University of Indiana from 1963
through 1978 and continued his prolific research and writing.
He left Indiana in 1978 to become the Dean of the College of
Fine Arts at the University of Texas at Austin, a post he held
until 1981 when he left for a year to teach at the University of
Southern California. He returned to the University of Texas the
following year to head up the Ph.D. program. Within nine years
he would expand that program from five to thirty students and
make it the nation's top-ranked theatre history program.
Throughout the years he continued to research, write new
texts and update new editions of his more popular titles. He
was particularly proud that his latest book was chosen for USITT's Golden Pen Award. He felt that a book about the history of
scene design and technology had brought him full circle "back

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2011