Martin Buber's Essays on Theatre: A Philosophical Look at Theatre of the Mind.

The interrelationship of performers, text, and audience in reader's theater may be better understood through philosopher Martin Buber's key concepts of polarity, dialogue, and inclusion. These concepts operate within four polar tensions identified by Buber: that between the performer and the character represented; that between the performer and other performers (the protagonists); that between the actors, the text, and the audience; and that between drama itself (as a creation of the author) and the theater (the play/actor/audience relationship). All of the concepts are crucial; together, they are the driving central force of interpretation and reader's theater. (JM)