"One of the ways I have judged the status of theatre", Wilmeth explains, "was to go in a bookstore and go to the theatre section, and when I was growing up in my twenties there would be a big selection. Nowadays there will be an enormous film section and sometimes almost no theatre section at all." That covers reason number one for Don Wilmeth's Second Edition to The Cambridge Guide to American Theatre: to beef up scrawny bookstore theatre sections to better defend "Death of a Salesman" and "The Man Who Came to Dinner" from the likes of "Ironman" and "Spiderman".

All competition aside, the most powerful driving force behind creating the guide was to compile a comprehensive and balanced guide to American Theatre in one volume. There are other guides out there (the Oxford for example), but few if any have made it their goal to make the history of American theatre as accessible in only one book. The most notable aspect of the guide according to Wilmeth is its balanced structure. "[A large] part of the balance is to make sure that all aspects of the American theatre are represented. You have to make choices. That's part of the balance." A very conscious effort was made to not simply focus on New York theatre and the contributions of actors and playwrights solely, as is often the tendency of other theatre guides. Set designers, costume designers, directors, and regional theatres around the country are all touched upon in separate entries. Wilmeth even employed an editor out west to make sure that the subject matter would never lean towards being overtly eastern-centric. For avid dramaturges and students alike one thing's for sure, there's a lot of interesting facts put together here. "The copy editor questioned me on every fact, and it drove me a little crazy," Wilmeth admits, "but he did a phenomenal job", and that certainly is true.

The guide begins with a wonderfully thorough introduction to help users get started. "It's one way to get a sense of the arc of the American theatre over a three hundred year period or more," Wilmeth says. It starts with the earliest beginnings of performance in North America mentioning Native American dramatic rituals and Aztec performances in Mexico and travels forward to the present day, from the early Yankee characters to Eugene O'Neil. The introduction is very novel, and provides a great jumping off point. While reading through it, users can highlight and remember various points of interest that struck them and then go look up the specific entries that relate in the guide.

While the guide is very well balanced and does not focus on any one geographic region, profession, or time period more than others, Wilmeth does admit to some personal "bias" that sneaks its way into the edition. The "bias", however, in Wilmeth's words, actually makes the guide more inclusive of certain subjects that may normally be included in such a guide and also adds more character and detail to the guide as well. "The most obvious bias, which I'm happy to say isn't there any more (in this edition of the guide), is the emphasis on popular forms. I consider a great clown an actor. I include things on vaudville, wild west shows, and circus entertainment. This was excluded in earlier editions. I also included some fairly obscure character actors because I think character actors get slighted too. I'm going to pick my favorite actors of course, someone who I have a particular fondness for." Wilmeth and company did their best to include all of the notable figures you would expect to be covered in a guide on American theatre, although some artists who are now very well known almost did not make the cut. "Wendy Wasserstein almost didn't make it. August Wilson was [also] almost cut out, but he wasn't. I actually trimmed quite a few entries in order to save a few words [in order to fit everything into one volume]," Wilmeth explains. "I was determined, [however], to include a lot more contemporary figures."

The guide is a wonderful, informative, and extremely useful companion for any theatre fan or aspiring theatre fan. Most importantly Wilmeth asserts, "There ought to be a paperback." This would make the guide more affordable to all and most importantly, to students, who are the theatre people of the next generation. So go out and there and get yourself a copy, and give the Cambridge University Press a call while you're at it telling them why you want a paperback as well.