The Society for Theatre Research has announced its short list for this year's Theatre Book Prize, selected from books published in 2011.
The shortlisted books are:
- A Dancer in Wartime by Gillian Lynne (Chatto & Windus)
- The Heaviest of Swells: A Life and Times in the Music Halls by Christopher Beeching (DCG Publications)
- Covering McKellen: An Understudy’s Tale by David Weston (Rickshaw Publishing)
- Black and Asian Theatre in Britain: A History by Colin Chambers (Routledge)
- Ira Aldridge: the Early Years 1807-1833 and The Vagabond Years 1833-1852 by Bernth Lindfors (University of Rochester Press/Boydell & Brewer)
- The Censorship of British Drama 1900-1968 Volume 3 The Fifties by Steve Nicholson (University of Exeter Press)
The winner will be announced during an event at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on 25 April.
On the judging panel are The Stage managing director Catherine Comerford, dean of the School of Media and Performance at Falmouth University College Professor Mike Wilson and former CEO of the Society of London Theatres and the Theatrical Management Association Rupert Rhymes. The panel is chaired by BTG reviewer and Society for Theatre Research committee member Howard Loxton.