Marvin Carlson is the Sidney E. Cohn Distinguished Professor of Theatre and Comparative Literature in the Ph.D. program at the City University of New York Graduate Center. His research and teaching interests include dramatic theory and Western European theatre history and dramatic literature. His best known work, "Theories of the Theatre," has been translated into five languages. His most recent books are "Performance: A Critical Introduction," and "Voltaire and the Theatre of the Eighteenth Century."