How To Read A Play: Script Analysis For Directors

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The work done on a play before the first rehearsal the first group reading or even the before the cast have met can be crucial to the success of a production Directors & dramaturgs must know how to analyze understand & interpret a play or performance text if they hope to bring it to life on the stage This book provides a broad range of tools & methods that can be used when reading a text including Lessons from the past What can we learn from Aristotle Stanislavsky Meyerhold Vakhtangov Brecht & Harold Clurman? This section establishes the models & methods that underpin much of a director's work today A survey of current practices in Western theatre A combination of research interviews & observation of practical work addresses the main stages in understanding a play such as getting to know characters sharing ideas mapping the action & grappling with language A workbook setting out twenty one ways of breaking down a play from the general to the particular Contributions reflections & interjections from a host of successful directors make this the ideal starting point for anyone who wants to direct a play or even devise one of their own This wide range of different approaches options & techniques allows each reader to create their own brand of play analysis