Table of Contents

Dedication and Credits for Photographs.


Preface.


 1. Why the Director?


 2. What Is a Play? Analysis and Improvisation.

I. TAKING A PLAY APART: PLAY-ANALYSIS: THE DIRECTOR'S PRIMARY STUDY.

 3. The Foundation and Facade of the Playscript: Given Circumstances and Dialogue.
 4. The Hard Core of the Playscript: Dramatic Action and Characters.
 5. Idea and Rhythmic Beats.
 6. The Director's Preparation.

II. COMMUNICATION.

Communication 1: The Director-Actor Relationship and Stage Blocking. 7. Directing Is Working with Actors 1.
 8. Learning to See: The Games of Visual Perception.
 9. Helping Actors Communicate through Groundplans.
10. Composition: Helping Actors Discover and Project Basic Relationships.
11. Helping Each Actor Intensify: Gesture and Improvisation with Properties.
12. Picturization: Helping a Group Intensify.
13. The Dynamic Tool of Movement.
14. Coordinating the Blocking Tools in Director-Actor Communication.
Communication 2: Helping Actors “Speak” a Play.15. Finding Oral and Visual Balance.
16. Directing is Working with Actors 2.
Major Project 1A: Scene Practice.Major Project 1B: Diagnostic Criticism.Communication 3: The Director's Design Function and Communicating through Staging.17. Directing Is Designing.
18. The Director and the Stage Machine: Symbolization and Synthesis.
19. Director's Options 1: Choice of the Stage.
20. Director's Options 2: Scenery, Properties, and Lighting.
21. Director's Options 3: Costume, Makeup, and Sound Effects.
Communication 4: Helping Audiences Receive a Play.22. Responsibility to Audiences.
Major Project 2: Designing and Directing Your Own Production.

III. INTERPRETATION: A MATTER OF STYLE.

23. Style Is Individual Expression.
24. Style in Playwriting and Playwrights.
25. The Director's Analysis of Style in a Playscript.
26. Style in Production: Making Decisions.
27. Style in Production: Modern Plays.
28. Style in Production: New Plays.
29. Style in Production: Plays of Past Ages.
Major Project 3: Directing with Designers.Appendix 1. Directing Musical Theatre and Opera.Appendix 2. The Director and the Dramaturgy.Appendix 3. Your Future as a Director.Bibliography.
Index.

Promotional Information

Play Directing describes the various roles a director plays, from "calling the plays" to orchestrating and blending a symphony of actors and elements. The author emphasizes that the role of the director is not as a dictator, but as a leader of multiple craftsmen who look to the director for ideas that will give impetus to their fullest, most creative expressions. The text emphasizes that directing is not a finite and specific "system" of production, but rather is a venue for providing an intensive look at the structure of plays, of acting and actor-ownership, and of all the other crafts that together make a produced play.