Play Directing

Dedication

Preface and Credits for Photographs.

1. Why the Director?

2. What Is a Play? Analysis and Improvisation.

I. PLAY-ANALYSIS: TAKING A PLAY APART.

3. The Foundation and Facade of the Playscript: Given Circumstances and

Dialogue.

4. The Core of the Playscript: Dramatic Action and Characters.

5. Idea and Rhythm-Mood Beats.

6. The Director's Preparation.

II. 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.

15. Helping Actors "Speak" a Play

16. Directing is Working with Actors 2.

Major Project 1A: Scene Practice.

Major Project 1B: Diagnostic Criticism.

COMMUNICATION THROUGH STAGING OPTIONS .

17. The Director's Responsibility for Working Effectively with Design.

18. The Director and the Stage Machine: Symbolization and Synthesis.

19. Director's Options: Choice of the Stage.

20. Director's Options: Scenery, Properties, and Lighting.

21. Director's Options: Costume, Makeup, and Sound.

HELPING AUDIENCES RECEIVE A PLAY

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22. Responsibility to Audiences.

Major Project 2: Designing and Directing Your Own One-Act Play 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.

IV. COMMUNICATION 2: THE DIRECTOR-DESIGNER RELATIONSHIP

30. Preparing To Be a Collaborator in the Design Process

31. Directing Is Working with Designers

Major Project 3: Directing a Full-Length, Fully-Produced Play with Designers

Appendix 1. Directing Musical Theatre and Opera.

Appendix 2. The Director and the Dramaturg.

Appendix 3. Your Future as a Director.

Bibliography.

Index.