In an engaging, conversational manner, the authors deftly combine a focus on artistic vision with a practical, organized methodology that allows beginning and established directors to bring a creative script interpretation to life for an audience. Outstanding features: Relevant: Offers a logical progression of topics, featuring an extensive treatment of play analysis as well as concrete strategies for planning production values, auditions and casting, rehearsals, and performances. This thoroughly updated edition draws examples from a variety of contemporary plays by diverse authors. Comprehensive: Includes such important topics as ethics, leadership strategies, and problem-solving approaches to blocking movement and coaching actors. New material examines the centrality of dramatic action, the importance of flexibility, "open" casting, and blocking with picturization and gesture. Profusely Illustrated: Captures the emotion, conflict, style, and substance of the theatre with more than 100 new photos and figures, including a dazzling full-color insert. Some of today's leading directors are shown at work in rehearsals, while ample production photographs demonstrate a wide array of theatrical forms and techniques. Hands-On and Practical: Challenges readers to think like a director with end-of-chapter exercises that apply chapter concepts to a theatrical production, offering abundant opportunities for collaboration, discussion, and critical thinking. An extensive glossary as well as appendices on royalties, permissions, and publisher-leasing agents are valuable resources.

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