A Beginners Guide to Directing Theatre

An accessible guide to the theatre directing process of text-based theatre, from the choice of the play through to an encounter with an audience. Moving from how to choose a play to the opening night, A Beginner''s Guide to Directing Theatre takes the reader, via a step-by-step approach, through various techniques, practitioners, methodologies and exercises that could be applied to text-based theatre. Through doing so, the reader comes to understand: - The differences between directing (the approach) and the director (the role), how that crosses over and ways to navigate this - A range of practices, methodologies and techniques for the differing and diverse styles, genres, playwrights and movements. i.e. the ''what'' of directing - How to create inclusive, safe and diverse practices of casting and rehearsal methods By not providing one single methodology, but introducing readers to various methods, the author garners an understanding of how different plays, genres, styles and movements require their own approaches to reach opening night. Whilst not concentrating on devised or non-text based theatre, the book makes explicit how devising, experiential and improvisatory techniques can be embraced to inform the types of methodologies a director may embrace whilst approaching text-based work. From here, readers will be able to know which practitioners and directing methodologies they may wish to employ and will understand where to head next.

Autorentext
Robert Marsden is Director of Curriculum at Wilkes Academy Swindon and was Head of Department at Staffordshire University, where he was also an Associate Professor in Acting and Directing for 17 years. He is a Fellow in Creative Teaching and Learning and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. When he is not teaching, Robert is a busy freelance theatre director, and has worked in commercial and subsidised sectors across the UK and Europe since 1999. Robert's research includes British pantomime and rehearsal studies, with the latter forming his PhD studies.

Inhalt

PART ONE: Introduction to directing

• What is directing?
• How this book is set out
• The role of the director: what is directing?
• The rise of the director
• Directing without the director
• Creativity, breakthroughs and building blocks
• Rehearsal and production analyses
  PART TWO: Stages of directing
• Stage One: Choosing and establishing
• Stage Two: Creating and forming
• Stage Three: Building and Encouraging
• Stage Four: Shaping and layering - the final stages
• Stage Five: Delivering and entrusting
  PART THREE: Interviews with leading theatre directors
• Tamara Harvey
• Holly Race Roughan
• Josie Rourke
• Roy Alexander Weise
  References