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Getting Directions - A Fly-on-the-Wall Guide for Emerging Theatre Directors

Getting Directions

A Fly-on-the-Wall Guide for Emerging Theatre Directors

By Russ Hope
Imprint: Nick Hern Books
Paperback : 9781848421820, 304 pages, August 2012

Table of contents

ForewordAcknowledgementsIntroduction: On a Lighting Gantry1. Matthew Dunster, Troilus and Cressida by William Shakespeare2. Steve Marmion, Dick Whittington and his Cat by Joel Horwood, Morgan Lloyd Malcolm and Steve Marmion3. Natalie Abrahami, A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare4. Nikolai Foster, Great Expectations by Tanika Gupta after Charles Dickens5. Carrie Cracknell, Electra by Nick Payne after Sophocles6. Joe Hill-Gibbins, The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams7. OperaUpClose, Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Lorenzo Da Ponte8. Action Hero, Frontman by Gemma Paintin and James StenhouseEpilogue: Asking Better Questions

Foreword by Dominic Cooke

Description

The theatre rehearsal room is a sacred place. What goes on there is mysterious, alchemical and closely guarded. So how are aspiring theatre directors supposed to learn their craft?In Getting Directions, Russ Hope gives us the benefit of unprecedented, fly-on-the-wall access to eight rehearsal rooms. He has shadowed some of the UK's most exciting young directors at each step of the way, on productions as diverse as Shakespeare at the Globe, Greek tragedy at the Gate, Tennessee Williams at the Young Vic, panto at the Lyric Hammersmith, and a touring Dickens dramatisation. Describing each of these rehearsal periods from first concept to first night in revealing and often remarkable detail, Hope gets under the skin of the professional director, and reveals the decisions they must make on a daily basis: How best to arrive at a concept and communicate this to a design team? Which games and exercises really help to unlock the text for actors? And what should you do if everything is falling apart during the tech?Getting Directions will equip emerging directors with a practical handbook, not bogged down with theories or precepts, that lifts the lid on what it means to be a director. The result is both a portrait and a masterclass from a generation of theatre practitioners, essential reading for anyone who wants to follow in their footsteps, or to understand what directing really entails.

Reviews

'Vital reading for anyone working or wanting to work as a director. ' - ThePublicReviews. com

'A useful weapon in the armoury of any aspiring director and of great interest to anyone who would like to know more about what goes on in the rehearsal rooms in the modern theatre. ' - British Theatre Guide

'Those wanting to direct would do well to read Russ Hope's Getting Directions. .. a detailed account of what happens in rehearsal rooms. ' - The Stage