Notes on Directing: 130 Lessons in Leadership from the Director's Chair
Books / Paperback
Books › Performing Arts › General
ISBN: 080271708X / Publisher: Bloomsbury USA, September 2008
An accessible edition of a classic guide to film and theater directing offers insight into the craft's unique challenges from managing personalities and anticipating problems to working with a script and the key elements of staging, in a primer that also features life lessons gleaned by the co-authors throughout their careers. Reprint. 30,000 first printing.
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Five years ago, Frank Hauser, then a retired freelance director, and writer Russell Reich, his former student, self-published Notes on Directing in hardcover. It was immediately acclaimed as "a gem-witty and full of insight;" "so sensible, so complete, and so right;" and "amazingly illuminating" by the likes of Judi Dench, Edward Albee, and Terry Teachout. Gathered over Hauser's long career, and polished to a sharp edge by Reich, the 130 "Notes" address a wide range of topics, from "understanding the script" and "defining the director's role" to casting, how to handle a first read-through of a script, rules for rehearsal, how to talk to actors, how to get a laugh, and the key elements of staging. Filled with enduring good advice expressed in assertive, no-nonsense language, and supported with explanatory commentary, insightful quotes and examples, and five valuable appendices, this deceptively slim book has the impact of a privileged apprenticeship to a great master, providing deep insight into the hidden process of creating a live, shared experience. It can be appreciated by everyone from the student aspiring to a directing career to the professional looking for new ideas to the theater-lover wanting insight into the creative process. Indeed, Notes on Directing offers life lessons to all who read it.
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