Kazan on Directing »

Elia Kazan was born in 1909 in Istanbul.  He graduated from Williams College and attended the Yale School of Drama before joining the Group Theatre.  He was the founder of the Actors Studio, and he won three Tony Awards for direction (for All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, and J.B.) and two Academy Awards (for Gentleman’s Agreement and On the Waterfront), as well as an honorary Oscar in 1999 for lifetime achievement.  He died in September 2003.

Elia Kazan was the twentieth century’s most celebrated director of both stage and screen, and this monumental, revelatory book shows us the master at work.  Kazan’s list of Broadway and Hollywood successes—A Streetcar Named Desire, Death of a Salesman, On the Waterfront, to name a few—is a testament to his profound impact on the art of directing. This remarkable book, drawn from his notebooks, letters, interviews, and autobiography, reveals Kazan’s method: how he uncovered the “spine,” or core, of each script; how he analyzed each piece in terms of his own experience; and how he determined the specifics of his production.  And in the final section, “The Pleasures of Directing”—written during Kazan’s final years—he becomes a wise old pro offering advice and insight for budding artists, writers, actors, and directors.

Foreword by John Lahr
Preface by Martin Scorsese
Introduction by Robert Cornfield
 
THE DIRECTOR’S NOTES
PLAYS For the Group Theatre
   Style and Spine, Style in the Theatre, Quiet City
Hot Nocturne
The Skin of Our Teeth
Dunnigan’s Daughter
Truckline Café
All My Sons
A Streetcar Named Desire
Death of a Salesman
Camino Real
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
J.B.
Sweet Bird of Youth
 
SHORT TAKES
The Young Go First; Casey Jones; It’s Up to You;One Touch of Venus; Jacobowsky and the Colonel; Deep Are the Roots; Tea and Sympathy;The Dark at the Top of the Stairs; After the Fall;The Changeling; The Chain
 
FILMS
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Boomerang!
Gentleman’s Agreement
Panic in the Streets
A Streetcar Named Desire
Viva Zapata!
On the Waterfront
East of Eden
Baby Doll
A Face in the Crowd
Wild River
Splendor in the Grass
America America
The Arrangement
The Last Tycoon
 
SHORT TAKES
Sea of Grass; Pinky; Man on a Tightrope; The Visitors
 
THE PLEASURES OF DIRECTING
On What Makes a Director The Pleasures of Directing
 
Afterword by Robert Cornfield
Chronology
Bibliography
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index