Authors: Michael Bloom
ISBN-13: 9780571199945, ISBN-10: 0571199941
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Faber and Faber
Date Published: October 2001
Edition: 1 ED
In addition to directing throughout the United States and Japan, Michael Bloom is head of directing at the University of Texas at Austin. His writing on the stage has appeared in The New York Times and American Theatre magazine. Bloom directed the premiere of Donald Margulies's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Dinner with Friends at the Actors Theatre of Louisville, and he also directed premieres by Don DeLillo, Ariel Dorfman, David Hare, and David Lodge. He won the Elliott Norton Award for Directing for his production of Gross Indecency, and was nominated for a Drama Desk for Sight Unseen at Manhattan Theatre Club and the Orpheum Theatre. He lives in Austin, Texas.
Bloom draws on nearly twenty years of directing and teaching experience to convey the full experience of directing for the stage, as well as the mindset that all successful directors possess. More than a mere set of guidelines, Thinking Like a Director details a technique that covers every facet of theatrical production, from first reading through final rehearsals. The key to directorial thinking, Bloom asserts, is a dual perspectivean ability to focus on both the internal lives of the play’s characters and the external elements of the play’s structure. In this illuminating, engaging, and accessible handbook, the art of dramatic interpretation and the craft of working with actors are integrated into a single, unified method.
Preface | ||
Acknowledgments | ||
Introduction | 3 | |
I | Preparation | 9 |
1 | Thinking Like an Artist | 11 |
2 | Reading and Researching | 17 |
3 | Interpreting the Action | 31 |
4 | External Analysis: Structure | 46 |
II | Pre-Production | 67 |
5 | Developing the Approach | 69 |
6 | The Design Process | 81 |
7 | Style | 95 |
8 | Casting | 104 |
III | Rehearsal | 117 |
9 | The Early Rehearsals | 119 |
10 | Staging | 140 |
11 | The Middle Rehearsals: Problem Solving | 151 |
12 | The External Perspective in Rehearsals | 173 |
13 | The Final Stages | 184 |
IV | Resources | 197 |
14 | The Directorial Landscape | 199 |
App. 1 | The Next Project | 205 |
App. 2 | Sample Rehearsal Timeline | 210 |
App. 3 | Points of Reference: Scenes from The Glass Menagerie and Nora | 213 |
Notes | 223 | |
Glossary | 227 | |
Recommended Reading | 231 | |
Index | 233 |