Peter Brook is one of the world's legendary theater directors. His productions are a byword for imagination, energy, and innovation. From his ground-breaking production of Marat/Sade, to his "white box" A Midsummer Night's Dream, to his monumental staging of The Mahabharata and beyond, Brook has always been the pioneer of what a director and a company of actors can conjure out of an empty stage. In this first authoritative biography, arising out of an association...

The Viewpoints is a technique of improvisation that grew out of the postmodern dance world. It was first articulated by choreographer Mary Overlie, who broke down the two dominant issues performers deal with—space and time—into six categories. Since that time, directors Anne Bogart and Tina Landau have expanded her notions and adapted them for actors to function together spontaneously and intuitively and to generate bold, theatrical work.The Viewpoints are a set o...

Courageous and compelling, an invaluable resource for actors, directors, and teachers that can open a pathway to inner creativity."The actor will do, in public, what is considered impossible." When the renowned Polish director Jerzy Grotowski began his 1967 American workshop with these words, his students were stunned. But within four weeks they themselves had experienced the "impossible."In An Acrobat of the Heart, teacher-director-playwright Step...

The Director’s Craft is a unique and completely indispensable step-by-step guide to directing for the stage.Written by one of the most adventurous and respected directors working today, this book will be an essential item in every student and practitioner’s kitbag. It provides detailed assistance with each aspect of the varied challenges facing all theatre directors, and does so with startling clarity. It will inspire everyone, from the beginner just starting out to the ex...

In Two Minds is the first comprehensive biography of Jonathan Miller – the story of one of post-war Britain's most intriguing polymaths. Descended from immigrants who fled Tsarist anti-Semitism to become shopkeepers in Ireland and London's East End, Miller was born into an intellectual milieu, between Bloomsbury and Harley Street – the son of a novelist and a leading child psychiatrist. Miller trained as adoctor but then forged a career as a stellar comedian and as a world-renowned theatre...

In Stage Design - A Practical Guide Gary Thorne, a freelance theatre set and costume designer, introduces the concept of art and design for performance, drawing on his considerable experience in a wide variety of theatres. The book begins from first principles, and assumes no prior knowledge of the subject. Each chapter contains clear, concise text and informative illustrations; and concludes with practical exercises to, ensure that the reader has got the most out of the book, and stimulat...

A smart, witty and accessible guide to the rewarding and joyful practice of improvisation.Classic improv games and variationsTelling stories and creating charactersUsing improv to make theatre and comedy, from monologues to full-scale productionsAn asset to students and teachers of improvisation in schools, drama schools, higher education and theatre groups, both professional and amateur. It will also be of benefit to organisations and individual readers who w...

Di Trevis is a world-renowned director, whose work with Britain’s National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, and directing productions worldwide, has deeply informed her knowledge of the director’s craft.In Being a Director, she draws on a wealth of first-hand experience to present an immersive, engaging and vital insight into the role of a director.The book elegantly blends the personal and the pedagogical, illustrating how the parameters of Time, Space and Motion are es...

Costumes designed and made for devised or physical drama, for contemporary circus or for dance, differ radically from the more traditional costume work produced for naturalistic performance. For those working in the field - whether professional or student - these differences present challenges that this book seeks to highlight and explain while offering effective solutions to overcome them. Includes: the differences between designing for scripted and for devised work; the specialized desig...

From the Tony Award and Laurence Olivier Award-winning former director of London's National Theatre--this is a fascinating, candid, eloquent memoir about his career directing theater, producing films and opera, and working closely with some of the world's most celebrated actors.The list of Nicholas Hytner's accomplishments is long and distinguished: as Artistic Director of London's National Theatre from 2003-2015, he directed and produced a great number of their mo...

Script Analysis for Theatre: Tools for Interpretation, Collaboration and Production provides theatre students and emerging theatre artists with the tools, skills and a shared language to analyze play scripts, communicate about them, and collaborate with others on stage productions. Based largely on concepts derived from Stanislavski's system of acting and method acting, the book focuses on action - what characters do to each other in specific circumstances, times, and pla...

As the first examination of women's foremost contributions to Jerzy Grotowski's cross-cultural investigation of performance, this book complements and broadens existing literature by offering a more diverse and inclusive re-assessment of Grotowski's legacy, thereby probing its significance for contemporary performance practice and research. Although the particularly strenuous physical training emblematic of Grotowski's approach is not gender specific, it has historically been associated wi...