Every theater director will oversee a new play process in their career: here is what to expect and how to prepare. Drawing from over 20 years of experience as a freelance director, and as the Artistic Director of LCT3 at Lincoln Center Theater, Evan Cabnet combines the creative with the pragmatic to provide an honest, useful, and entertaining look at the art of directing a new play. Integrating practical advice with personal experience, Directing New Plays demystifies the process of directing a new work. From developing a creative vision to navigating the challenges of collaborative art-making, this book offers a comprehensive look at the director's role in the process and the tools they use at every step, including development (readings and workshops), pre-production (casting and design), rehearsal (staging, working with actors, rewrites, and run-throughs), tech, previews, and opening a world premiere production. Incisive, supportive, and clear, this book is an indispensable resource for theater directors looking to begin- or to sustain- a career in new play development.

Play Directing describes the various roles a director plays, from selection and analysis of the play, to working with actors and designers to bring the production to life. The authors emphasize that the role of the director as an artist-leader collaborating with actors and designers who look to the director for partnership in achieving their fullest, most creative expressions. The text emphasizes how the study of directing provides an intensive look at the structure of plays and acting, and of the process of design of scenery, costume, lighting, and sound that together make a produced play.

The ultimate responsibility for a play falls on the director, who must be a leader and someone who can work cooperatively. Students can read about all the tasks that a director needs to do, and what demands will be placed on a director during the lifetime of the show. There is a sidebar on a person who turned directorial skills into a great career, and a chapter on how directing in theater can translate into many different careers.

The profession of directing is barely a century old. On Directing considers the position of the director in theater and performance today. What is a director? How do they begin work on a play or performance? What methods are used in rehearsal? Is the director an enabler, a collaborator or dictator? As we enter the new millennium, is the very concept of directing under increasing threat from changes in thinking and practice? The full diversity of today's approaches to directing are explored through a series of interviews with leading contemporary practitioners. On Directing is a landmark book about the director's craft.

This Introduction is an exciting journey through the different styles of theatre that twentieth-century and contemporary directors have created. It discusses artistic and political values, rehearsal methods and the diverging relationships with actors, designers, other collaborators and audiences, and treatment of dramatic material. Offering a compelling analysis of theatrical practice, Christopher Innes and Maria Shevtsova explore the different rehearsal and staging principles and methods of such earlier groundbreaking figures as Stanislavsky, Meyerhold and Brecht, revising standard perspectives on their work. The authors analyse, as well, a diverse range of innovative contemporary directors, including Ariane Mnouchkine, Elizabeth LeCompte, Peter Sellars, Robert Wilson, Thomas Ostermeier and Oskaras Koršunovas, among many others. While tracing the different roots of directorial practices across time and space, and discussing their artistic, cultural and political significance, the authors provide key examples of the major directorial approaches and reveal comprehensive patterns in the craft of directing and the influence and collaborative relationships of directors.

In Stage Directing: A Director's Itinerary, the student of theatrical directing will find a step-by-step guide to directing a production, from choosing a play to opening night. Unlike other directing textbooks, it provides practical advice on organizing tasks throughout the directorial process, including budgeting, writing casting notices, and auditioning. It moreover includes an abundance of helpful examples and tried-and-true exercises, as well as information on how to organize a director’s documents into a production notebook. The second edition builds on the strengths of the first edition by elaborating on key analytical, organizational, and strategic steps in a successful director’s itinerary, with special attention to the direction of musicals.

A ground-floor guide to the practice and philosophy of directing that is open to all, including newcomers to the field. Through a series of concise and engaging essays, Directing Your Heart Out will inspire the next generation of theatre directors by encouraging them to approach the craft through instinct, compassion and the uninhibited expression of their own voice and vision. Each of the book's essays deals with a core principle of directing, such as strategies for directing text; facilitating productive discussion in rehearsals; absorbing criticism; and maintaining a positive work environment. Taken together, they serve as an effective introduction to the fundamentals of directing, or as provocative supplementary readings alongside traditional directing textbooks. En route, it references: The Seagull Encouraging an approach to directing that is grounded in self-empowerment and set out accessibly, this book opens up directing to the first-time director or student from a range of backgrounds, as well as the seasoned professional, who will benefit from the many revisionary, fresh perspectives.

Interviews with and essays by twenty-two prominent directors of Samuel Beckett's work

Foremost stage directors describe their working process: JoAnne Akalaitis, Arvin Brown, René Buch, Martha Clarke, Gordon Davidson, Robert Falls, Zelda Fichandler, Richard Foreman, Adrian Hall, John Hirsch, Mark Lamos, Marshall W. Mason, Des McAnuff, Gregory Mosher, Harold S. Prince, Lloyd Richards, Peter Sellars, Andrei Serban, Douglas Turner Ward, Robert Woodruff, and Garland Wright.

The Stage Director’s Prompt Book is a step-by-step, detailed guide on how to create a practical and powerful rehearsal and performance tool—the director’s prompt book. A prompt book is a coordinating and organizational tool for the stage director. This book systematizes the creative process the director uses to analyze and interpret a play and coordinates all director-related rehearsal and production activities into a single, self-contained interpretive and organizational system. This book guides the director through the necessary steps and stages of creating and using a prompt book—from play analysis and interpretation, through the formation of a dynamic and theatrical director’s vision, to a unique method of physicalizing a play in production. A prompt book of a one-act play is included in the book as a complete example of the system. Such techniques as redlining, color coding and creating a three-column left-hand page are vividly illustrated for readers, allowing them to assemble their own prompt books. In a clear and example-driven format, The Stage Director’s Prompt Book offers a system of directorial interpretation that takes the director through a series of point-by point instructions to construct a strong, effective and creative instrument for success. For the undergraduate and graduate student of theatre directing, stage management and producing courses, along with aspiring professional directors, this book provides an interactive and intuitive approach to personalize the stage directing experience and assemble a graphically dynamic and creative director’s prompt book.