Stage Directing: The First Experiences

Flexible and concise, Stage Directing details the six steps that make up the directing process: selecting a work, analyzing and researching the playscript, conceiving the production, casting, rehearsing, and giving and receiving criticism. Each step is highlighted with valuable directing tips, as well as examples from modern and contemporary playscripts and productions. Exercises, goals, and key terms put directing precepts to a practical test, revealing what is significant about each phase of the process. Over seventy charts, graphs, and photographs unite and exemplify the text, along with current and noteworthy Web sites. With a fresh voice and an engaging style of writing, Patterson provides insightful questions, suggestions, and illustrations that define and invoke contemplation about the role of the director. Two original short plays provide the opportunity for hands-on analysis and the application of practical concepts. New to the Waveland reissue, the author highlights the function and growing artistry of the director in the modern and postmodern theatre by examining a short history of this pivotal role.

Titles of related interest also available from Waveland Press: Catron, The Director's Vision: Play Direction from Analysis to Production, (ISBN 9781577666769); Catron, The Power of One: The Solo Play for Playwrights, Actors, and Directors (ISBN 9781577666202); and Dean-Carra, Fundamentals of Play Directing, Fifth Edition (ISBN 9781577666486).

"Eschewing high-flown aesthetic theorizing, Patterson presents in sensible order the basic skills that any director must practice (and eventually master) in order to get a play satisfactorily onto the stage. Admitting readily that there is much more that a director must learn in order to be fully competent, Patterson answers the challenge many beginning students present: `Don't give me theory, tell me what to do!'" -- Southern Theatre