Quite a lot in a little book...
3 stars
If you can withstand poetic prose that's not clinical or super-straightforward, then you can get through this book. It's written by a play director and actor who's studied the craft and really gotten a grasp as to what works or doesn't when it comes to plays and the way audiences (and the players, scene-setters, directors, etc.) view them. Some plays will be a hit one night, a miss on others, and some go out with a bang even though they've failed. Why? Audience interaction, changes to script or costume over time...who knows.
But this book is a great help in demystifying theater for a 20th and 21st century consumer of culture, by showing the pros and cons of training, audience expectations, rituals, set designs, costumes, acting and a play's run--among other things. Theater has been made into this upper-crust delight, something only rich people can enjoy, when the best performances …
If you can withstand poetic prose that's not clinical or super-straightforward, then you can get through this book. It's written by a play director and actor who's studied the craft and really gotten a grasp as to what works or doesn't when it comes to plays and the way audiences (and the players, scene-setters, directors, etc.) view them. Some plays will be a hit one night, a miss on others, and some go out with a bang even though they've failed. Why? Audience interaction, changes to script or costume over time...who knows.
But this book is a great help in demystifying theater for a 20th and 21st century consumer of culture, by showing the pros and cons of training, audience expectations, rituals, set designs, costumes, acting and a play's run--among other things. Theater has been made into this upper-crust delight, something only rich people can enjoy, when the best performances have often been in empty space and small venues, much as Shakespeare created in his day.
This book also helps demystify Shakespeare a bit, at the theater level, in case you're still a person like me who didn't quite "get" Shakespeare and what was so good about him.