Directors in Rehearsal

by Susan Letzler Cole

A rare behind-the-scenes look at the rehearsal sessions of acclaimed directors and actors. Cole offers a view of what is often hidden from the public eye: what actors and directors do when they prepare a dramatic text for performance.

Genres: Theatre

Paperback

First published August 14, 1992

Reviews

[Hamlet · Rating 3 out of 5]

این کتاب به زبان فارسی با عنوان کارگردان‌ها در تمرین ترجمه شده که کتاب جالبیه. به شیوه‌ی کلی کار کارگردان‌های مطرح و معاصر جهان همچنین اهمیت اون‌ها به بعضی از کیفیت‌هایی بیانی اجرا که‌ در نهایت به سبکی منحصر به فرد منجر می‌شن پرداخته. شاید عنوانش این‌طور به نظر بیاد که یادداشت‌های تمرین‌های به خصوص کارگردان‌هاست اما خیر.

[Don Shewey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Susan Letzler Cole observed ten renowned theater directors as they built productions in rehearsal – Elinor Renfield, Maria Irene Fornes, Emily Mann, JoAnne Akalaitis, Elizabeth LeCompte, Richard Foreman, Robert Wilson, Liviu Ciulei, and Lee Breuer. Curiously, I saw almost all the productions she writes about, and although she describes sometimes fascinating details, overall she fails to illuminate any of the work these artists were creating. Lots of trees, no forest. The glimpses she provides of especially chaotic productions (the Wooster Group’s Frank Dell’s The Temptation of St. Antony, for instance, or Lee Breuer’s The Warrior Ant) make you marvel that these shows ever came together in the end.

[GW · Rating 3 out of 5]

It seemed hard to digest, but I did enjoy the parts about what directors do for a play. I also, note that the author seemed to get invited to failed efforts a lot. The hidden world of stagecraft is so rarely documented in writing that I felt privileged to see the inside of professional theatre's trappings. I have new ideas on how to run a rehearsal now that I finished this book. Although I am aware that this art and set of directorial skills is best handed down from director to assistant or stage manager in the process of doing a show. It's not something I can pick up by being a book worm. All that I've done in the way of Drama will be of better help then this book alone.

[Nick O'leary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would recommend this. It's unusually thorough: Cole observes, documents, and theorizes about the rehearsal processes of ten iconic 20th century American directors (5 women and 5 men) working on classical and original work that ranges from the fairly conventional to the avant-garde. (Of course, it's avant-garde theater artists that have been or will be canonized—LeCompte, Wilson, Sellars etc.)

Cole does a good job documenting the strategies of the directors she observes and drawing attention to how their processes differ and where the relationship between process and product is vexed or ambiguous. Her consistent voice as observer and analyst throughout the book makes it easier for the reader to attempt a comparison of the various rehearsal processes than it would be piecing together accounts from various sources. That being said, as much credit as she deserves for her attempts to find unifying theories for the wide range of practice she presents, her theorizing is sometimes less interesting than the work of her subjects.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

This might be the only review I ever write that concerns a book I didn't finish. It's not that Directors In Rehearsal is boring; it's simply that the theoretical treatises about different directors proved to have little practical application for me. Perhaps that was not the overall point of the book, but I simply was not getting much educational value out of it, so I figured it best to put down for now, since that is the sole purpose of my picking it up in the first place.

I know in a lot of ways that means I am selling the book short. I am not giving myself over to its purpose. But as far as I could tell, its purpose was foggy about halfway through the book. With that, I felt confident in putting it down for the moment.