How To Rehearse A Play

Based on interviews with over forty award-winning artists, How to Rehearse a Play offers multiple solutions to the challenges that directors face from first rehearsal to opening night. The book provides a wealth of information on how to run a rehearsal room, suggesting different paths and encouraging directors to shape their own process. It is divided into four sections: lessons from the past: a brief survey of influential directors, including Stanislavski’s acting methods and Anne Bogart’s theories on movement; a survey of current practices: practical advice on launching a process, analyzing scripts, crafting staging, detailing scene work, collaborating in technical rehearsals and previews, and opening the play to the public; rehearsing without a script: suggestions, advice, and exercises for devising plays through collaborative company creation; rehearsal workbook: prompts and exercises to help directors discover their own process. How to Rehearse a Play is the perfect guide for any artist leading their first rehearsal, heading to graduate school for intense study, or just looking for ways to refresh and reinvigorate their artistry.

This revolutionary book is more than just a dry theoretical study of acting techniques. Against a background of Apartheid South Africa it tells the story – both humorous and moving – of how teacher/director Brian Astbury - founder of South Africa's legendary Space Theatre - and hundreds of actors and acting students both in production and at Britain's top drama schools developed a set of exercises over two decades to help actors overcome problems not addressed in other methods.These teach how to be 'in the moment';to gain access to the inexhaustible storehouse of the imagination;to access, integrate and properly use the emotions of the character;to overcome difficulties with learning lines;to recreate performance without conscious thought.“An idiosyncratic, challenging and practical guide to the craft of acting, crammed with anecdotes and humorous insights”Richard E. Grant Actor/director/writer (Withnail and I, The Player, Wah-Wah and many others)“A truly inspirational teacher”Julie Hesmondhalgh Actor (Hayley, Coronation Street)“A unique figure in British theatre. Provocative, controversial, doggedly inspiring. He has been the pivotal teacher, enabler and mentor for me and countless others.Rufus Norris Director (Festen, Cabaret, Market Boy, Tintin, Vernon God Little, Blood Wedding)“I cannot recommend it highly enough”Stephen Moyer Actor (True Blood, NY-LON, Prince Valiant, the RSC)“A conversational (almost chatty) love story, a tale of a theatre company's struggle against Apartheid, an irreverent look at life”Alexander Siddig Actor/director (Deep Space Nine, Syriana, Un Homme Perdu, 24, Primeval, Hannibal)“Brian Astbury was, without a doubt, the biggest influence on me. His teachings are still what I go to in trouble”Jason Flemyng Actor (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The Quatermass Experiment, Drum, the RSC)

"A clear and accessible how-to-approach to the rehearsal process. Author Gary Sloan brings more than thirty years' worth of acting experience to bear on the question of how to rehearse both as an individual actor and as part of the team of professionals that underpins any successful production. Interviews with acclaimed actors, directors, playwrights, and designers share a wealth of knowledge on dynamic collaboration. The book is divided into three main stages: a flexible rehearsal program, how to work as part of a company, and the creation of a personal rehearsal process. This helps readers to refine their craft in as straightforward and accessible a manner as possible... Breaks down the rehearsal process from the actor's perspective and equips its reader with the tools to become a generous and resourceful performer both inside and outside the studio." -- Back cover.

The work done on a play before the first rehearsal, the first group reading or even the before the cast have met, can be crucial to the success of a production. Directors and dramaturgs must know how to analyze, understand and interpret a play or performance text if they hope to bring it to life on the stage. This book provides a broad range of tools and methods that can be used when reading a text, including: Lessons from the past. What can we learn from Aristotle, Stanislavsky, Meyerhold, Vakhtangov, Brecht and Harold Clurman? This section establishes the models and methods that underpin much of a director’s work today. A survey of current practices in Western theatre. A combination of research, interviews and observation of practical work addresses the main stages in understanding a play, such as getting to know characters, sharing ideas, mapping the action and grappling with language. A workbook, setting out twenty one ways of breaking down a play, from the general to the particular. Contributions, reflections and interjections from a host of successful directors make this the ideal starting point for anyone who wants to direct a play, or even devise one of their own. This wide range of different approaches, options and techniques allows each reader to create their own brand of play analysis.

After the successful Improvisation Book, John Abbott now explains how theater directors at every level can use improvisation during rehearsals.

The Invisible Actor presents the captivating and unique methods of the distinguished Japanese actor and director, Yoshi Oida. While a member of Peter Brook's theatre company in Paris, Yoshi Oida developed a masterful approach to acting that combined the oriental tradition of supreme and studied control with the Western performer's need to characterise and expose depths of emotion. Written with Lorna Marshall, Yoshi Oida explains that once the audience becomes openly aware of the actor's method and becomes too conscious of the actor's artistry, the wonder of performance dies. The audience must never see the actor but only his or her performance. Throughout Lorna Marshall provides contextual commentary on Yoshi Oida's work and methods. In a new foreword to accompany the Bloomsbury Revelations edition, Yoshi Oida revisits the questions that have informed his career as an actor and explores how his skilful approach to acting has shaped the wider contours of his life.

In Rehearsal is a clear and accessible how-to approach to the rehearsal process. Author Gary Sloan brings more than thirty years' worth of acting experience to bear on the question of how to rehearse both as an individual actor and as part of the team of professionals that underpins any successful production. Interviews with acclaimed actors, directors, playwrights, and designers share a wealth of knowledge on dynamic collaboration. The book is divided in to three main stages, helping the reader to refine their craft in as straightforward and accessible manner as possible: In the world: A flexible rehearsal program that can be employed daily, as well as over a typical four week production rehearsal. In the room: Advice on working independently and productively with other members of a company, such as directors, playwrights, designers and technical crew; how your personal creative process varies depending on the role, be it Shakespeare, musicals, film, television or understudying. On your own: Creating your own rehearsal process, exploring original and famous rehearsal techniques, breaking through actor's block and how to practice every day. In Rehearsal breaks down the rehearsal process from the actor’s perspective and equips its reader with the tools to become a generous and resourceful performer both inside and outside the studio. Its independent, creative and daily rehearsal techniques are essential for any modern actor.