The Craft Of Rehearsal

Original Scholarly Monograph

Shortlisted for the STR Theatre Book Prize 2023 With an exclusive focus on text-based theatre-making, Inside the Rehearsal Room is both an instructional and conceptual examination of the rehearsal process. Drawing on professional practice and underpinned by theory, this book moves through each stage of rehearsals, considering the inter-connectivity between the actor, director, designers and the backstage team, and how the cumulative effect of the weeks in rehearsal influences the final production. The text also includes: - Auto-ethnographic and fully ethno-graphic case study approaches to different rehearsal rooms - Interviews with directors, actors, designers and actor trainers - A consideration of the ethics of the rehearsal room and material selected for production - Practical exercises on how to creatively read a text from an acting and directing perspective Informed by over 20 years of directing experience in the UK and Europe, Robert Marsden's book offers a practical guide that ultimately demystifies the rehearsal process and challenges how the rehearsal room should be run in the twenty-first century.

"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 sensational first novel from the Booker Prize-winning author of The Luminaries. Set in the aftermath of a sex scandal at an all-girls’ high school, Eleanor Catton’s internationally acclaimed award-winning debut is a provocative and darkly funny novel about the elusiveness of truth, the slipperiness of identity, and the emotional compromises we make to belong. When news spreads of a high school teacher’s relationship with one of his students, the teenage girls at Abbey Grange are jolted into a new awareness of their own potency and power. Although no one knows the whole truth, the girls have their own ideas about what happened. As they obsessively examine the details of the affair with the curiosity and jealousy native to any adolescent girl, they confide in their saxophone teacher, an enigmatic woman who is only too happy to play both confidante and stage manager to her students. But when the local drama school decides to turn the scandal into a play, the boundaries between fact and fantasy soon break down as dramas both real and imagined begin to unfold. Sharply observed, brilliantly crafted, and infused with a deliciously subversive wit, The Rehearsal is at once a vibrant portrait of teenage longing and adult regret, and a shrewd exposé of how we are all performers in life, from one of the most bold and exciting voices in contemporary fiction.

Anatoly Efros (1925-1987), one of the most admired and original directors of post-war Russia, directed at the Central Children's Theatre, Malaya Bronnaya Theatre, Lenkom Theatre, Moscow Art Theatre, and Taganka Theatre, and elsewhere including the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis and the Toen Theatre in Tokyo. He taught directing at the State Institute for Theatre Training and wrote several influential books. His productions received numerous awards for creative excellence. In The Joy of Rehearsal, his best-known work, Efros illuminates the dynamics of the director's creative work. He discusses the process of considering future plays, rehearsing them, and evaluating the results. Devoted to the principles of Konstantin Stanislavsky and Michael Chekhov, and inspired by the ideas of Bertolt Brecht, Efros also considers the practice of rehearsals and other features central to professional creative work. His productions of Shakespeare, Moliere, Chekhov and other classics were major events for those who looked to the theatre for social significance as well as aesthetic experience. Theatre students and professionals will benefit from the insights gained as Efros writes about his unique vision for the modern theatre.

Anatoly Efros (1925-1987), one of the most admired and original directors of post-war Russia, directed at the Central Children's Theatre, Malaya Bronnaya Theatre, Lenkom Theatre, Moscow Art Theatre, Taganka Theatre, the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis and the Toen Theatre in Tokyo. He taught directing at the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts and wrote several influential books about dramatic interpretation and practice. His productions received numerous international awards for excellence. Beyond Rehearsal is a compilation of selections from his third and fourth books. It includes refreshingly new treatments of Summer and Smoke, Three Sisters, Hamlet, Tartuffe, and The Misanthrope, among others. Efros also writes with perception and feeling about Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko, as well as a broad range of theatre issues in need of reform or re-thinking in the West as well as in Russia. Beyond Rehearsal centers on «the absurd things in our work that have not disappeared yet», «complex questions of art», and the «celebratory» aspects of working in the theatre.

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.

Amidst the turmoil of political revolution, the stage directors of twentieth-century Russia rewrote the rules of theatre making. From realism to the avant-garde, politics to postmodernism, and revolution to repression, these practitioners shaped perceptions of theatre direction across the world. This edited volume introduces students and practitioners alike to the innovations of Russia's directors, from Konstantin Stanislavsky and Vsevolod Meyerhold to Anatoly Efros, Oleg Efremov and Genrietta Ianovskaia. Strongly practical in its approach, Russian Theatre in Practice: The Director's Guide equips readers with an understanding of the varying approaches of each director, as well as the opportunity to participate and explore their ideas in practice. The full range of the director's role is covered, including work on text, rehearsal technique, space and proxemics, audience theory and characterization. Each chapter focuses on one director, exploring their historical context, and combining an examination of their directing theory and technique with practical exercises for use in classroom or rehearsal settings. Through their ground-breaking ideas and techniques, Russia's directors still demand our attention, and in this volume they come to life as a powerful resource for today's theatre makers.