PN2053.M55

Introduction Part One: PREPARING FOR REHEARSALS Chapter One: Organising your early responses to the text ? Using lists of facts and questions ? Organising information about what exists before the action of the play begins ? Research ? Answering difficult questions about the text ? Place ? Character biographies Chapter Two: Organising information about each scene ? Immediate circumstances ? What happens between scenes or acts ? Time Chapter Three Investigating the big ideas of the play ? The writer and the play ? The ideas that underpin the text ? The genre or style of the play Chapter Four: Analysing the action of the play ? Giving a name to each act or scene ? Events ? Intentions ? Getting the text ready for the actors Chapter Five: Deepening work on character ? Characters? thoughts about themselves ? Relationships ? Preparing improvisations ? A checklist of all the work you have prepared so far Chapter Six: Building relationships with your production team ? Design ? Lighting ? Sound ? Music ? Video ? Voice ? Movement ? Chapter Seven: Selecting actors and testing starting points for rehearsals ? Casting ? Workshops Chapter Eight: Preparing the rehearsal environment ? Working with stage management ? Selection of rehearsal rooms ? Establishing communication structures ? Getting the rehearsal room ready Part Two: REHEARSALS Chapter Nine: The initial few days of rehearsals ? Organising your thoughts about actors ? Twelve golden rules for working with actors ? Establishing the language of your process ? How to give feedback to actors about their work ? How to sit in the rehearsal room ? The first day of rehearsals ? Introducing the text to the actors ? The model showing ? Introducing sound, costumes, props, furniture, lights and scenic elements to rehearsals Chapter Ten: Building the world of the play ? How to divide up the rehearsal day ? Introducing facts and questions ? Research ? Place ? The writer and the genre ? Practical work on ideas ? Practical work on emotions ? Character biographies ? First practical work on character and character tempo ? Relationships ? How to set up improvisations with the actors ? How to use visualisation exercises ? How to do all these things if you have a short rehearsal period Chapter Eleven: Working on the scenes of the play ? Analysing the action of the play with the actors ? The mark- up ? Improvising the trigger event and immediate circumstances ? How to structure the rehearsal day ? Rehearsing a scene for the first time ? ?Blocking? or making the action clear for the audience ? The second and third rehearsal of a scene ? Run-throughs ? The final days in a rehearsal room ? Working on sound, lighting, design and music during rehearsals ? Preparing your thinking about the audience ? How to do all this if you have a short rehearsal period Part Three: GETTING INTO THE THEATRE AND THE PUBLIC PERFORMANCES Chapter Twelve: Technical and dress rehearsals ? The schedule for getting into the theatre and technical rehearsals ? How to manage the transition from the rehearsal room to the theatre ? How to work with your creative team during technical rehearsals ? Lighting plotting sessions ? Sound and music sessions before the technical rehearsal begins ? Technical rehearsals ? The dress rehearsal Chapter Thirteen: The public performances ? The first few public performances ? Notes after shows ? Rehearsals during your first few public performances ? Press night ? The run of performances from after the press night until the last night ? Analysing your work after the run has ended Part Four: CONTEXT AND SOURCES Chapter Fourteen: How I learnt the skills the book describes ? Stanislavsky ? Practical experience of Stanislavsky?s legacy in Russia ? Lev Dodin teaches directing ? Research into the biology of emotions in the UK