audiobook The Late Starters Orchestra by Ari L. Goldman in Arts-Photography

Description

Terry McCabe; himself an accomplished stage director and teacher of theatre arts; here attacks what he calls the growing decadence that plagues contemporary stage directing. He argues for a radical reorganization of the directors view of his role. It has become an article of faith in the theatre; Mr. McCabe observes; that a play is about what the director chooses to have it be about. But what right does a director have to treat a play as a found object; to be reshaped to express the directors concerns? None whatsoever; Mr. McCabe replies. He examines anecdotally a range of work by different directors by way of offering a substantial critique of todays leading theory of stage directing; and he offers an alternate approach. He challenges the notion that a play is the directors vehicle for self-expression; arguing that the idea of the director as centerpiece of the theatre tends to distort plays and oppress actors. He explores what it means to direct a play when directing is properly understood as a process of self-effacement. Mis-directing the Play examines the role of the director as collaborator with actors; designers; dramaturges; and playwrights. Throughout; the books focus is on shedding the counterproductive myth of the director as creative auteur and urging in its place a return to first principles: the idea of the director as the interpretive artist in charge of putting the playwrights play onstage.