Dedication and Credits for Photographs. Preface. 1. Why the Director? 2. What Is a Play? Analysis and Improvisation. I. TAKING A PLAY APART: PLAY-ANALYSIS: THE DIRECTOR'S PRIMARY STUDY.
3. The Foundation and Facade of the Playscript: Given Circumstances and Dialogue. 4. The Hard Core of the Playscript: Dramatic Action and Characters. 5. Idea and Rhythmic Beats. 6. The Director's Preparation. II. COMMUNICATION.
Communication 1: The Director-Actor Relationship and Stage Blocking.
7. Directing Is Working with Actors 1. 8. Learning to See: The Games of Visual Perception. 9. Helping Actors Communicate through Groundplans. 10. Composition: Helping Actors Discover and Project Basic Relationships. 11. Helping Each Actor Intensify: Gesture and Improvisation with Properties. 12. Picturization: Helping a Group Intensify. 13. The Dynamic Tool of Movement. 14. Coordinating the Blocking Tools in Director-Actor Communication. Communication 2: Helping Actors Speak a Play.
15. Finding Oral and Visual Balance. 16. Directing is Working with Actors 2. Major Project 1A: Scene Practice.
Major Project 1B: Diagnostic Criticism.
Communication 3: The Director's Design Function and Communicating through Staging.
17. Directing Is Designing. 18. The Director and the Stage Machine: Symbolization and Synthesis. 19. Director's Options 1: Choice of the Stage. 20. Director's Options 2: Scenery, Properties, and Lighting. 21. Director's Options 3: Costume, Makeup, and Sound Effects. Communication 4: Helping Audiences Receive a Play.
22. Responsibility to Audiences. Major Project 2: Designing and Directing Your Own Production.
III. INTERPRETATION: A MATTER OF STYLE.
23. Style Is Individual Expression. 24. Style in Playwriting and Playwrights. 25. The Director's Analysis of Style in a Playscript. 26. Style in Production: Making Decisions. 27. Style in Production: Modern Plays. 28. Style in Production: New Plays. 29. Style in Production: Plays of Past Ages. Major Project 3: Directing with Designers.
Appendix 1. Directing Musical Theatre and Opera.
Appendix 2. The Director and the Dramaturgy.
Appendix 3. Your Future as a Director.
Bibliography. Index.