"This book is the fruit of the author's project to personally observe and document 'the rehearsals of fifteen Albee-directed productions [of his own works] since the late-seventies.' Solomon (theater and drama, Univ. of Indiana, Bloomington) has been studying the work of Edward Albee for 30 years, and his familiarity with Albee as director is impressive. His central argument is that understanding Albee as director clarifies and illuminates Albee's plays in general. Though wary of the intentional fallacy, Solomon fully documents Albee's choices and decisions, frequently shedding a corrective light on texts as Albee imagined them. Solomon is adroit in comparing Albee to other playwrights-as-directors—Samuel Beckett, Bertolt Brecht, and George Bernard Shaw, for example—and to a number of renowned directors, ranging from Stanislavski to Alan Schneider. Solomon includes transcripts of numerous interviews with Albee and many of his collaborators, from actors to designers and stage managers. What surfaces is a valuable portrait of Albee as an actor's director, influenced by, but not bound to, the American method-acting tradition. Clearly 'demonstrate[ing] how central staging and performance are to Albee's conception and practice of his art,' this valuable study serves those interested in both literature and performance. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. — Choice"
Matthew Roudané
What is so enjoyable about this study is that it reflects all the complex choices that go into staging a live performance.
Matthew Roudané]]>
What is so enjoyable about this study is that it reflects all the complex choices that go into staging a live performance.
Edward Albee
Anyone wishing to study not only me as a director/author, but the creative mind at practical work will be gratified.
Matthew Roudané
What is so enjoyable about this study is that it reflects all the complex choices that go into staging a live performance.
W. W. Demastes]]>
This book is the fruit of the author's project to personally observe and document 'the rehearsals of fifteen Albee-directed productions [of his own works] since the late-seventies.' Solomon (theater and drama, Univ. of Indiana, Bloomington) has been studying the work of Edward Albee for 30 years, and his familiarity with Albee as director is impressive. His central argument is that understanding Albee as director clarifies and illuminates Albee's plays in general. Though wary of the intentional fallacy, Solomon fully documents Albee's choices and decisions, frequently shedding a corrective light on texts as Albee imagined them. Solomon is adroit in comparing Albee to other playwrights-as-directors—Samuel Beckett, Bertolt Brecht, and George Bernard Shaw, for example—and to a number of renowned directors, ranging from Stanislavski to Alan Schneider. Solomon includes transcripts of numerous interviews with Albee and many of his collaborators, from actors to designers and stage managers. What surfaces is a valuable portrait of Albee as an actor's director, influenced by, but not bound to, the American method-acting tradition. Clearly 'demonstrate[ing] how central staging and performance are to Albee's conception and practice of his art,' this valuable study serves those interested in both literature and performance. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. — Choice
W. W. Demastes
This book is the fruit of the author's project to personally observe and document 'the rehearsals of fifteen Albee-directed productions [of his own works] since the late-seventies.' Solomon (theater and drama, Univ. of Indiana, Bloomington) has been studying the work of Edward Albee for 30 years, and his familiarity with Albee as director is impressive. His central argument is that understanding Albee as director clarifies and illuminates Albee's plays in general. Though wary of the intentional fallacy, Solomon fully documents Albee's choices and decisions, frequently shedding a corrective light on texts as Albee imagined them. Solomon is adroit in comparing Albee to other playwrights-as-directors—Samuel Beckett, Bertolt Brecht, and George Bernard Shaw, for example—and to a number of renowned directors, ranging from Stanislavski to Alan Schneider. Solomon includes transcripts of numerous interviews with Albee and many of his collaborators, from actors to designers and stage managers. What surfaces is a valuable portrait of Albee as an actor's director, influenced by, but not bound to, the American method-acting tradition. Clearly 'demonstrate[ing] how central staging and performance are to Albee's conception and practice of his art,' this valuable study serves those interested in both literature and performance. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. — Choice
