Script Analysis for Actors, Directors, and Designers / Edition 3

by James Thomas

Overview

Script Analysis for Actors, Directors, and Designers, Seventh Edition, teaches the skills of script analysis using a formalist approach that examines the written part of a play to evaluate its potentials for performance and production.

This new edition features new and revised content, including an analysis of two new plays, Kalidasa's Shakuntala and Federico Garcia Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba; information for the theatre designer integrated in chapters throughout the book; and an expanded appendix on critical approaches to script analysis. Explorations of both classic and unconventional plays are combined with clear examples, end-of-chapter summaries, and stimulating questions that will allow actors, directors, and designers to immediately incorporate the concepts and processes into their theatre production work.

An excellent resource for students of acting, script analysis, directing, playwriting, and stage design courses, this book provides the tools to effectively bring a script to life on stage.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780240806624
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	11/28/2004
Edition description:	with new material on action analysis
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.66(d)

About the Author

James Thomas is a Professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance at Wayne State University, USA. His publications include The Seagull: An Insider's Account of the Groundbreaking Moscow Production; A Director's Guide to Stanislavsky's Active Analysis; The Art of the Actor Manager: Wilson Barrett and the Victorian Theatre; and translations of The Joy of Rehearsal, The Craft of Rehearsal, and Beyond Rehearsal by Russian director Anatoly Efros. He was a contributor to Russian Theatre in Practice and his research has been published in Theatre Journal, Theatre Topics, Contemporary Theatre Review, and Scene. He is also founding director of Wayne State University's Summer Study Abroad Intensive with the Moscow Art Theatre School.

Table of Contents

Introduction; Principles of Effective Analysis: The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams; Formalist Analysis: Foundations of the Plot—Given Circumstances; Effective Analysis: Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare; Formalist Analysis: Foundations of the Plot—Background Story; Effective Analysis: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard; Formalist Analysis: Plot—Physical and Psychological Action; Effective Analysis: Six Characters in Search of an Author by Luigi Pirandello; Formalist Analysis: Plot—Progressions and Structure; Effective Analysis: Long Day’s Journey into Night by Eugene O’Neill; Formalist Analysis: Character Objectives; Effective Analysis: Death and the King’s Horseman by Wole Soyinka; Formalist Analysis: Idea Words; Effective Analysis: Marisol by José Rivera; Formalist Analysis: Dialogue; Effective Analysis: The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter; Formalist Analysis: Tempo, Rhythm, and Mood, Tempo; Effective Analysis: American Buffalo by David Mamet; Formalist Analysis: The Style of the Play; Effective Analysis: Man and Superman by George Bernard Shaw; A Final Word.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for the Fifth Edition

"James Thomas has written a great resource book for anyone creating theatre. The information is detailed, clear, and easily applicable to text analysis for actors, directors, and designers."

– Barbara Anger, Ithaca College

"This book has been overwhelmingly effective in meeting the goals I set for this course."

– Perry Crafton, West Texas A&M University

From the Publisher