Great Directors at Work

Book excerpt: This scholarly and detailed work attempts to create an understanding of the process of directing by intensive study of four important productions. Jones shows how the notes Stanislavsky made on The Seagull before beginning rehearsal shaped his 1898 production into a seminal example of realism. He describes the detailed workbook Brecht prepared from three different stagings of Mother Courage and Her Children from 1948 to 1951. Elia Kazan's 1947 A Streetcar Named Desire is studied as a commercial production that retained artistic integrity. Peter Brook's Marat/Sade exemplifies experimental theat.