Play Directors Survival Kit: A Complete Step-By-Step Guide to Producing Theater in Any School or Community Setting

by James W. Rodgers and Wanda C. Rodgers

Book Overview

This expansive guide covers the where, when, and how for every step of school play production, including play selection and adaptation, auditions, casting and dealing with disappointed students, budgeting, coaching actors, setting up a production team, rehearsals, publicity, and promotion

• Format: Spiral-bound
• Language: English
• ISBN: 087628862X
• ISBN13: 9780876288627
• Release Date: April 1995
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Length: 297 Pages
• Weight: 1.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 8.9" x 11.0"

Customer Reviews

Happy with the book

Very nelpful in organizing a sucessful play. Eliminates or reduces the 'fine art of forgetting something'.

Couldn't put it down!

This book is very practical and easy to understand. Parts might be a little basic, but they're definitely helpful. This book was recommended for a Directing 2 class in which Directors in Rehearsal (Cole), The Open Door (Brook), and A Director Prepares (Bogart) were all required. Which one do you think I read first, AND w/ the greatest of ease? Great for those just beginning to direct as well as teachers.

I wish....

I wish someone had recommended this book before I directed half a dozen musicals and learned its contents the hard way...trial and error. While the information is largely common sense, the organization saves the time of having to figure it out yourself. I recommend it highly...especially for school and community theatre.

Everything a director needs to know gathered in one place.

I discovered this book through a fellow theatre professor and was immediately impressed with its scope of information. So impressed, in fact, that I'm planning to adopt it as the textbook for an advanced directing course I teach that culminates with the production of a one-act play.The authors have covered everything a director needs to know, from selecting the play through rehearsals, peformances,and marketing. This book would be especially helpful for high school/community theatre directors, or those in similar situations where the director is expected to assume some of the responsibilites usually handled by a producer. (The sample forms are especially good for these organizations.)Although not a substitute for a more thorough book on the pure basics of directing (blocking, composition, etc.), this is an excellent supplement that reviews those basics and enhances them with elements that often aren't covered in directing classes but are faced in production (putting together program copy, for example). Although I've been directing professionally for over 12 years, I immediately ordered a copy for myself after examining it.

Perfect for the unorganized or inexperienced director

Survival Kit is the perfect name for this book. The Play Director's Survival Kit has been in great demand no matter what community or regional theater I've worked in. Everyone is borrowing it. Time to buy your own kit. The kit is perfect for the person who may be slightly unorganized (as creative people can be) and will take you through step by step to get your production to a successful conclusion. It's hard to forget anything when you have this kit by your side. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is directing for the first time or who has found that they are not quite as organized as they thought.