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.
Introduction 1. Action Analysis 2. Foundations of the Plot: Given Circumstances 3. Foundations of the Plot: Background Story 4. Plot: External and Internal Action in the Dialogue and Stage Directions 5. Plot: Progressions and Structure 6. Character 7. Idea 8. Dialogue 9. Tempo, Rhythm, and Mood 10. Style Appendix: Conceptual Theatre and External Approaches to Play Analysis
Biography
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.
