The Great Stage Directors: 100 Distinguished Careers of the Theater [Hardcover]

Samuel L. Leiter (Author), Samuel L Leiter (Author), Simon Callow (Foreword)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

YA-Biographical and critical career information about key figures in the dramatic art world, both past and present. The book is not meant to be all-inclusive, but it is representative of various facets and differing styles. Most of the people are British or American who were born after 1800. Leiter writes in a smooth flowing, easily readable style; each entry is about two-to-four pages in length and includes a photograph of the director and/or one of the productions. The detailed index provides quick access when only the title of the work is known.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Coverage in this biographical dictionary is international, though most of the 100 directors are British or American. Coverage is also historical, though most of the directors are from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In his introductory note, the author acknowledges the difficulties of choosing 100 names within such a broad context. He states that the purpose of the volume is to be representative, not all-inclusive. Among the directors profiled are Americans Michael Bennett and Bob Fosse; Britishers Trevor Nunn and Peter Brook; Ingmar Bergman and Orson Welles, who also made names for themselves in film; David Garrick and Henry Irving, great showmen from an earlier age; and Konstantin Stanislavsky, Peter Sellars, Jonathan Miller, Noel Coward, Bertolt Brecht, and several women directors, including Eva Le Gallienne and Ariane Mnouchkine.

Arrangement is alphabetical by director's surname. Each lengthy (generally around 2,000 words) analytical essay is followed by a brief list of further readings. There is some biographical information, but the essays concentrate on subjects' theatrical careers, describing major works, discussing concepts and working styles, noting weaknesses as well as strengths, and fitting each director into context in terms of their importance to theater. Information is current enough to include mention of George Abbott's work on the revival of his Damn Yankees and of JoAnne Akalaitis's controversial firing from the Public Theater. More than 80 black-and-white photographs of play scenes and portraits of directors are provided. The volume concludes with a selected bibliography of nearly 100 works that discuss two or more directors, since titles on individual directors are included with the essays, and a detailed index.

There are other reference works on theater that include information about directors, but until this year there was no volume devoted to theatrical directors exclusively; now there are two. Theatrical Directors: A Biographical Dictionary [RBB Mr 15 94] profiles almost three times as many directors and includes a number of younger directors not found in this Facts On File book. Eighty of the 100 directors in The Great Stage Directors are also in Theatrical Directors but with its longer essays, The Great Stage Directors provides more information about each director, and its single author results in a more uniform style. The Great Stage Directors also has the advantage of illustrations and a cheaper price. Large public and academic libraries will probably want to acquire both works. Smaller libraries that need a reference work on stage directors could do well with either but may find that the less-expensive Facts On File volume is sufficient to their needs.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Facts on File (May 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0816026025
• ISBN-13: 978-0816026029
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,536,797 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)