Musicals!: Directing School and Community Theatre [Paperback]

Robert Boland (Author), Paul M. Argentini (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1997 | ISBN-10: 0810833239 | ISBN-13: 978-0810833234

Musicals! is an illustrated sourcebook for total theatre training, emphasizing the director's role in the three main building blocks for mounting a performance: preparation, production, and performance. Boland and Argentini provide a comprehensive step-by-step theatre primer which will prove invaluable to musical directors, teachers, administrators, students, and actors.

After the initial decisions are made, specific guidelines in preparing the stage picture, holding auditions and casting, and running the gamut of rehearsals are provided. Lighting, costumes, creating sets and scenery, and safety precautions are also discussed. The musical number and choreography are analyzed and defined, and advice on how to use color and solve multiple scene problems is given.

With opening night approaching, a checklist of what must be done is enumerated and explained. The authors provide tips on publicity, running the box office, as well as the do's and don'ts of mounting the show and its final strike. Includes a glossary of theatrical terms, a selected bibliography, and recommended sources for scenic drops, costumes, and lighting equipment.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Boland, a community college theater educator with 27 years of experience teaching and directing musicals, and Argentini, a playwright, actor, and freelance writer, have parlayed their 35-year friendship and considerable theatrical expertise into a handbook for novice directors of the musical. This illustrated nuts-and-bolts compendium includes 22 chapters divided among three major sections addressing preparation, production, and performance. Through accessible prose and a you-can-do-it tone, the authors provide an overview of preproduction planning, auditioning and casting, blocking, stage composition, rehearsals, and choreography, as well as the more technical layers of set design, costumes, and lights. A glossary and selected bibliography are also included. An appropriate acquisition for introductory guidance to musicals at the school and community theater levels; for a more intermediate guide, try Elaine and Deborah Novak's Staging Musical Theater: A Complete Guide for Directors, Choreographers, and Producers (LJ 8/96).?Barry X. Miller, Austin P.L, Tex.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

...a unique and valuable addition to any school or public library's drama section...an excellent resource for the first-time director as well as young adults who have an interest in theatre, but little experience, and want to learn more...a fine way to raise the curtain for the first scene in a directing career. (Professional Reviews )

...this superb book addresses every aspect of musical theatre...a key resource for all of those concerned with the staging of a musical on every scale from a school production to a major staging at a large capacity...theatre. It provides comprehensive step-by-step guidance for musical directors and choreographers, teachers, administrators, actors and students...presented in a clear, concise format with loads of illustrations, this book...is quite a find and a super addition to your library. (Amateur Stage )

Through accessible prose and you-can-do-it tone, the authors provide an overview of preproduction planning, auditioning and casting, blocking, stage composition, rehearsals, and choreography, as well as the more technical layers of set design. (Library Journal )

...invest in this book, which, as the playwright William Gibson says in the foreword 'should be in every high school and college library.' And public library I might add...remarkably complete... (Berkshire Eagle )

For those in need of a primer, this comes highly recommended. (Stage Directions )

The book has an accessible upbeat feel to the text which is dotted with inspirational quotes to enthuse and energize the prospective director into action. (School Library Association )

...a marvelously complete and detailed handbook which, in my opinion as a playwright, should be in every high school and college library in the country. (From The Foreword By William Gibson )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Scarecrow Press (July 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810833239
• ISBN-13: 978-0810833234
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #145,517 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Some useful information put into practice, October 24, 2007

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M. R. Taylor "Music self-played is a joy self... (American Fork, UT) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Musicals!: Directing School and Community Theatre (Paperback)

I got several books on directing when I was about to direct my first show, an opera, last year and was glad I got this one. It had some really useful ideas on blocking diagrams that I immediately put to use.