Play Directing: Analysis, Communication, and Style [Hardcover]

Francis Hodge (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 5, 1994 | ISBN-10: 0135011078 | ISBN-13: 978-0135011072 | Edition: 4

This "work manual" explores all aspects of directing plays in live theatre, working with actors, with playwrights and designers.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Key Benefit:Directors are often faced with the challenges of live theatre, including working with actors, playwrights, and designers. This book outlines for readers a technical method for examining the structure of all playscripts in order to how directors can prepare. Key Topics: This book focuses on the various methods a director can use in communicating with actors and designers. In addition, the author illustrates how to bring out the actor through visual stimulations. Highlights include: surveys of the different areas of dramatic production, including modern plays, new plays, musical theater, and opera; considers how directors communicate directly with audiences through their choices; shows how directors can attain individualization in staging plays; and much more. Market: Directors.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall College Div; 4 edition (January 5, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0135011078
• ISBN-13: 978-0135011072
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,277,281 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best of the best., November 16, 2002

By 

Shock Writer (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Play Directing: Analysis, Communication, and Style (5th Edition) (Hardcover)

The core knowledge and organization of theater is here. Not too basic. Does expand on topics. While getting a Masters Degree in motion picture writing and directing I took a class from the acting school which used this book. Most of the insights in the book apply to both plays and recorded performing arts though Hodge fully defines what makes play production different from the recorded mediums. The author is truly brilliant in his inclusiveness and insights into story telling using human performance. The book is not boring to those of us who love the detail that gives a deep understanding of how things work. While most books I've read about directing are only the author's limited viewpoint of that which they've experienced while directing, Hodge departs from this easy approach by producing a complete directorial viewpoint that gives the student of directing the broad tools necessary to handle the complex activity of play directing as a professional. You can't possibly go wrong by reading the third edition of this book; one hopes that the future editions are as fine. It was one of those life enriching reads that those of us who love to understand things will never forget. Thank you Francis Hodge.

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I Was There!!!, July 25, 2007

By 

chris meesey Food Czar (The Colony, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Play Directing: Analysis, Communication, and Style (Hardcover)

I studied directing under Francis Hodge at The University of Texas at Austin. REPEAT! I STUDIED DIRECTING UNDER HODGE HIMSELF!!! HE was not at all dry. Rather, he KNEW what he was talking about, much more so than his detractors claim. In his last years, a disciple(?)whom we shall call Walter Plinge attempted to teach his method, and according to good sources, had the TEMERITY to exclaim in class that Hodge himself DID NOT KNOW HIS OWN METHOD!!! Can you believe the gall (and BS) of this man? Take it from one WHO ACTUALLY STUDIED THE MAN'S METHOD WITH THE MAN HIMSELF, Francis Hodge, like Noel Coward, had more pure theatre knowledge in his little finger than anyone else had in their entire body. Hodge's method can be explained very easily: KNOW THE PLAY, INSIDE AND OUT!!! Be VERY careful what you interpolate. Hodge gives you a complete plan whereby the play itself provides all the information you need. Analysis: Learn the dramatic action, paying particular attention to the character's polar attitudes: Who they are at the play's beginning, and how they progress through to the end. Communication: Here, Hodge shows you how to attack the play on stage, constructing working groundplans and increasing dramatic tension by placement of actors, furniture, and objects to better tell the story. Style: Here is where you go into the individual nuances of the play: How they use language, are they straightforward or elliptical in their speech, etc, and how to pull the whole thing together. In other words, you just don't automatically play the climactic scene down center or down right; you PLAY IT WHERE THE PLAY ITSELF TELLS YOU TO PLAY IT! Sorry to be so vehement, but it galls me to no end to read the uninformed ramblings of someone who did not study with the man, and claim to know his method. I WAS THERE!!!
At the risk of sounding pompous, here endith the lesson!!!

12 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Tedious, But Practical Text For Only the Beginner, December 4, 1999

By 

Book Addict "Eleanor T" (Pittsburgh, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Play Directing: Analysis, Communication, and Style (Hardcover)

Dry, dry, dry is the only way to describe the method of this text's approach to the work of the director of a live play. If directing a first project or working in the classroom, this book does contain useful tips for the analysis of a script, the use of various techniques in the staging thereof, and all the basic (and I mean ELEMENTARY) knowledge one needs to get a play off the ground from day one. But if seeking more insight into the art of it all, or a text not resigned to refer to the director as "he," for the sheer simplicity it creates, one would do better to seek out the other numerous interview-style tomes, with pieces from great directors on their own approach.