Customer Reviews

Play Directors Survival Kit: A Complete Step-by-Step Guide to Producing Theater in Any School or Community Setting (J-B Ed: Survival Guides)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

While I didn't actually get any practicle directing techniques from this kit, I wasn't actually looking for any either. Anyone who thinks they can learn to direct from a book, shouldn't be directing in the first place. The kit has several checklists and forms that are a great resource for the new and more experienced director. It also serves as a solid outline of what is or should be involved with directing. It won't teach you how to direct, but then again, that's not the intent.

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.

The Play Director's survival kit is packed with advice. While it's geared toward college productions, any director of community, children's or secondary school plays will find much valuable information here.

The suggestions for choosing a play, running rehearsals, choreography for dummies, and keeping to a schedule are wonderful, and will help a new director successfully navigate through the minefield that is producing a play. No handbook can address every single problem facing a production, but this book is a positive and proactive resource.

Highly recommended, especially for the easily adaptable handouts and forms, the breakdown, and the upbeat tone.

This book is a good buy and actually gives you sample forms. The only thing it lacks is a fundraising guidance and that's really important in the formation of a good community theater. Still for the price, it's a good start.

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

We are traveling through the States. We ordered this to be delivered well before we visited friends in Texas. The book arrived more than a week after it's "latest possible delivery date" and we were already gone. We asked this friend to not open the book when it arrived but simply to cross out the address and forward it to family in California where we will be in a few days. It arrived in California but they had to pay $5.75 postage due!

It's really a book for amateurs. Most of the tips you can find out yourselves by a little logical thinking.