In the process by which a new play migrates from the desk of the person who wrote it to the stage where it comes to life in front of an audience, the relationship between playwright and director is crucial. And yet, through a combination of circumstance and theatre etiquette, there is little public knowledge of what actually goes on in the rehearsal room except when something goes badly wrong and the code of privacy is broken.

This volume makes available for the first time a complete translation in English of a key text for our understanding of Kabuki, viz. Kezairoku, Sakusha Shikihô (Valuable Notes on Playwriting, A Playwrights’ Methodology, written 1801), being the only extant treatise fully devoted to the subject of Kabuki playwriting. At the hand of this vital text, the author addresses the history, methodology, and practitioners of Kabuki playwriting of the Edo Period (1603-1867.) The reader will find a critical examination of Kezairoku, and discussions regarding the connections between the Kabuki and literary worlds of Edo Japan, and between playwriting and the oral arts. The availability of the entire Kezairoku in English, together with a full contextualization of its teachings and meanings, offers a volume of great significance to both Japan and theatre scholars.

"There's an unruly quality to Jung's idea of what theater can be, jagged and untethered, coy and dreamlike. It's thrilling to see that potential unleashed on the vagaries of love." New York Times A southpaw boxer is on the verge of their pro debut when their wife signs the adoption papers for a Korean boy: the boy's original adoptive father was all set to hand him over to a new home ... until he realizes the boy would have no 'dad'. Caught in the middle, the child launches himself in a lone wolf's journey of finding a pack he can call his own. Mischievous and affecting, Hansol Jung's Wolf Play deftly explores the intricacies of the families we choose and un-choose, and how far we would all go to defend our pack. Nominated for seven Lucille Lortel Awards after its initial production was postponed by the Covid-19 outbreak, Wolf Play is published in Methuen Drama's Modern Classics series, featuring a new introduction by Dustin Wills.

Every aspect of producing a play is covered in this book, from selecting the play, preparations, working with designers & rehearsing with actors to opening night & the run. It is a useful book for all those interested in the directing process.

Now in its 4th edition, this is an accessible and comprehensive introduction to the critical study of drama. Using familiar examples of classic and contemporary works such as Shakespeare's King Lear, Ibsen's A Doll's House and Timberlake Wertenbaker's Our Country's Good, the book explores the essential elements of play texts, from character, dialogue and plot to theatrical space. With more in depth guidance on how to study plays in and as performance, both live and in recordings available online, the 4th edition of Studying Plays now includes: · new examples throughout the book drawn from a range of 21st-century plays by established and emergent writers for diverse theatres and companies · new explorations of how plays structure and engage audience response · a complete new section on the analysis of theatre of witness and testimony; monodrama; and postdramatic texts.

A history of our time.

Play Directing describes the various roles a director plays, from selection and analysis of the play, to working with actors and designers to bring the production to life. The authors emphasize that the role of the director as an artist-leader collaborating with actors and designers who look to the director for partnership in achieving their fullest, most creative expressions. The text emphasizes how the study of directing provides an intensive look at the structure of plays and acting, and of the process of design of scenery, costume, lighting, and sound that together make a produced play.