Making Plays: The Writer-Director Relationship in the Theater Today

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. Writers, as involved observers, often know more of directorial practice than directors themselves, and vice versa. In this book, two practitioners try to resolve this paradox by drawing directly on their own experience, moving from the first meeting through revisions, rehearsals, previews and notices. On the way they investigate the roles played by designers, producers, critics - and actors! - in the staging of a new work in the modern theatre.

For the interested theatre-goer the result is an illuminating insight into the creative process; for the professional or aspirant, a valuable working guide.