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The Director's Craft: A Handbook for the Theatre. By Katie Mitchell. New York: Routledge, 2009; pp. x + 243. $99.00 cloth, $27.95 paper.
A thorough account of both what to do as a director and how to do it effectively awaits readers in Katie Mitchell's The Director's Craft: A Handbook for the Theatre. Directors who are young in their careers and are aiming for professional work in the theatre have the most to gain from this inspiring book written by a proven director. Actors would do well to read the author's honest reflections of what challenges the director when working with actors, written with much respect for and sensitivity to the process of acting. Those of us who direct and/or act while maintaining our artistic home in an academic setting will appreciate how well the author expresses the professional director's process. Mitchell shares the director's process (and divides her book) in three chronological stages: Part 1: Preparing for Rehearsals; Part 2: Rehearsals; and Part 3: Getting into the Theatre and the Public Performances. She finishes by sharing how she learned what she knows as a director and by including some interesting final thoughts regarding the nature of acting in Part 4: Context and Sources.
In part 1, it is clear that preparation is one of the author's highest priorities. Mitchell uses Chekhov's The Seagull, which she directed in 2007 at the National Theatre in London, as her pre-rehearsal- and rehearsal-period example text. Mitchell thoroughly explains a number of essential research...