Musicals!: Directing School and Community Theatre - Softcover

Robert Boland; Paul M. Argentini

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0810833239 ISBN 13: 9780810833234

Publisher: Scarecrow Press, 1997

Synopsis

Musicals! is an illustrated sourcebook for total theatre training, emphasizing the director's role in the three main building blocks for mounting a performance: preparation, production, and performance. Boland and Argentini provide a comprehensive step-by-step theatre primer which will prove invaluable to musical directors, teachers, administrators, students, and actors.After the initial decisions are made, specific guidelines in preparing the stage picture, holding auditions and casting, and running the gamut of rehearsals are provided. Lighting, costumes, creating sets and scenery, and safety precautions are also discussed. The musical number and choreography are analyzed and defined, and advice on how to use color and solve multiple scene problems is given.With opening night approaching, a checklist of what must be done is enumerated and explained. The authors provide tips on publicity, running the box office, as well as the do's and don'ts of mounting the show and its final strike. Includes a glossary of theatrical terms, a selected bibliography, and recommended sources for scenic drops, costumes, and lighting equipment.

About this title

About the Author:

Robert M. Boland (M.F.A., Boston University) is professor emeritus of Fine Arts and Theatre at Berkshire Community College in Massachusetts.

Paul M. Argentini is a playwright, novelist, screenwriter, quondam director and actor, and free-lance writer.

Review:

...a unique and valuable addition to any school or public library's drama section...an excellent resource for the first-time director as well as young adults who have an interest in theatre, but little experience, and want to learn more...a fine way to raise the curtain for the first scene in a directing career. (Professional Reviews)

...this superb book addresses every aspect of musical theatre...a key resource for all of those concerned with the staging of a musical on every scale from a school production to a major staging at a large capacity...theatre. It provides comprehensive step-by-step guidance for musical directors and choreographers, teachers, administrators, actors and students...presented in a clear, concise format with loads of illustrations, this book...is quite a find and a super addition to your library. (Amateur Stage)

Through accessible prose and you-can-do-it tone, the authors provide an overview of preproduction planning, auditioning and casting, blocking, stage composition, rehearsals, and choreography, as well as the more technical layers of set design. (Library Journal)

...invest in this book, which, as the playwright William Gibson says in the foreword 'should be in every high school and college library.' And public library I might add...remarkably complete... (Berkshire Eagle)

For those in need of a primer, this comes highly recommended. (Stage Directions)

The book has an accessible upbeat feel to the text which is dotted with inspirational quotes to enthuse and energize the prospective director into action. (School Library Association)

About this edition

• Publisher: Scarecrow Press
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0810833239
• ISBN 13: 9780810833234
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224