Great Directors at Work: Stanislavsky, Brecht, Kazan, Brook

By David Richard Jones

Book Overview

The subject of this book is theatre directing in four internationally famous instances. The four directors--Konstantin Stanislavsky, Bertolt Brecht, Elia Kazan, and Peter Brook--all were monarchs of the profession in their time. Without their work, theatre in the twentieth century--so often called "the century of the director" --would have a radically different shape and meaning. The four men are also among the dozen or so modern directors whose theatrical achievements have become culture phenomena. In histories, theories, hagiographies, and polemics, these directors are conferred classic stature, as are the four plays on which they worked. Chekhov's The Seagull, Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children, and Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire have long been recognized, in the theatre and in the study, as masterpieces. They are anthologized, quoted, taught, parodied, read, and produced constantly and globally. The culturally conservative might question the presence of MaratiSade in such august company, but Peter Weiss's play stands every chance of figuring in Western repertories, classroom study, and theatrical histories until well into the twenty-first century. In their quite different ways, these are all classics of that Western drama which is part of our immediate heritage.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520061748
• ISBN13: 9780520061743
• Release Date: October 1987
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 380 Pages
• Weight: 0.77 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.6" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Drama Study Packs Message Powerfully

As an avid follower of the more satirical innovations in theatre, I was surprised to read a wonderful book that made use of a singular technique in conveying what might otherwise have been distinctly dry academic material. Choosing Stanislavsky, Bert Brecht, and Pete Brook is a stroke of inspiration given a critical technique that writes close to the bone with great sardonic wit! Jones' connection of Stanislavsky with the tradition of Russian "clown"(ing) is especially awakening, particularly vis-a-vis the chapter on pratfall, pedantry and logorrhea. Here David Jones plays the method actor's part to a "T." The chapter on Berthold Brecht and epic theatre is told in epic style, as Jones recounts--Homer-like--the daring theatrical exploits of this great proletariat warrior, swelling to epic proportions in descriptions of some of his finest work. What is somewhat confusing is the inclusion of Kazan with little reference to Kazan's ironic connection to Senator McCarthy's "UnAmerican" hearings,where Kazan "named names," in a highly misunderstood fashion. Much as Stanley in "Streetcar" names Stella with muscular, brute and feral but ambiguous elan. As a professor of 20th Century Aeolian Elaboration and a Narcissus Foundation for Literary Studies Fellow, I highly recommend this book! Kudos to David Richard Jones on his crowning achievement.