Interviews and essays by leading interpreters of Samuel Beckett offer fascinating insights into the man and his work.
Directing Beckett collects new and never-before published interviews and essays by those directors most closely associated with Samuel Beckett's work in theaters in the United States and abroad. The contributors include Herbert Blau, Edward Albee, Joseph Chaikin, JoAnne Akalaitis, and Carey Perloff---all of whom achieved great renown in the theater. Their reflections offer insight into what it means to direct for the theater and what it means to direct the work of perhaps the greatest playwright of the twentieth century. Many of the directors knew Beckett well and they speak openly here of their experiences working with him, of his own directing, and of various productions that, in taking great liberties with his work, have raised a number of fascinating legal and aesthetic questions.
The book's highlights include photographs from many of the productions, the unpublished text of a lecture by the late Alan Schneider, Beckett's most accomplished American director, and an interview with the late Roger Blin, the very first director of Beckett's work.
Directing Beckett will be useful to scholars and students in drama, directing, and literature as well as actors, directors and other theater professionals. It will appeal as well to general readers interested in Beckett and theater production.
". . . an excellent book that will be of enormous use to everyone engaged in the study (or production) of Beckett's drama."
---Hersh Zeifman, York University
Lois Oppenheim is Associate Professor of French, Montclair State University.
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6 x 9, ca 469 pages 10 photographsISBN 0-472-10535-3
cloth 37.50E (tentative)
December