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Much Ado About Nothing Director's Playbook
Much Ado About Nothing Director's Playbook Author:William Shakespeare This Director's Playbook expands the text of the play with plenty of sketchbook space, and a number of features that a director will need to keep track of: auditioning, entrances and exits, plot summary, acting techniques for new actors, the producer functions: budget, designing the playbill, the publicity campaign, fundraising, arranging for th... more »eater, etc., and the pre-production side: set design, wardrobe or costumery, stage managing, sound, lights, photography. The play has a glossary for unfamiliar terms. Scheduling becomes important in a production of this size, and a team organized around a timeline to get everything ready at the same time and on schedule. The text itself is broken into segments, each scene has a stage diagram for placement of sets -- as well as the set design section for director's notes on what to build, dimensions of the stage, etc. Also included are keylines for each segment of each scene, for ease of reference. This Director's Playbook is ideal for a high school English teacher willing to take on such a project, providing opportunities for many young actors to try out their stuff, and have fun doing it. College drama teachers may find it useful as a class exercise in envisioning a whole production. And community theater groups will find it valuable as a guide to keeping track of all the components. The Playbook is designed to stimulate the director into his/her own ideas about how to present the material. Shakespeare plays are often set in interesting time periods other than the Elizabethan age, and many of his themes resonate with today's headlines -- the eternal themes of love, ambition, skulduggery, and the broad human drama.« less