01 / Reading Guide
Reading Guide
Who this book is for
For beginning students of drama or theatre appreciation who want to connect reading with the collaborative work of production. The book helps explain what performers, directors and designers contribute to a staged event. It can accompany a literature course on plays, provided readers also attend to performance rather than treating drama only as dialogue printed on a page.
Prerequisites
No previous theatre course or production experience is required. Be willing to read a play and observe a performance closely, noting choices that a script alone does not fully determine.
What it covers
The collection begins with an introduction to theatre, then covers acting, directing, set, costume and lighting design. Special topics include genre, Shakespeare, the American musical and world theatre. Different contributors explain their areas. The selection offers a starting vocabulary, not a complete history of every theatrical tradition or a practical qualification in all production crafts.
How to use it
Choose a short scene and describe two possible ways to stage it. For each, identify an acting choice, a spatial relationship and one design decision that changes an audience’s understanding. Watch a performance and distinguish observation from evaluation in your notes. Compare the production’s decisions with the script’s possibilities before judging them. Use the chapters to learn a shared language for discussing collaboration.
Edition and sources
Edited by Charlie Mitchell, this is the 2014 Beta Version from University Press of Florida, ISBN 9781616101664. The complete university-hosted PDF is free. Its modified CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 notice permits electronic sharing but reserves printing rights to the publisher; it should not be described as unrestricted permission to print or adapt. Publisher or author record.
