Book Review - How to Stage a Play…
Title: How to Stage a Play, Make a Fortune, Win a Tony, and become a Theatrical Icon
Author: Charles Marowitz
ISBN: 0-87910-322-1
My advice: Don’t break your neck to buy it.
Mr. Marowitz is an internationally known director, author, and critic. His backlog of books tips the scales at over 30 published works. He has worked closely with Peter Brook at the Royal Shakespeare Company Experimental Group. His credits include Joe Orton’s Loot, Sam Shepard’s The Tooth of Crime, Saul Bellow’s The Bellow Plays, David Pinner’s Fangborn, and Crawling Arnold by Jules Feiffer. So needless to say, he has the credentials to pen a fantastic book on the directing craft. However, this was not one. As he acknowledeges himself, this book was written as an “…unconscionable act of self-promotion.”
Judging by the introduction, I was prepared for this to have a sense of tongue in cheek, wink wink, nudge, nudge know what I mean…know what I mean…to it. Afterall, the book’s appeal was meant for those “who desperately crave fame and fortune and pursue theatre as a means of self-glorification rather than artistic mastery.” Instead, he paints a picture of a somewhat degrading and demoralizing experience for those interested in being directors. Perhaps this is Marowitz’s attempt to disuade his target audience from ever entering into the theatre in the first place… which I can appreciate and I agree with completely.
In this 152 page book, Marowitz starts the director’s trials and tribulations with how to choose a script and carries on through to surviving the reviews. The chapters are short and to the point which is greatly apreciated by this reviewer. Each chapter has an illustration by Cliff Mott which are superbly done. It is quite apparent that Marowitz has a decidely European feel for directing which is reflected in his tone towards dealing with the playwright, the designers and more specifically lighting designers. He even takes a swipe at American actors when discussing line prompts:
In European rehearsals, the prompter frequently whispers the text along with the actor mouthing it. This practice would drive American actors out of their squeaking little minds, as they are accustomed merely for calling for cues as they need them, but continental actors seem to rely on the custom and are inured to it.
Perhaps one of the most sage pieces of advice Marowitz offers concerns the director’s bullshit detector. He states that it “…must always be turned on and scouring the work of the company. When it finds crap, it must bleep loudly.” I found this to be solid and useful guidance.
How to Stage a Play…does for directors what “Waiting for Guffman” does for actors. If you have been through the process before then you will appreciate most of the antidotes Marowitz proffers. It is a “How to” book written in a sardonic manner and where this book falters a lttle bit is that it seems to blend the fine line between irony and instruction. Marowitz wants to mentor but loses sight of his intended audience of fame craving self-absorbed egotists which causes his book to split its focus and struggle against itself.