Playwright versus Director: Authorial Intentions and Performance Interpretations(Contributions in Drama and Theatre Studies)

Giving equal space to the sanctity of script and the artistic freedom of directors, this book addresses the difficulties encountered by playwrights and directors as they bring a script to the stage. Inspired directors can help a writer of genius turn his play into exciting theatre, but playwrights find that giving directors leeway to interpret and modify text can result in directors' overriding authorial intentions. This book presents the best that has been written by literary theorists on the current definitions of text and attempts to depart from quick rule-of-thumb assessments of the problem. Drawing from definitive articles in literary and theatre journals, part one gives the reader basic concepts and terminology. Interviews with playwrights and directors, showing the complexity of the issue, appear in part two, and part three includes case studies of playwrights and directors who faced production crises. Legal aspects of collaboration are considered in part four. The book concludes with a positive approach and possible solution to the problem.

Table of Contents:
Illustrations Preface Acknowledgments Theories of Authorship and Interpretation Literary Assumptions about Text Literature's New Criticism Applied to Theatre Remarks of Playwrights and Directors Alley Forum: Playwrights, Directors, and the Postmodern Stage Robert Anderson, Playwright Sidney Berger, Director Danny Mann, Director, and Edward Albee, Playwright Lanford Wilson, Playwright Robert Wilson, Performer, Director, Writer Jose Quintero, Director Tiers of Director/Playwright Interchange: Five Case Studies A "Director's Director": Tennessee Williams and A Streetcar Named Desire A Tyrant Director? William Inge and Joshua Logan A Director's Distortion of a Modern Classic: Arthur Miller's Shift in Stance A Playwright-Director with a Classic: Albee's Direction of Beckett Director, Playwright, and Cast: Caryl Churchill's Approach to Text Theatre Aesthetics and the Law Contractual Provisions of the Dramatists' Guild, Inc. Collaboration and American Law: The Rights of Playwrights: Performance Theory and American Law by Robert Hapgood Afterword Works Cited General Bibliography Index

About the Author :
JEANE LUERE, Professor Emeritus at the University of Northern Colorado, has published extensively in the fields of English literature and the humanities. Luere has received grants from the Ford Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and has conducted research on theatre during 13 months at the library of the University of Firenze, Italy, and for 14 months at the University of Teheran, Iran, while teaching humanities at these universities. She has published articles and research in many journals such as Theatre Journal, Studies in American Drama: 1945-Present, and South Atlantic Review. SIDNEY BERGER is Director, School of Theatre, University of Houston and Producing Director, Houston Shakespeare Festival.