How to Read a Play

Directors and dramaturgs must know how to analyze a performance text in order to bring it to life on the stage. This book documents a range of the models used when reading a text, divided into three sections. The first section details play analysis from Aristotle onwards. The second surveys current Western theatre practices through research, interviews and observation, and is divided into subsections based on directors' tasks. The third is a workbook of exercises based on findings from section two, designed to help the director analyze their chosen text. The goal is that, having experimented with the practices in this book, the reader will be equipped to create their own brand of analysis.