Terry McCabe

From Library Journal: This slim volume is a director's manifesto. It is not against contemporary theater or imaginative productions, but it is against directing as an occasion for making personal statements at the expense of the text. For McCabe, an award-winning director based in Chicago, great directing occurs only when the director's work becomes invisible. Working from an Aristotelian bias, McCabe argues that the audience should encounter only the play; the director should clarify plot, character, and thought and then stop. As part of his argument, McCabe presents a long diatribe against production dramaturgs, an extreme position to take in a climate of fevered competition for fewer jobs. McCabe is most compelling when he recounts war stories of successful or failed directing, including the battle between Elia Kazan and Tennessee Williams over Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. This book should roil the water a bit in "cutting edge" theater circles, but though readers may disagree with him, McCabe raises important and fundamental questions about theater practice that every director must answer. Recommended for all theater collections. Thomas E. Luddy, Salem State Coll., MA Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.… (mais)