Directing for Community Theatre

Directing for Community Theatre is a primer for the amateur director working in community theatre. With an emphasis on preparedness, this book gives the amateur director the tools and techniques needed to effectively work on a community theatre production. Covering play analysis, blocking, staging, communication, and working with actors, designers, and other theatre personnel, this how-to book is designed to have the community theatre director up and running quickly, with full knowledge of how to direct a show. The book also contains sample forms and guidelines, including acting analysis, character analysis, rehearsal schedule, audition form, prop list, and blocking pans. Directing for Community Theatre is written for the community theatre participant who is interested, or already cast, in the role of the director.

1. Introduction 2. Obsession 3. Blocking Notes 4. Stages of Rehearsal 5. A Directing Primer 6. Play Analysis 7. Production Organization 8. Directors and Design 9. The Visual Tools 10. Acting Exercises 11. Playwrighting 12. Memorization 13. Ethics and Behavior 14. Diversity 15. The Stage Manager

Daniel L. Patterson is Professor Emeritus of Keene State College in New Hampshire, where he taught for 40 years and directed over 40 productions. He received two Kennedy Center medallions for his work with the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. He is an MFA graduate of the University of Texas in Austin (1975) and was one of the co-founders of the TheatreWorks company in Colorado Springs in 1975. He has acted in 18 of Shakespeare’s plays in various companies around the country. Professor Patterson also worked with the Association for Theatre in Higher Education where he served as a director and an actor in their new play development program.