STAGING A SCHOOL PLAY

Directions for the director, with addenda for all the members of the production--actors, stage manager, scenic and costume designer, house manager, etc. At best, the latter will be students, because ""the purpose of the school play is... to provide every student who wishes to take advantage of it the chance... to be part of a large and complex project to which he can actively contribute and in which he can achieve an excellence which is perhaps denied him in the rest of his life and work at school."" Excellence is to be achieved not by aiming for Broadway effects but by improvising with what you've got, and Mr. Chilver provides some specific (and illustrated) suggestions for flexible staging as well as advising the director to choose his play to fit the talent rather than the other way around. Some of his directorial techniques can be argued--and he's no adherent of the Actor's Studio--but there's a lot of professional insight and information behind his attempts to advance amateur production. He specifically excludes the elementary school beyond one brief section; fledgling directors in high schools and colleges will find him equally handy for staging a fight and forestalling untimely laughs.