Inventing the Truth: Devising and Directing for the Theatre
Language: English
Published by Nick Hern Books, GB, 2012
- Softcover
- New
Seller: Rarewaves USA United, HEBRON, KY, U.S.A.Rarewaves USA United
AbeBooks seller since June 20, 2025
Condition: New
£ 51.83
Quantity: 8 available
Add to basketItem description from seller
An invaluable guide to the difficult arts of devising plays and directing texts, by one of the UK's leading theatre directors.Throughout a lifetime of experience - as an actor for Mike Leigh, founder of Hull Truck, Artistic Director of the Bush Theatre, and subsequently as a freelance director - Mike Bradwell has forged a reputation as a theatrical innovator and risk-taker.This book begins by exploring the process of devising a play by working intensively through character and improvisation with a group of actors. Using A Bed of Roses as an example, a play that he himself devised, Bradwell shows how the actors set about inventing their characters, whether within a pre-determined framework or with no strictures whatsoever. He explores how actors can then 'grow' their character, both through solo work and through interaction with the other characters. He also examines the role of the director in moulding and shaping the individual scenes, the overall action of the play, and the development of the characters within it.The second half of the book describes in detail how the nuanced work involved in devising characters from scratch can be applied to a pre-existing text. Bradwell explains the techniques by which he encourages the actor to take possession of his or her character by investigating or inventing their whole history up to the moment the action begins. Taking as his template Jack Thorne's play When You Cure Me, which Bradwell directed at the Bush, he demonstrates the meticulous work on the text that is needed to keep the characters alive and truthful in every moment of the action.All together, Inventing the Truth offers practitioners a unique account of the techniques involved in devising or directing plays to the highest standard. Mike Bradwell's previous book The Reluctant Escapologist won the Theatre Book Prize in 2011.'There is a special sense of care about a Mike Bradwell production, in dramas that penetrate deeply into the secret corners of the human heart' Daily TelegraphAlso included in the book, to aid the reader's understanding of the process, are the full texts of both A Bed of Roses ('Hilariously funny, extremely moving and physically frightening. a small masterpiece' Time Out) and Jack Thorne's When You Cure Me ('Painstakingly honest. acutely observant of the petty rivalries and jealousies that sickness provokes' Guardian).…
Seller Inventory # LU-9781848421530
- Title
- Inventing the Truth: Devising and Directing for the Theatre
- Author
- Mike Bradwell
- Publisher
- Nick Hern Books, GB
- Publication year
- 2012
- Condition
- New
- Binding
- Paperback
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 1848421532
- ISBN 13
- 9781848421530
- Item weight
- 292 grams
Devising is a major element of GCSE and A level Drama and Theatre Studies. Inventing the Truth is the insider's guide to devising and the art of improvisation, from someone who learnt the craft from Mike Leigh.
Taking the reader behind the scenes and into the rehearsal process, Inventing the Truth is Mike Bradwell's accessible guide to creating a play from scratch. Theatre is fundamentally about persuading an audience to suspend their disbelief; here Bradwell shows how he has worked with actors to build and develop the characters and plot of an improvised play; and then how he uses improvisation as a director of a scripted piece, taking his actors on a journey of exploration, to create as real a piece of theatre as possible.
In two brilliantly complimentary parts Bradwell takes us through his work on Bed of Roses, improvised with actors from Hull Truck, and When You Cure Me written by Jack Thorne for Bradwell to direct at the Bush Theatre. In the first half he provides a clear and precise analysis of how an improvised play is put together and then, in the second, shows how those same techniques can be used on a scripted play to build and develop characters the audience can truly believe in. It's a revelatory process, learned while working with Mike Leigh, and one that is rarely talked about with such candour and honesty. The full scripts of both plays are included in this book as essential reference points.
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About the Author
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