<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: If you're looking for answers...go elsewhere.
Review: Having been introduced to the concept of "Viewpoints" in a weekend directing workshop, I was eager to read more about it. After reading this book, I know less about "Viewpoints" than before I started. If you're looking for an insight into how Anne Bogart works (and she very well may be very talented - I don't know, as I've never seen one of her productions) you won't find it here. There is much discussion about "the Viewpoints" and referrences to "the Viewpoints" and even definitions of "the Viewpoints", but as far as what Anne Bogart does WITH "the Viewpoints" I have no idea. One reviewer is correct - this book is a love story, written by people who think that Anne Bogart is the Messiah of Modern, er Postmodern Theatre. If you're looking to join in the lovefest, by all means, sign up. If you're looking for insights into how to work "the Viewpoints" into your work...you'll be disappointed.
Rating: 
Summary: Re: "Ohhhhhhhhh Lordy, when will it ever end?" by NY reader
Review: I hadn't intended to respond, but when I read the review below I felt I must try to explain NY reader's misconception about Anne Bogart and her attitude toward the audience. In the opening essay of this book, Bogart retells one of her first experiences with the theatre: she was fifteen years old, and she attended a production of Macbeth at the Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island. She writes that she was confused and disoriented by the language and staging, but that she left the theatre with a realization that she follows to this day: "Never talk down to the audience. It was immediately clear to me that the experience of theatre was not about us understanding the meaning of the play or the significance of the staging." Instead, she was able to experience the play "directly, in a visceral and fantastic manner."So, yes... Bogart does insinuate that the audience won't understand every play she directs--but she doesn't say this contemptuously. Even now, Bogart admits that she is often confused by productions she sees, and she writes that this feeling of confronting the unexpected and confusing is essential to quality theatre. She acknowledges that not everyone in the audience will understand because not every human can understand everything; indeed, not even one human can understand everything. The opportunity to reach beyond your boundaries, to traverse places where you aren't entirely comfortable--that is one of the greatest assets of the theatre. And that devotion to the challenge of understanding characterizes every aspect of Anne Bogart's work. Bogart is an intelligent, creative, talented director--and this book is an excellent introduction to her poignant process.
Rating: 
Summary: some of you are talking about A Director Prepares
Review: These are supposed to be reviews of Viewpoints, the book about Bogart's technique. Some of you are reviewing A Director Prepares (which I recommend more). Don't get mixed up. They're very different texts.
<< 1 >>
| 
