Kazan on Directing [Paperback]

Elia Kazan was the twentieth century’s most celebrated director of both stage and screen, and this monumental, revelatory book shows us the master at work.  Kazan’s list of Broadway and Hollywood successes—A Streetcar Named Desire, Death of a Salesman, On the Waterfront, to name a few—is a testament to his profound impact on the art of directing. This remarkable book, drawn from his notebooks, letters, interviews, and autobiography, reveals Kazan’s method: how he uncovered the “spine,” or core, of each script; how he analyzed each piece in terms of his own experience; and how he determined the specifics of his production.  And in the final section, “The Pleasures of Directing”—written during Kazan’s final years—he becomes a wise old pro offering advice and insight for budding artists, writers, actors, and directors.Forewordby John Lahr
Prefaceby Martin Scorsese
Introductionby Robert Cornfield
 
THE DIRECTOR’S NOTES
PLAYS
For the Group Theatre
   Style and Spine, Style in the Theatre,Quiet City
Hot Nocturne
The Skin of Our Teeth
Dunnigan’s Daughter
Truckline Café
All My Sons
A Streetcar Named Desire
Death of a Salesman
Camino Real
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
J.B.
Sweet Bird of Youth
 
SHORT TAKES
The Young Go First; Casey Jones; It’s Up to You;One Touch of Venus; Jacobowsky and the Colonel; Deep Are the Roots; Tea and Sympathy;The Dark at the Top of the Stairs; After the Fall;The Changeling; The Chain
 
FILMS
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Boomerang!
Gentleman’s Agreement
Panic in the Streets
A Streetcar Named Desire
Viva Zapata!
On the Waterfront
East of Edel32