Preface to the Third Edition

This edition retains the same support for Formalist Analysis and for its central importance in acting, directing, and design that it had when it was first published in 1992. It is still a defense of close reading of the play itself in contrast to some of its alternative methods, including modern critical theory and its fascination with matters outside the play.

What has changed is the addition of a new chapter on Action Analysis. Formalist Analysis begins with specific observations and ends up by developing conclusions about the general sense of the whole play. On the other hand, some readers have expressed the wish to see the whole picture before beginning to look at the parts. Experienced actors, directors, and designers do not move mechanically from topic to topic in their analytical work. Their reading goes back and forth, moving ahead a few steps, going backward, and thinking about undone topics lying ahead. This approach has a very different feel from that of the formalist strategy adopted in the book for teaching purposes. The chapter on Action Analysis has been added to address this question and to reinforce how each part of the analytical process influences all the others. The new material, including additional questions at the end of the first six chapters, should enhance the book’s teaching and learning flexibility.

I have changed the names of a few classifications, clarified inexact or ambiguous definitions and added a few selections to the Bibliography. Most of these are minor, but two of them deserve to be explained further. One is a change of the terms “Physical and Psychological Action” to “External and Internal Action.” The reason for this should be self-explanatory. The other change takes place in the definition of Dramatic Action under the category of Character. In the previous editions, I separated the concepts of Dramatic Action and Objectives because I wanted to distinguish two different issues that are often conflated. The issues continue to be different, but in this edition I chose to defer to custom about the terminology. Hereafter, Objectives and Dramatic Action are identical concepts, and what I used to call Dramatic Action is now termed Qualities, following Michael Chekhov’s usage. Readers’ feedback and my own experience have cleared up my thinking about this. The revised section in Chapter 6, Character, should explain the whole thing.

Speaking of categories, this is a good place to keep something important in mind. The decision to divide plays into topics and categories is a subjective one made for teaching purposes, and dividing each category into even smaller categories is even more so. Like all categories, they are by no means rigid in actual practice. Intelligent readers will notice that many categories could be placed under more than one heading covered somewhere else in this book. One thing experienced actors, directors and designers can’t help but notice is the way that many of these issues mix together, bump into each other, explain and fine-tune one another. Theatre is the art of human behavior in action. And it is the imaginative nature of theatre and the indefinite nature human behavior that cause the slippery quality of much of what is presented here. Whether a certain passage fits into one category or another is important for learning purposes, of course. But equally important is learning that a passage could belong to several categories at the same time. Such is the nature of good playwriting. Besides, script analysis is more than a labeling gun used to take possession of plays by putting labels on everything we can. Fanatical labeling can overwhelm creative imagination. By contrast, professional play analysis should stimulate creativity in acting, directing and design.