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  3. Jack in the Box

EBOOK

Jack in the Box

or, How to Goddamn Direct

Jack O'Brien
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Pages
272
Year
2022
Language
English
Publisher
Farrar, Straus and Giroux

About

The Tony Award—winning director gathers memories of people, productions, and problems surmounted from his fifty-year career in this one-of-a-kind how-to handbook.

What do directors do? Jack O'Brien, the winner of Tony and Drama Desk Awards and former artistic director of San Diego's historic Old Globe, describes it like this: "One stands before a situation in which something is presented to you. You're afforded a challenge. Like catching an enormous ball. And you respond. You come up with a vision of some kind. That is, if you respond to the material at all, and one must, or it's doomed. You sort of feel that since you relate to the material at hand, you might well try to be helpful."

In Jack in the Box, O'Brien's follow-up to his memoir, Jack Be Nimble, the director collects stories from the many productions he has worked on, the great talents he encountered and collaborated with, including Tom Stoppard, Mike Nichols, Jerry Lewis, Marsha Mason, and many others, and the choices that he made, on the stage and off, that have come to define his career. With humor, warmth, and contagious excitement, O'Brien takes his readers by the shoulder, pulls them in, and tells them how to become a director-or, at the very least, relates an unfailingly honest story of how he did.

Related Subjects

  • Memoirs
  • Biography & Autobiography
  • Adult Nonfiction
  • Entertainment & Performing Arts
  • Direction & Production
  • Theater
  • Performing Arts

Reviews

""If you were to create a master class on directing for the theater, your textbook would have to be Jack O'Brien's Jack in the Box."
David L. Coddon, The San Diego Tribune
"With his customary wit and elegant style, Jack O'Brien confronts the age old question of directors, 'What exactly do you do?' and then proceeds to write the most candid, eloquent, hilarious and moving explanation I've ever read on the subject, while also taking you on the roller coaster ride of a storied career in the American theater, regaling you with his extraordinary adventures. A must-read f
Nathan Lane
"One of the greatest experiences of my life was being in a rehearsal room with Jack O'Brien. Listening to Jack passionately discuss art and the value of placing life on stage is galvanizing. In Jack's eyes, every failure can be a triumph; every success, the entry point for disaster. His love for all things creative fills life with a holy purpose. Miraculously, this book"
Jack in the Box

Artists

Jack O'BrienAuthor