This extended new edition of a seminal text marks the 30th anniversary of the original book's major intervention in the discipline. Bradby and Williams' field-defining book introduced the continental-European approach to directing, recognising the work of the modern stage director as an artist in his or her own right for the first time. Now edited by Peter M. Boenisch in collaboration with David Williams, this new edition includes an additional four chapters by leading contemporary experts on theatre direction. Covering recent practices and developments, as well as new trends in the academic research on directing, Directors' Theatre interrogates working ethics and performance aesthetics, directors' work with actors as a central creative source and their responses to the ongoing reassessment of theatre's role and function in contemporary culture.

This long-awaited reissue will make a classic, authoritative study on directors and directing accessible to a new generation of students, scholars and artists. It is essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students of Theatre, Performance Studies and Directing.

New to this Edition:
- Includes four new chapters written by leading contemporary experts on theatre direction: Patrice Pavis, Katalin Trencsényi, the research team of Luk Van den Dries, and DuskaRadosavljevic
- New chapters discuss recent approaches and developments in theatre directing as well as research on directing, including artists such as Luk Perceval, Daniel Jeanneteau, Improbable and Ivo van Hove, while also introducing the development of theatre direction in Eastern Europe
- The original text has been carefully revised by David Williams and chapters have been supplemented with new introductions and conclusions

David Bradby (1942 - 2011) was Emeritus Professor of Drama and Theatre Studies at Royal Holloway, University of London. He was the UK's leading specialist in modern French theatre, and a prolific translator of French playwrights and theatre-makers, including Michel Vinaver, Bernard-Marie Koltès, and Jacques Lecoq.


David Williams was Professor of Performance Practices in the Department of Drama, Theatre and Dance at Royal Holloway, University of London, until his retirement in 2016. He published on the work of Peter Brook, Ariane Mnouchkine, and Theatre de Complicité, and he is also a director, performer, and a long-term dramaturg with British performance duo Lone Twin.


Peter M. Boenisch, originally from Germany, is Professor of Dramaturgy at Aarhus University, Denmark, and Professor of European Theatre at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London. His research areas are the fields of theatre directing, dramaturgy, and contemporary dance.