Year of the Pearl

Here is an immensely rewarding book for theatre lovers everywhere, for anyone who is interested in the interior workings of the theatre, and, especially, for audiences who want to know how it all comes together. David Hapgood, whose own love of the theatre was fired by a childhood encounter with the great Russian actor and director Stanislavski, takes us day by day, step by step, through a year in the life of the Pearl, a small Off Broadway repertory company dedicated to. The classics, and lets us watch and listen to the people who make this particular theatre work. We meet Shep Sobel, the high-principled founder and artistic director of the company, deciding what the year's repertoire will be (Moliere, Euripides, Shakespeare, Ibsen, and Chekhov), auditioning actors, directing that dark satiric comedy Tartuffe, debating crucial points of interpretation, and always pushing his actors to extend themselves. We meet the actors, one by one, And come to understand their dedication as they talk about what different roles mean to them. We see close-up how they turn their emotions inside out on stage every night, and we learn of the sacrifices they must make, working for a pittance and jugg