Cutting Plays for Performance

Toby Malone holds a PhD in Shakespearean textual analysis from the University of Toronto and is Assistant Professor of Dramaturgy at the State University of New York at Oswego. Select favorite cuts include The Comedy of Errors (Canadian Stage Company, Toronto), Romeo + Juliet (Driftwood Theatre, Toronto), Hamlet (Variorum) (Poorboy Theatre, Glasgow and Toronto), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Soulpepper, Toronto), #R3 (University of Waterloo), and King Lear (Stratford Festival, Canada). He is a founding partner in subTEXT Dramaturgy Solutions and the Entertainment Engineering Collective, and is an active member of the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas and the Dramatists Guild of America. Aili Huber holds an MFA in directing from Mary Baldwin University and the American Shakespeare Center. She has been directing for over 20 years. Favorite credits include Sperm Donor Wanted with Slow Your Role Theater Co., Romeo and Juliet, The Duchess of Malfi, Antony and Cleopatra, and Richard III with Pigeon Creek Shakespeare, The Winter’s Tale at Bridgewater College, Noye’s Fludde at Eastern Mennonite High School, and JB at Eastern Mennonite University. She is an associate member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society and the Shakespeare Theater Association, and a Tier 3 member of Directors Gathering.

Introduction; Chapter 1: The Text is a Lie: Textual History and Why It Matters; Chapter 2: Start Here: The Three Questions; Chapter 3: The Cutter’s Toolkit Part One: Materials; Chapter 4: The Cutter’s Toolkit Part Two: Strategies and Considerations; Chapter 5: Cut to the Quick: Character-Specific Cuts; Chapter 6: Don’t Cut That!: The Mechanics of Cuts; Chapter 7: Cut to the Moment: Production-Specific Cuts; Chapter 8: Scissors, Paste, and Negotiations: Communicating Cuts; Appendix 1: Legal Concerns; Appendix 2: Cut Activities; Appendix 3: Further Reading