A top-ranking director sets out his rehearsal techniques in this invaluable handbook for actors and directors
   
Mike Alfreds has been directing plays for 35 years. He founded Shared Experience—still going very strong—in the 1970s and ran the Cambridge Theatre Company in the 1990s, also working extensively at the National Theatre and abroad. He is hugely respected within the profession.

Now he has done what no other director has dared to do since Stanislavsky—he has committed his methodology to print.

So, in Different Every Night, we are taken into the rehearsal room to work principally on Chekhov. He shows how to break down the text into units and individual beats—and offers techniques for the actor to bring the text to life. And to keep it alive through many repetitions not only in rehearsal but also in performance. In doing so he offers a vital masterclass for actors and directors.

Different Every Night is the culmination of a lifetime working in the theatre. It is intensely hands-on and full of practical advice for both directors and actors. No director should ever again not know how to conduct rehearsals and bring them to successful fruition!

The beautiful Marquise has been left a widow tragically young... The handsome Chevalier has been deserted by the love of his life who has decided to take holy orders... Both have sworn never to lose their hearts again... Neither had reckoned with the surprise of love.

Review

Misery is not just amusing but captivatingly charming, in Michael Alfred’s new version of Marivaux... is sheer sophistication... Piquant and perfectly polished entertainment –  The Times