on THE SPINE"To begin active direction a formulation in the simplest terms must be found to state what general action motivates the [screen]play, of what fundamental drama or conflict the script’s plot and people are the instruments. What behavioral struggle or effort is being represented? It is best, though perhaps not altogether essential, that the answer should be expressed as an active verb: for drama (and acting) are based on doing, on action. Do not tell the Actor “You are in love” but “You love,” that is, “You pay attention to” or “You take care of,” “You help,” etc.)
Richard Boleslavsky, . . . called the answer to the questions I've just put[,] the play's SPINE . . . (the body's spine holds the vertebra in place, and these might be compared to all the small actions and dramatic divisions in the [screen] play. In An Actor Prepares Stanislavsky calls the “spine” that plays main or through action which leads to what he calls the “super-problem” -- the dramatist's basic motivation in writing the play.
Many things are contained in O'Neill's "Desire Under the Elms": passion, Oedipal impulses, confessions of unhappiness and hate, guilt feelings, paternal harshness, filial vindictiveness, retribution. But what holds all these ingredients together, what makes a complete meaning, a single specific drama of them all, is the play's SPINE. . .
With this as both starting point and interpretive goal I [am] able to make a dramatic whole from the various strands of the script."– Harold Clurman in On Directing, pp. 28
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"The play's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king."
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